Rangers Promote Jeff Malcolm To Goaltending Coach
For the first time since 2004, Benoît Allaire won’t be serving as the Rangers’ goaltending coach. He’s transitioning away from day-to-day duties. Jeff Malcolm, previously the goaltending coach of their AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack, has been promoted to the NHL bench, per Arthur Staple of The Athletic.
The news ends Allaire’s 20-year run as the Rags’ goalie coach, during which he’s presided over one of the best runs of play between the pipes for any team in league history. Allaire’s arrival in New York coincided with Henrik Lundqvist‘s as the league exited the 2004-05 lockout. He played a crucial role in developing one of the best netminders of all time, who started off his career with five Vezina Trophy nominations (one win) in 10 years. Lundqvist, who finished his time in the Big Apple with a 459-310-96 record and .918 SV% in 887 appearances, was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on his first try in 2023.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, King Henrik’s reign in the New York crease has been continued seamlessly by Igor Shesterkin, an established top-five netminder in the league. Allaire has coached the 28-year-old Russian to a .921 SV% through 213 appearances over the past five seasons, good enough for a Vezina win and a Hart nomination in 2021-22.
They’re big shoes for the 35-year-old Malcolm to fill. He’s familiar with the organization, spending three years with the Rangers as a goaltending consultant before being named the Wolf Pack’s goalie coach in 2021. Allaire also oversaw his brief playing career, suiting up in 36 games for Hartford between 2013 and 2017.
Thus far, Malcolm’s biggest impact has been felt in developing 2020 fourth-round pick Dylan Garand. The 22-year-old has struggled in his first two regular seasons with Hartford, but he’s warded off competition and taken over the starter’s crease in the playoffs in back-to-back years. The former Canadian Hockey League Goaltender of the Year has shined with a .927 SV% and 2.21 GAA in 17 AHL postseason appearances.
Staple adds that Brendan Burke will replace Malcolm in the AHL. Burke, the son of former NHL netminder and Golden Knights goaltending director Sean Burke spent last season as the goaltending coach of the Western Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks.
Benoît Allaire To Remain With Rangers As Director Of Goaltending
Last night, Kevin Weekes of ESPN reported that Director of Goaltending of the New York Rangers, Benoît Allaire, would be scaling back his role with the organization after 20 years of service with the organization. However, this morning, Vince Mercogliano of USA Today reported that Allaire will continue to serve as the team’s Director of Goaltending moving forward, but he will be helping the team find his replacement.
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 organization, he had a major hand in developing one of the best goaltenders in franchise history. Making his debut in the 2005-06 NHL 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, as it would take Lundqvist 11 years in the NHL to finally not receive a vote for the Vezina Trophy. After Lundqvist left the team after the 2019-20 season, Allaire helped with the rise of current Rangers starter, Igor Shesterkin, who was a fourth-round pick of the organization back in the 2014 NHL Draft.
Thanks to Allaire, New York has not had to worry about goaltending for the last two decades. Allaire 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.