Breaking down Rangers goalie guru’s legendary influence past 2 decades
When the 2023-24 NHL regular season begins in less than two months, it’ll take the New York Rangers more than just a “whisper” to benefit from the Hall of Fame-worthy coaching of long-time goalie guru Benoit Allaire.
After 20 years as goalie coach with the Rangers, Allaire stepped aside from those day-to-day duties, though he remains Director of Goaltending for the organization. He was officially replaced as goalie coach last week by Jeff Malcolm, who worked under Allaire in the same position with Hartford of the American Hockey League for the past several seasons.
While the 60-year-old will remain with the organization, Allaire will no longer be with the team every day, ending a nearly unprecedented two-decades run of success in the Big Apple.
Since joining the Rangers, Allaire’s been one of the most well-respected teachers of hockey’s most crucial position, earning the nickname “The Goalie Whisperer.” He helped shape the careers of Vezina Trophy winners Henrik Lundqvist and Igor Shesterkin, developed once unheralded Rangers backups into bonafide NHL starters (see: Cam Talbot, Antti Raanta, and Alexander Georgiev), and most recently helped revitalize the previously sputtering career of three-time Stanley Cup champion Jonathan Quick.
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Benoit Allaire’s amazing 20-year run as ‘Goalie Whisperer’ with Rangers
Allaire’s incredible run of success will be a tough act for Malcolm to follow this season.
Let’s take a look at some of Allaire’s biggest hits since 2004.
Legend of Lundqvist
Lundqvist is the greatest goalie in Rangers history. And he played his entire NHL career with Allaire as his position coach.
He won the Vezina Trophy as top NHL goalie in 2011-12 and was a finalist four other times in his career, voted the runner-up in 2012-13. His No. 30 hangs in the rafters at Madison Square Garden — no Rangers player will ever wear it again.
Holding nearly every franchise goaltending record, Lundqvist’s line of work as the sixth winningest goalie in NHL history (459 wins) speaks for itself. A first-ballot Hockey Hall of Famer, you could make the argument that whoever had the pleasure of working alongside “The King” for 15 seasons in New York would benefit from his consistently elite play.
However, Lundqvist’s career began without much fanfare. Selected in the seventh round (No. 205 overall) in the 2000 NHL Draft, the Rangers took a chance on what they saw as untapped potential from the three-time Honken Trophy-winning goalie (Sweden’s Vezina equivalent) from Frolunda HC.
After arriving in New York in 2005, it was Allaire whom Lundqvist credited with tapping into that potential and creating the finished product that stood on the podium accepting election into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto on his first year of eligibility last November.
“There’s one coach I want to thank a little extra tonight, my goalie coach for 15 years, Benoit Allaire,” said Lundqvist during his Hall of Fame induction speech. “He’s incredible. Thinking back, every day, you inspired me in so many ways and you made it fun. The best coach and best friend you could ask for.”
Statistical supremacy
While one could attempt to make the Belichick-Brady style argument regarding whether coach or player deserves more credit when it comes to Lundqvist, Allaire’s body of work beyond his star pupil solidifies his own case as a Hockey Hall of Famer, and demonstrates his incomparable impact in Rangers history.
Since his first full season on the Blueshirts’ staff in 2005-06 (no season in 2004-05 due to lockout), the organization has enjoyed a consistent place among the League’s top goaltending units year after year.
In 20 seasons with Allaire, the Rangers have finished within the top-10 in the NHL for goals-against average 13 times, including in the top-5 nine times, and top-3 three times. This includes a second place finish as a team with a 2.49 GAA in 2021-22.
Similarly, the Blueshirts have finished top-10 in save percentage 13 times, including top-5 eight times, and top-3 twice — finishing first in Shesterkin’s Vezina winning year of 2021-22 (.921).
In today’s world of advanced stats and analytics, Allaire’s ability to get the most out of his goalies is even more evident.
According to MoneyPuck.com, which began tracking analytics in the 2008-09 season, Rangers goaltenders has been top-10 in the League for Goals-Against Above Expected 12 different times, in the top-5 seven times, and top-3 once as the second best in the NHL with a whopping 22.38 goals-against below expected in 2009-10.
These rankings are similar when looking at save percentage above expected on unblocked shots as well, where the Rangers were top-10 12 times, including top-5 eight times and top-3 once — coming in second in 2009-10 with a 0.65 percent above expected.
In fact, there have been just three seasons in Allaire’s entire tenure when the Rangers were sub-average when it comes to these categories, and it all came between 2017-18 and 2020-21 in the immediate aftermath of “The Letter,” a self-imposed rebuild era.
Benoit’s backups
With seven different head coaches behind the bench since Allaire’s arrival in New York, his reliable approach and consistent impact has allowed him to withstand six prior coaching changes.
