Benoit Laporte (born June 14, 1960) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

coach and a former professional ice hockey player. He last served as head coach of the 3L de Rivière-du-Loup.

Playing career

Born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Laporte played junior in the

Quebec Major Junior Hockey League The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (french: Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Québec; abbreviated ''QMJHL'' in English, ''LHJMQ'' in French) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues that constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The l ...

. Laporte played professionally in the AHL, EHL, CHL, UHL and ACHL in the early and mid 1980s. In 1987, he signed with the

Diables Rouges de Briançon The Diables Rouges de Briançon ''(: Briançon Red Devils)'' (''Briançon Alpes Provence Hockey Club'' and before ''Hockey Club Briançon'') is the ice hockey team of Briançon (Hautes-Alpes). Their home arena is the Patinoire René Froger. Awar ...

in France. He left the club after two years, but stayed in the country, joining the

Dragons de Rouen Rouen Hockey Élite 76 (also known as the Dragons de Rouen (Rouen Dragons)) is a French ice hockey team based in Rouen playing in the Ligue Magnus. The team was founded in 1982 and plays home games at the Île Lacroix. History Only 3 years aft ...

, where he would spend the remainder of his playing career. He left Rouen as the club's all-time leader in points. Laporte announced his retirement in 1997.

National team

After receiving a French passport, Laporte represented the French national team internationally. He played in the 1992 and 1994 Olympic Games and in five World Championships. He won a total of 138 caps for the French national team during his career.

Coaching career

In his last season with the

(1996–97), Laporte served as a player-coach. After he put an end to his playing career in 1997, he took over

Lausanne HC , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

, a member of the Swiss second-tier NLB, as head coach and spent three years at the helm. In 2000, he embarked on a three-year stint with Hockey Club Asiago of the Italian elite league

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

, guiding the team to the Italian championship his first year, to the playoff semifinals his second and a runner-up finish his third year. He left Asiago in 2003 to sign with the

Augsburger Panther The Augsburger Panther are a professional ice hockey team in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. The team is based in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany. They play their home games at the Curt Frenzel Stadion. Founded in 1878, the team's name was Augsburger EV ...

of the German top-flight

Deutsche Eishockey Liga The Deutsche Eishockey Liga (for sponsorship reasons called "PENNY Deutsche Eishockey Liga") (; English: ''German Ice Hockey League'') or DEL, is a German professional ice hockey league and the highest division in German ice hockey. Founded in ...

(DEL). He remained in that position until the end of the 2004-05 campaign, in which he had guided the team to a DEL playoff appearance. Laporte was named head coach at fellow DEL side

Nürnberg Ice Tigers The Nürnberg Ice Tigers are a professional ice hockey club located in Nuremberg, Germany. They play in the country's premier league, the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. History The roots of the team can be traced back to SG Nürnberg, an ice hockey cl ...

for the 2006-07 season. In his first season behind the Nürnberg bench, Laporte led the team to a third-place finish in the DEL regular season and to the playoff finals where the Ice Tigers were swept (0-3) by

Adler Mannheim The Adler Mannheim (English: ''Mannheim Eagles'', formerly Mannheimer ERC) is a professional ice hockey team of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, the highest-level ice hockey league in Germany. The team is based in Mannheim, a city in the northern pa ...

. In 2007-08, the Ice Tigers won the DEL regular season championship, Laporte was named DEL Coach of the Year. The Ice Tigers fell short in the playoff quarterfinals against

Düsseldorfer EG Düsseldorfer EG (short DEG) is a German professional ice hockey team in Düsseldorf. It was Germany's most successful hockey club for a long time and had many international players. The famous Eisstadion at the Brehmstrasse was the home venue for ...

that year. In April 2008, Laporte was hired as head coach by Swiss NLA side

EHC Basel EHC Basel known as Eishockey Club Basel are a professional Swiss ice hockey team. They are based out of the St. Jakob Arena in Basel, Switzerland. EHC Basel was founded on October 14, 1932. Were promoted to the Nationalliga A for 2005–06 aft ...

to guide the team through the play-out round, but did not manage to save the team from relegation to the NLB. He signed with another German first-division team,

ERC Ingolstadt ERC Ingolstadt (''Eishockey-und-Rollschuh club'', ) is a German professional ice hockey club that plays in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). Commonly known as the Panthers, the team plays its home games at the Saturn Arena in Ingolstadt. History ...

, for the 2008-09 season, but was released in late November 2008 after a 1-5 loss to Köln. In 2009, Laporte put pen to paper on a two-year deal with

HC Ambrì-Piotta Hockey Club Ambrì-Piotta is a Switzerland, Swiss professional ice hockey club and a member of the National League (ice hockey), National League (NL). The club was founded September 19, 1937, and is also known as "Bianco-Blu" (English: white and b ...

of the Swiss NLA. He was sacked in October 2010. Two months later, Laporte assumed head-coaching duties with the

Hamburg Freezers The Hamburg Freezers were a German professional men's ice hockey club from Hamburg, Germany that played in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. The club announced its withdrawal from the DEL and ceased operations on 24 May 2016 when Anschutz Entertainment ...

of the German top-flight

(DEL). Under Laporte's guidance, the Freezers qualified for the DEL playoffs three straight seasons. In 2013-14, he coached the Hamburg team to winning the DEL regular season championship and guided the Freezers to the playoff semifinals. He was released in September 2014 after the Freezers had lost the opening four games of the 2014-15 DEL season and also remained winless in five straight games of the

Champions Hockey League The Champions Hockey League is a European first-level ice hockey tournament. Launched in the 2014–15 season by 26 clubs, 6 leagues and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the tournament features top teams across Europe. Backgrou ...

. Laporte signed with the Schlittschuh Club Langnau Tigers of the Swiss elite league NLA for the 2015-16 season. After a run of three straight losses and only one win out of the last seven games, Laporte was sacked on March 14, 2016. In August 2016, Laporte was named head coach of

Alba Volán Székesfehérvár ''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed into the Kingdom ...

. The Hungarian side is a member of the

Austrian Hockey League The ICE Hockey League (International Central European Hockey League), known as the win2day ICE Hockey League for sponsorship reasons, is a Central European hockey league that also serves as the top-tier ice hockey league in Austria, it currently f ...

. He was relieved of his duties in November 2017 due to a series of bad results. Starting in October 2019, Laporte served as head coach of the 3L de Rivière-du-Loup in the

Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey The Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey (LNAH, ''"North American Hockey League"'') is a low-level professional ice hockey league based in the Canadian province of Quebec. Teams in the LNAH compete for the Vertdure Cup. History The league was fou ...

and stayed on the job until the end of the 2019-20 campaign.

External links

* http://www.eliteprospects.com/staff.php?staff=748 * https://fr.linkedin.com/in/benoit-laporte-97865670?trk=pub-pbmap

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laporte, Benoit 1960 births Living people Canadian ice hockey coaches Diables Rouges de Briançon players Dragons de Rouen players Ice hockey players at the 1992 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 1994 Winter Olympics Olympic ice hockey players for France Ice hockey people from Montreal