Benoit Allaire

for a 30-year-old goalie, 30-something-year-old goalie, who hasn't been good in his career.

I mean, again, and Benoit Allaire's not here.

So we don't know who the goaltending coach, if he's going to be able to fix guys the way Benoit Allaire has.

I still think Benny's involved.

I don't know.

Jonathan Quick was done, and coming home, being in the Rangers' goaltending development.

Now, I know Benoit Allaire isn't there anymore, but being in the Rangers' goaltending development program and being in that atmosphere, he thrived for a year and a half, let's say.

There's no saying that Corpus Allo, with the goaltending coaching you're going to get in the Rangers' organization, that Corpus Allo isn't going to be a serviceable backup.

I've gotten to be fine with it.

But he obviously did very well.

Um, and as I've said in the past, I hope that maybe that was, uh, Benoit Allaire's idea.

Like, I hope they got what he was thinking as far as, like, potential goalies in this year's draft.

But as far as Shykov is concerned, you know, he's coming off of a solid season with Gatineau of the QMJHL.

Um, but you know, it was due time, I think, for them to choose a netminder in this year's draft.

And there was a report before, you know, the draft even happened that Benoit Allaire, you know, he had scaled back his role pretty significantly in recent seasons, but was still, uh, working with the Rangers a little bit.

And the report was that he was gonna continue working with the Rangers through the NHL draft and also the free agency period.

And then, you know, at that point he would call it a career and he would retire.

So, um, I didn't see anything to the contrary, so my assumption is that he was with the Rangers during the draft.

And I like to think that given everything that he's done for the Rangers and all the success that he's had for the Rangers with all the different Ranger goalies that have come and gone over the years, that this is kinda his pick, that he-- that Sheykhov, you know, came highly recommended from Benoit Allaire.

Clearly this is somebody that can get the best out of, you know, his goalies.

And even though he won't be the goalie coach anymore, uh, hopefully he saw something special in Sheykhov here.