On the ice, many Rangers backups who worked with Allaire have gone on to have stable careers as starters elsewhere. Most notably is Cam Talbot, whose play in 2014-15 helped carry the Rangers through a potentially disastrous stretch without Lundqvist, who sustained a vascular injury after being hit in the neck with a shot.
Talbot’s 34-21-9 record in 36 games that season helped the Rangers win the Presidents’ Trophy and propelled him into a starting role with the Edmonton Oilers the following season. He has since gone on to play for the Philadelphia Flyers, Calgary Flames, Minnesota Wild, Ottawa Senators, and most recently Los Angeles Kings. The two-time NHL All-Star who has 245 career wins and a lifetime .914 save percentage will play for the Detroit Red Wings this season.
Not bad for an undrafted free agent.
“If I didn’t sign with the Rangers out of college, I don’t know if I would have made it to the NHL,” Talbot told the Los Angeles Daily News in July 2023. “[Allaire] helped rebuild me, honed what skill I already had but also kind of took me back a little bit. I played a lot more like Jonathan Quick coming out of college than Henrik Lundqvist, so he kind of found that happy medium.”
Unheralded Steve Valiquette became a serviceable backup under Allaire’s guidance. Raanta was solid as a backup and then successfully took on a larger role with the Carolina Hurricanes. Georgiev was the first to replace Lundqvist in New York and is now the No. 1 for the Colorado Avalanche.
The common thread in their time with the Rangers? Benoit Allaire.
“[Allaire] deserves all the accolades,” Talbot told Forever Blueshirts at the 2024 NHl All-Star Game. “You see all the goalies he’s produced through the pipeline that spring-boarded to starting jobs around the NHL. It’s pretty crazy how many guys he’s been able to develop under Hank that moved on and became a No. 1 somewhere else.”
Related: Rangers goalies past, present shine on All-Star stage with Shesterkin, Talbot, Georgiev
Quick revival
Allaire’s latest masterpiece was on display just this past season, as the previously dominant Quick was coming off a years-long slide from his All-Star form of the mid-2010s.
In 2022-23, the former Team USA Olympic starter finished at 16-15-6, with career lows in save percentage (.882) and goals-against average (3.41). In March 2023, he was shipped from his only NHL home in Los Angeles, and served third on the depth chart behind Adin Hill and Laurent Brossoit during the Vegas Golden Knights’ postseason run to the Stanley Cup.
With rumors swirling about the potential for retirement, the Milford, Connecticut, native joined his favorite childhood team on Broadway. With Allaire’s help, Quick turned back the clock to post an 18-6-2 record with a .911 save percentage and 2.62 GAA with the Blueshirts, his best showing in both categories since 2017-18. It earned him a one-year, $1.275 million contract extension before the 2023-24 campaign was even completed.
“[Allaire] does a great job of simplifying things so that they don’t come across in a confusing way,” Quick said in November. “It’s very clear-cut in what he wants to see out of his goalies in different situations. The communication’s been great.”
Rise of The Czar
While Quick kept the Rangers afloat during Shesterkin’s mid-season struggles, the Blueshirts’ “Czar” eventually regained his form and finished 2023-24 at 36-17-2 with a respectable .913 save percentage and 2.58 GAA before elevating his game to backstop an incredible run to the Eastern Conference Final, when he was 10-6 with a .927 save percentage and 2.34 GAA during the postseason.
The turnaround in Shesterkin’s season came when he spent extra time working with Allaire around the NHL All-Star break. Shesterkin followed by playing his best and most consistent hockey the rest of the season.
Coincidence? Not likely.
Going from Lundqvist to Shesterkin shows just how spoiled the Rangers have been in goal over the past two decades, and Allaire has his fingerprints all over that success.
His ability to help goalies reach their potential and find their game during times of struggle is a major reason for the Blueshirts long-time prosperity at the position. His adaptability to different styles of goaltending is also key. As is his ever-present smile and cheerful approach to his job.
“[He’s helped me with] everything,” Shesterkin told The Athletic. “He can always find a way to help you. I still don’t speak English so good, so sometimes I don’t understand something. But he always finds a way to explain things to me, he always wants us to be having fun, smiling. When your mood is good, everything should be OK.”
That fun-loving style has given Rangers fans many reasons to smile as well over the years.
While Allaire may not desire the spotlight, largely staying behind the scenes to conduct his work, he has given numerous goaltenders the opportunity to steal the spotlight in their careers.
This can be traced back to even his pre-Rangers days, when Allaire helped turn Sean Burke, a Phoenix Coyotes goalie with a career .895 save percentage and 3.21 GAA over 500+ NHL games, into a Vezina Trophy finalist in consecutive seasons. Burke, himself, is now the Director of Goaltending for the Golden Knights.
It’s just part of Allaire’s lasting legacy. One that leaves a massive void and huge shoes for Malcolm to fill.
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