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Glen SaterGeneral Manager of the New York Rangers
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 USA |
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Biography of Glen Sather
Glen Sather is a Canadian hockey coach and manager, currently serving as the President and General Manager of the NHL team, the New York Rangers. He is best known for his work with the Edmonton Oilers, leading them to victory in the Stanley Cup four times as a coach and once as a team manager. In 1997, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Early Life and Career
Sather was born in High River, Alberta. In 1963, he won the Memorial Cup while playing for the Edmonton Oil Kings at the junior level. He began his professional career in 1964 with the Memphis Wings, a team affiliated with the Detroit Red Wings. After a year, he was acquired by the Boston Bruins. Sather spent two seasons with the Oklahoma City Blazers, Boston's farm team, and made his NHL debut with the Bruins during the 1966-67 season. The following year, Sather became a key player for Boston, and the team, which included Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito, made it to the playoffs for the first time in a long while. In 1969, Sather was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Over the next few years, he played for the New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, Montreal Canadiens, and Minnesota North Stars. In total, Sather played 10 seasons in the NHL, appearing in 658 games and scoring 192 points.
Coaching and Managing Career
In 1976, Sather joined the Edmonton Oilers, a team based in his home province of Alberta, which was playing in the World Hockey Association (WHA). The 1976-77 season marked the end of Sather's career as a player. At the end of the season, he was appointed as the team's player-coach. In the summer of 1978, the Oilers signed a 17-year-old Wayne Gretzky. In the 1978-79 season, the Oilers reached the WHA playoffs final, but lost to the Winnipeg Jets. Before the start of the 1979-80 season, the Oilers, along with three other WHA teams, joined the NHL. In their first NHL season, the Oilers finished fourth in their division and made it to the playoffs. At the end of the season, Sather became the team's general manager and appointed Brian Watson as the coach. However, after a disappointing start to the season, Sather once again took on the role of head coach. In the 1980 NHL draft, Sather selected future stars Paul Coffey, Jari Kurri, and Andy Moog, who joined Gretzky, Mark Messier, and Glenn Anderson, who had been drafted the previous year. A year later, Sather chose goaltender Grant Fuhr in the first round of the draft. The team in Edmonton became a dynasty, winning five Stanley Cups during the decade. In 1983, the Oilers lost in the finals to the New York Islanders. In the following five years, except for the 1985-86 season, Edmonton won the Stanley Cup four times. Sather was awarded the Jack Adams Award for the NHL's best coach in 1986 for his work with the team.
In 1988, the team's owner, Peter Pocklington, traded Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings, and the following year, after a playoff loss to the Kings, Sather stepped down as head coach, appointing John Muckler in his place. In 1990, led by Mark Messier and Craig Simpson, the Oilers won the Stanley Cup once again.
After losing the remaining key players of the dynasty in the early 1990s, the Oilers ceased to be a significant force in the NHL. The team failed to make the playoffs for four consecutive years starting from the 1992-93 season. In 2000, after the end of another season, Sather left his position as general manager of the Oilers and replaced Neil Smith as the President and General Manager of the New York Rangers.
In the early 2000s, Sather took on the responsibilities of head coach twice, after the dismissals of Brian Trottier and Ron Low, but both times without success. In total, he achieved 33 wins in 90 games as a coach, and his team failed to make the playoffs. After the lockout in the 2004/2005 season, the Rangers, under Sather's management and led by first Tom Renney and then John Tortorella, became regular participants in the playoffs, missing only the 2010 playoffs.
As the coach of the Canadian national team, Sather won the Canada Cup in 1984 and the World Championship in 1994, and finished second in the World Cup in 1996.
