Toronto Maple Leafs

Francois Allaire To The Rescue

Looks like a new goaltending guru will be patrolling the local rinks in support of the Maple Leafs.  Francois Allaire, ex of the Montreal Canadiens, Colorado Avalanche and Anaheim Ducks.  He is most renowned for helping cultivate the Butterfly school of goaltending through his developmental work with Patrick Roy, and Jean Sebastien Giguere.

Allaire was the goaltending coach with Montreal in 1986, and 1993 during Stanley Cup Championship Runs.  He started as an assistant coach, acting as the first full time goaltending coach, with the Sherbrooke Canadiens of the AHL in 1984, and remained with the Habs organization both formally and informally as a coach through 1994-95.  Following the departure of Roy to the Colorado Avalanche, Allaire left with him, joining the Avalanche in 1995-96.  Following one season working alongside Jocelyn Thibault in the Avs organization, he left to work with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks organization, starting with Guy Hebert, and continuing to work with Mikhail Shtalenkov, Ilya Bryzgalov, JS Giguere, Martin Gerber, and most recently Jonas Hiller.

He has also worked with Brian Burke, Dave Nonis, and Ron Wilson during his time in the Anaheim organization, so they will all be aware of his methods and his work should mesh well with the established Leafs structure as it stands.

He has coached and run goaltending camps through his Co-Jean hockey school in Quebec for over 25 years.   He actually began coaching goaltenders following the completion of a degree in physical education from the Universite de Sherbrooke.  He studied the practice in Europe and worked as a coach at the AAA and Midget levels.  His work as an NHL goaltender coach is unparallelled.

Consider the following:  Goaltenders he has coached have won the Conn Smythe Trophy as NHL playoff MVP on 3 separate occasions.  He has coached Roy, Giguere, Hebert, Bryzgalov, Gerber, and Shtalenkov, who have all been named as national team starters at various points since undergoing Allaire’s tutelage.  He has coached AHL All-Stars more than 3 times, and NHL All-Stars on at least 7 occasions.  His goalies have had the best GAA and SV% in the NHL on multiple occasions.

The only possible result from this addition is an improvement in the Leafs netminding.  Frankly, considering how atrocious the team’s goaltending has been over the past 2 years, anywhere looks like up from here.

Corey Hirsch has been relieved of his duties as the team’s goaltending coach, but remains within the organization as a scout/development person, so now two experienced eyes will be available to help the young goalies in the organization.  Expect the impact on players like James Reimer and Vesa Toskala to be obvious, while younger prospects such as Grant Rollheiser can hopefully absorb as much important information as possible.

Here’s hoping this means the Leafs goalies turn the corner this coming season.