Before their game on Friday, Dec. 11, the Edmonton Oilers paid tribute to Rangers President Glen Sather by raising a banner in his honor.
A premier General Manager for 35 years and a Stanley Cup-winning head coach with 497 regular season NHL victories, Sather has been one of the most influential names in the history of hockey. He’s coached, drafted, traded for and traded away some of the best players in NHL history, and his name is etched on the Stanley Cup five times.
Take a look back at the highlights and the interesting facts about his legendary career in “The Game.”
SATHER, THE PLAYER
- From 1966-1976, Sather skated in 658 NHL games with the Bruins, Penguins, Rangers, Blues, Canadiens and North Stars. He also played 81 games for the Oilers of the WHA in 1976-77.
- Sather, a winger, tallied 193 points (80 goals, 113 assists), and compiled 724 PIMs in his NHL career. In 186 games with the Rangers, he scored 18 goals and 24 assists.
- He was named player-coach late in the 1976-77 season for the Edmonton Oilers of the WHA. He scored a goal in his first game serving as the coach, and the team went 9-7-2 to finish the season.
SATHER, THE OILERS COACH
- Following one year as a player in Edmonton and the 18-game stint as player-coach, Sather became the full-time head coach for the Oilers (still in the WHA) for the 1977-78 season. He coached the club through the 1988-89 season though he did not coach the first 18 games of the 1980-81 season because he became the team’s GM. After relieving coach Bryan Watson of his duties that season, he re-took over the head coaching realm. Sather returned to the bench again for 60 games in the 1993-94 season after firing coach Ted Green.
- Five games into his second full season behind the bench, Sather saw a 17-year-old Wayne Gretzky — then playing for the Indianapolis Racers — score two goals against his Oilers in four seconds. With it known that the Racers organization was in financial trouble and looking to sell Gretzky, Sather told Oilers’ owner Peter Pocklington to “do whatever you have to do to get [Gretzky].” A week later, Gretzky was an Edmonton Oiler.
- Sather won his first Stanley Cup as a head coach when the Oilers broke the Islanders’ four-year dynasty in 1984, one year after losing to the Isles in the Final. He went on to win three more Cups as Edmonton’s coach in ’85, ’87 and ’88.
SATHER, THE PLAYER
- From 1966-1976, Sather skated in 658 NHL games with the Bruins, Penguins, Rangers, Blues, Canadiens and North Stars. He also played 81 games for the Oilers of the WHA in 1976-77.
- Sather, a winger, tallied 193 points (80 goals, 113 assists), and compiled 724 PIMs in his NHL career. In 186 games with the Rangers, he scored 18 goals and 24 assists.
- He was named player-coach late in the 1976-77 season for the Edmonton Oilers of the WHA. He scored a goal in his first game serving as the coach, and the team went 9-7-2 to finish the season.
SATHER, THE OILERS COACH
- Following one year as a player in Edmonton and the 18-game stint as player-coach, Sather became the full-time head coach for the Oilers (still in the WHA) for the 1977-78 season. He coached the club through the 1988-89 season though he did not coach the first 18 games of the 1980-81 season because he became the team’s GM. After relieving coach Bryan Watson of his duties that season, he re-took over the head coaching realm. Sather returned to the bench again for 60 games in the 1993-94 season after firing coach Ted Green.
- Five games into his second full season behind the bench, Sather saw a 17-year-old Wayne Gretzky — then playing for the Indianapolis Racers — score two goals against his Oilers in four seconds. With it known that the Racers organization was in financial trouble and looking to sell Gretzky, Sather told Oilers’ owner Peter Pocklington to “do whatever you have to do to get [Gretzky].” A week later, Gretzky was an Edmonton Oiler.
- Sather won his first Stanley Cup as a head coach when the Oilers broke the Islanders’ four-year dynasty in 1984, one year after losing to the Isles in the Final. He went on to win three more Cups as Edmonton’s coach in ’85, ’87 and ’88.
- Despite losing The Great One, Sather did a great job in bringing in pieces to keep the Oilers a strong team. Slats got back Martin Gelinas in the Gretzky trade, then in November 1989 traded for Adam Graves, Petr Klima and Joe Murphy, and all four players were key to the Oilers and Sather’s final Cup win in 1990.
- In an ironic glimpse of things to come, Sather made four big trades with great benefit to the Rangers as GM of the Oilers. It all started in October of 1991 when Sather sent Mark Messier (and eventually Beukeboom as a player to be named later) to the Blueshirts. Sather then made deals with the Rangers for Kevin Lowe in December 1992, Esa Tikkanen in March 1993 and Craig MacTavish in March 1994. Of course, the Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1994 and all five of those former Oilers’ names were etched on The Cup. Sather’s was not.
- He was inducted into the Hockey Hall Of Fame in 1997 in the Builders category.
SATHER WITH THE RANGERS
- Sather was named President and General Manager of the New York Rangers on May 31, 2000, just 12 days after leaving the Oilers organization. He stepped down as General Manager on July 1, 2015, but remains the team president.
- One of the first things Sather did on the job to make things right again with the Rangers was to bring back The Captain, as Slats signed the free-agent Messier in July of 2000.
- In his first Draft as GM of the Blueshirts in 2000, Sather selected Dominic Moore in the 3rd round and Henrik Lundqvist in the 7th round.
- Other notable players Sather drafted that played for the Rangers include Brandon Dubinsky (2nd round, ’04), Ryan Callahan (4th round, ’04), Marc Staal (1st round, ’05), Artem Anisimov (2nd round, ’06), Carl Hagelin (6th round, ’07), Derek Stepan(2nd round, ’08), Chris Kreider (1st round, ’09) and J.T. Miller (1st round, ’11).
- Sather has made numerous monster trades for the Rangers. The first came in August 2001 when he acquired Eric Lindros from the Flyers. In 2002, he made his first big deadline day deal when he brought in Pavel Bure from the Panthers.
- One of the best players of all-time made his way to Broadway in January 2004 when Sather traded for Jaromir Jagr in exchange for Anson Carter.
- Other solid acquisitions via trades on Sather’s Rangers resume include Sean Avery, Ryan McDonagh, Rick Nash, Derick Brassard, Martin St. Louis and Keith Yandle.
- Sather also made his mark on the Rangers by signing big-time free agents, including Michael Nylander (2004), Martin Straka (2005), Dan Girardi (2006), Brendan Shanahan (2006), Scott Gomez (2007), Chris Drury (2007), Marian Gaborik (2009),Mats Zuccarello (2010) and Brad Richards (2011).
- On December 4, 2013, Sather locked up Lundqvist long term by signing the franchise goalie to a seven-year contract extension.
- Sather has hired five head coaches in his tenure with the Rangers; Ron Low (2000-02, 164 games), Bryan Trottier (2002-03, 54 games), Tom Renney (2004-09, 327 games), John Tortorella (2009-13, 315 games) and Alain Vigneault (2013-present).
- Slats has also stepped behind the bench for 90 games with the Blueshirts; the final 28 games of the 2002-03 season after letting go of Trottier and the first 62 games of the 2003-03 season before hiring Renney. The Rangers posted a record of 33 wins, 39 losses, 11 ties and seven OT losses with Sather as head coach.
- Under Sather’s leadership, the Rangers reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2014, played in the Eastern Conference Finals three of the last four years and won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2015.