Patrick Jacques Roy (; born October 5, 1965) is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach, executive, and former player who most recently was the head coach for the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League (NHL). Roy was hailed in sports media as "king of goaltenders" and was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in history in 2017. Nicknamed "Saint Patrick", he split his playing career in the National Hockey League (NHL) between the Montreal Canadiens, with whom he played for 11 years, and the Colorado Avalanche, with whom he played for eight years. Roy won the Stanley Cup four times during his career, two with each franchise.
In 2004, Roy was selected as the greatest goaltender in NHL history by a panel of 41 writers, coupled with a simultaneous fan poll. On November 13, 2006, Roy was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He is the only player in NHL history to win the Conn Smythe Trophy (the award given to the Most Valuable Player in the Stanley Cup playoffs) three times, the only one to do so in three different decades (1980s, 1990s, and 2000s), and the only one to do so for two different teams. Roy's number 33 sweater is retired by both the Canadiens and Avalanche.
Roy is widely credited with popularizing the butterfly style of goaltending, which has since become the dominant style of goaltending around the world.
After retiring, Roy was head coach for the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL, as well as the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). He then served as head coach of the Islanders from January 2024 until April 2026.
Early life Roy was born in Quebec City but grew up in Cap-Rouge, Quebec. His parents are Barbara (Miller) and Michel Roy, and he has a younger brother, Stéphane. Roy became interested in being an ice hockey goaltender when he was seven years old, idolizing Rogie Vachon and Dan Bouchard. He played in the 1977 and 1978 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournaments on a minor ice hockey team from Quebec City, which included his brother in 1978. After playing for the local Sainte-Foy Gouverneurs, he played for the Granby Bisons of the QMJHL (Quebec Major Junior Hockey League).
Playing career
Montreal Canadiens (1984–1995)
Roy was drafted in the third round as the 51st overall pick in the 1984 NHL entry draft by the Montreal Canadiens; ironically, he actually was not a fan of the Canadiens, as he was a fan of the rival Quebec Nordiques. His grandmother Anna Peacock was a big Canadiens fan, but died before seeing her grandson being drafted. Roy kept playing for the Granby Bisons of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) before being called up by the Canadiens. Despite the thoughts that he was not going to play for the team, on February 23, 1985, he made his NHL debut when he replaced the Canadiens' starting goaltender, Doug Soetaert, in the game's third period. Roy played for 20 minutes and earned his first NHL win without allowing a goal. After the game, he was reassigned to the Sherbrooke Canadiens of the AHL. Despite starting as a backup, Roy replaced Greg Moffett after he had equipment troubles during a game. He earned a win, became the starting goaltender for the playoffs and led the team to a Calder Cup championship with ten wins in 13 games.
In the following season, Roy started playing regularly for the Canadiens and took over the starting goaltender's job when incumbent Steve Penney was injured in January. He played 47 games during the regular season and won the starting job for the Stanley Cup playoffs, where he emerged as a star, leading his team to an unexpected Stanley Cup title and winning the Conn Smythe Trophy for the Most Valuable Player in the playoffs. As a 20-year-old, he became the youngest Conn Smythe winner ever and was chosen for the NHL All-Rookie Team.
Nicknamed St. Patrick after the victory, Roy continued playing for the Canadiens, who won the Adams Division in 1987–88 and in 1988–89, when they lost to the Calgary Flames in the Stanley Cup Final. Roy, together with Brian Hayward, won the William M. Jennings Trophy in 1987, 1988, and 1989, as the Canadiens regularly allowed the fewest goals against. In 1989 and 1990, he won the Vezina Trophy for best goaltender in the NHL and was voted for the NHL first All-Star team. In 1991–92, the Canadiens won the Adams Division again, with Roy having a very successful individual year, winning the William M. Jennings Trophy, and Vezina Trophy and being selected for the NHL's first All-Star team. Despite the successful regular season, the Canadiens were swept in the second round by the Boston Bruins, who stopped their playoff run for the fourth time in five years.
In the 1992–93 season, the Canadiens fell from first overall in March to finish the regular season third in their division behind title winner Boston Bruins and a resurgent second-place Quebec Nordiques. During the first round of the 1993 playoffs against the archrival Nordiques, Roy was in a goaltending duel against Ron Hextall; Hextall was also a Vezina and Conn Smythe winner with his previous team, the Philadelphia Flyers, when they had several ill-tempered postseason encounters with Roy's Canadiens in the 1980s. The Canadiens lost the first two games of the series with Roy letting in soft goals, and a newspaper in Roy's hometown district suggested that he be traded with the headline "NORDIQUES WIN GAME, BATTLE OF GOALIES," while the subhead added (Quebec goaltender Ron) "HEXTALL GETS BETTER OF ROY." Nordiques goaltending coach Dan Bouchard also proclaimed that his team had "solved Roy." These comments seemed to fire up Roy, who responded by winning the next four games against the Nordiques (Roy was replaced for part of Game Five by backup André Racicot after being struck by a puck in the collarbone), sweeping the Buffalo Sabres in the next round and winning the first three against the New York Islanders to tie the record of an 11-game playoff winning streak. Roy also set a record with ten straight playoff overtime wins – two against Quebec, three against Buffalo, two against the New York Islanders (where he denied Benoît Hogue and Pierre Turgeon on breakaways during overtime), and three against the Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup Final. Roy had led his team, which did not have a player that finished in the top twenty regular season scoring, to the Stanley Cup championship and was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner.
