Former Ducks goaltending coach Francois Allaire announces retirement

Well-known former Ducks goaltending coach Francois Allaire announced his retirement Tuesday.

Allaire’s 32-year coaching career included a 13-year stint with the Ducks in which he mentored Jean-Sebastien Giguere during the goaltender’s 2003 Conn Smythe Trophy performance. He also helped Giguere and the Ducks win the 2007 Stanley Cup.

“I’ve always said, if it wasn’t for Frankie, I wouldn’t have had the career I had,” Giguere said in a phone interview. “He was the most influential person in my career.”

Allaire’s retirement was reported by Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports.

Giguere was a relatively unknown goalie when the Ducks acquired him from the Calgary Flames for a second-round draft pick in 2000. Allaire met with Giguere a month later and showed him an instructional video.

“My career was in a tailspin,” Giguere said. “It was looking pretty bleak. The minute I started talking to him, it was clear.”

Allaire is primarily known for coaching Hall of Fame goalie Patrick Roy with the Montreal Canadiens in the early part of Roy’s career. A proponent of the butterfly style of goaltending in which the goalie goes down to protect the bottom area of the net, Allaire also served as goalie coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche, who announced in May that Allaire would not return.

Giguere said that Allaire could teach all different styles, though, and should be in the Hall of Fame.

“If you look at the 62 goalies in the NHL, they all do a little something that Frankie teaches,” Giguere said.