Benoit Allaire was initially named goalie coach of the New York Rangers in 2004. During his hall of fame induction, Henrik Lundqvist credited Allaire, stating that he was “the best friend and coach you could ask for”. Allaire has been with the New York Rangers for going on 20 years and is in the midst of re-vitalizing future Hall of Famer Jonathan Quick’s career.
As a result, Benoit Allaire has been generating quite a bit of press. Allaire began his career with the Montreal Canadiens, spending one season with them before working as goaltending coach for the Arizona Coyotes. Allaire was with the Coyotes when Brian Boucher set an NHL record of 5 consecutive shutouts in a row. The Allaire last name is synonomous with goaltending coaches, Francois Allaire being the other well known goaltending coach credited with “inventing” the butterfly.
Francois Allaire and Benoit Allaire are brothers. Given their career achievements and fame in the goalie coaching world, it’s safe to say that developing goalies runs in their blood.
Benoit Allaire is shown below working with New York Rangers Henrik Lundqvist and Igor Shesterkin.
Hank closing up the 5-hole on the Shesty wristers. #NYR pic.twitter.com/OLZtj1sLHY
— Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) January 15, 2020
Benoit Allaire Career Achievements
Few in the goalie coaching world are as quiet as the Allaire family. The Athletic wrote a story on Benoit Allaire, labeling him as “the goalie whisperer”, and Allaire passed on the opportunity to comment in the article. Of course, only adding to the mystique and fame of their family name.
Goalies Benoit Allaire Has Worked With
Benoit Allaire has worked with many well known goalies throughout his 20+ year career as an NHL goalie coach, a few of the most memorable are listed below.
- Henrik Lundqvist: Hall of Fame goalie with the New York Rangers.
- Brian Boucher: set NHL record 5 shutouts in a row with Arizona Coyotes (then, Phoenix Coyotes).
- Igor Shesterkin: with the New York Rangers
- Alexandar Georgiev: with the New York Rangers
- Antti Raanta: with the New York Rangers
- Steve Valiquette: with the New York Rangers. Valiquette, who was one of the first to talk about the Royal Road, credits his NHL career to Benoit Allaire.
- Sean Burke: with Phoenix Coyotes. Burke had a 3.21 goals-against average, .895 save percentage over 500+ NHL games prior to Allaire. He would shortly become a Vezina finalist in back to back seasons.
- Jonathan Quick: with the New York Rangers. Signed with the Rangers, re-invigorated his career after 4 poor seasons of performance with the Kings.
- Martin Biron: with the New York Rangers.
- Adam Huska: with the New York Rangers.
- Jaroslav Halak: with the New York Rangers.