In 1994, the Canadiens were the defending champions but they were knocked out in the first round by the Boston Bruins. Nonetheless, that seven-game series was notable in the eyes of Montreal fans as Roy came down with appendicitis and missed game 3. He convinced doctors to let him return for game 4 and led the Canadiens to a 5–2 victory, stopping 39 shots. Roy was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy, finishing third in voting behind winner Dominik Hašek and runner-up John Vanbiesbrouck.
Final season with Montreal and trade A disastrous start to the 1995–96 season after four games, as well as missing the 1995 playoffs, led to Canadiens' team president Ronald Corey making a major management shakeup or "house cleaning". Head coach Jacques Demers was fired and Mario Tremblay was hired despite having no previous coaching experience. Likewise, longtime general manager Serge Savard was also let go and replaced by the inexperienced Réjean Houle. Roy and Tremblay, who had roomed together while teammates, had since developed a strained relationship, with Tremblay regularly mocking Roy for speaking broken English. Roy was a frequent target of Tremblay during the latter's sports radio career. The two had almost come to blows in two incidents in 1995, one at a Long Island coffee shop before Tremblay was announced as head coach, and Roy snickered when Tremblay arrived in the dressing room for the first time. They almost fought again after Tremblay allegedly fired a shot at Roy's throat during practice.
On December 2, 1995, in his 22nd game (and the team's 24th) of the 1995–96 season, Roy was in net against the Detroit Red Wings during Montreal's worst home game in franchise history, an 11–1 loss. Roy allowed nine goals on 26 shots, which was highly unusual, as star goaltenders are generally taken out of the game quickly when it is clear they are struggling. During the second period, when Montreal was trailing 7–1 in the game, the crowd provided mock applause after Roy made an easy save on Sergei Fedorov from centre ice, prompting him to sarcastically raise his arms in mock celebration. Tremblay finally pulled Roy in the middle of the second period in favour of Pat Jablonski.
During Molson Breweries' tenure as owner of the team, the rows of seats immediately behind the Canadiens' bench were under the exclusive control of Molson and as such were typically reserved for the use of executives of the Canadiens, Molson, or invited dignitaries. Since these seats were not available to the public, the standard glass partitions that separate hockey spectators from the team benches were not installed behind the home bench of the Forum. Because of this unusual arrangement, an enraged Roy had no time to regain his composure before approaching the team's top brass who were in attendance and their usual seats. Upon reaching the bench, Roy immediately stormed past his coach and told Canadiens President Ronald Corey "It's my last game in Montreal". The next day, Roy was suspended by the Canadiens.
At the time, Tremblay told the media that he regretted not pulling Roy earlier in the game, but Roy later said that despite allowing five goals on 17 shots in the first, Tremblay kept him in the net to humiliate him. In later interviews, Roy cited a general distaste with what he thought was a loosening of standards with the team.
Four days after the incident, the Canadiens traded Roy and captain Mike Keane to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for Jocelyn Thibault, Martin Ručinský and Andrei Kovalenko. The return for Roy was seen as uneven at the time it was made and eventually became known as one of the most one-sided deals in NHL history. Canadiens general manager Réjean Houle had been in his post for only 40 days and faced criticism for making the trade instead of trying to resolve the tension between Roy and Tremblay.
Colorado Avalanche (1996–2003) In the 1995–96 season, after his mid-season trade from the Canadiens, Roy helped the Avalanche win their first Stanley Cup in their first season after moving from Quebec. Colorado's successful playoff run included upsetting the Presidents' Trophy-winning Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference finals, the same team that had defeated Roy 11–1 in his last game with the Canadiens. Roy was a runner-up for the Vezina Trophy to Jim Carey.
In the 1996 Western Conference semifinals against the Chicago Blackhawks, Jeremy Roenick was stopped by Roy on a breakaway during overtime in game four, while being hauled down by Avalanche defenceman Sandis Ozolinsh. The referee did not call for a penalty shot on the play and the Avalanche won in triple overtime on Joe Sakic's game-winning goal. Two days prior, Roenick had scored on an unchallenged breakaway to tie the game and send it to overtime, and the Blackhawks ended up winning game three. After game four, Roenick told the media, "It should have been a penalty shot, there's no doubt about it. I like Patrick's quote that he would've stopped me. I'd just want to know where he was in game three, probably getting his jock out of the rafters in the United Center maybe." Roy retorted with: "I can't really hear what Jeremy says, because I've got my two Stanley Cup rings plugging my ears." Roy and the Avalanche beat the Blackhawks in six games and went on to win the Stanley Cup.