Benoit Allaire to remain with Rangers as director of goaltending

On Saturday Kevin Weekes of ESPN reported that longtime New York Rangers goalie coach Benoit Allaire might be scaling back his role with the organization after 20 years of service with the organization. Vince Mercogliano of USA Today reported Sunday that Allaire will continue to serve as the team’s director of goaltending while helping the team find his replacement to takeover daily duties.

Allaire originally took over as the Rangers’ goaltending coach for the 2004-05 season, but would not truly begin his tenure until the 2005-06 season due to the lockout that took place in 2005. Before his role in the Big Apple, Allaire served as the goaltending coach for the Phoenix Coyotes from 1997 to 2004, helping develop a then 24-year-old Nikolai Khabibulin.

In Allaire’s first true season as goaltending coach for the Rangers, he had a major hand in developing one of the best goaltenders in franchise history. In the 2005-06 season, former seventh-round pick Henrik Lundqvist would make his debut and would spend the next 14 years in New York.

Allaire and Lundqvist created a bond that would span over the latter’s entire career. After Lundqvist left the team following the 2019-20 season, Allaire helped with the rise of current Rangers starter Igor Shesterkin, who was a fourth-round pick in the 2014 NHL Draft.

Thanks to Allaire, New York has not had to worry about goaltending for the last two decades. He has coached back-to-back organizational stalwarts in net to Vezina Trophy victories in 2012 and 2022. Allaire, and the Rangers organization, will have a difficult time filling his skates as he eventually transitions into retirement.