Benoit Laporte

Benoit Laporte (born June 14, 1960) is a Canadian-French professional ice hockey coach and a former professional ice hockey player. He has been serving as head coach of Alba Volán Székesfehérvár, a Hungarian club competing in the Austrian Hockey League EBEL since August 2016.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Laporte played junior in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. 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 in France. He left the club after two years, but stayed in the country, joining the Dragons de Rouen, 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.

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.

In his last season with the Dragons de Rouen (1996–97), Laporte served as a player-coach. After he put an end to his playing career in 1997, he took over Lausanne HC, 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, 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 of the German top-flight Deutsche Eishockey Liga (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.

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