Glen Sather
Glen Sather | |
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President and General Manager of the New York Rangers | |
Assumed office 2000 | |
Preceded by | Neil Smith |
Head Coach of the New York Rangers | |
In office 2003–2004 | |
Preceded by | Bryan Trottier |
Succeeded by | Tom Renney |
President and General Manager of the Edmonton Oilers | |
In office 1980–2000 | |
Preceded by | Larry Gordon |
Succeeded by | Kevin Lowe |
Head Coach of the Edmonton Oilers | |
In office 1993–1994 | |
Preceded by | Ted Green |
Succeeded by | George Burnett |
In office 1980–1989 | |
Preceded by | Bryan Watson |
Succeeded by | John Muckler |
In office 1977–1980 | |
Preceded by | Bep Guidolin |
Succeeded by | Bryan Watson |
Personal details | |
Born | High River, AB, CAN | September 2, 1943
Glen Cameron "Slats" Sather (born September 2, 1943 in High River, Alberta) is the current President and general manager of the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL). He has also served as the head coach of the Rangers, as well as General Manager and coach of the Edmonton Oilers of the World Hockey Association (WHA) and later NHL. Prior to coaching, Sather was a professional ice hockey left winger in the WHA and NHL. He played for the Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, Montreal Canadiens, Minnesota North Stars, and Edmonton Oilers (in their WHA incarnation). Also nicknamed "Tomato Face" due to his perpetually red face during his playing days, Sather was born in High River, Alberta but grew up in Wainwright, Alberta. Sather now resides in Palm Springs, California in the off-season, but also has a home in Banff, Alberta.
Background and early career
Sather played 3 seasons starting in 1964 with the CPHL Memphis Wings and Oklahoma City Blazers, joining the Bruins at the end of the 1966–67 season and playing in 5 games. He earned the nickname "Slats" because of his gritty style of play where he would regularly aim for opposing player's testicles with the blade of his stick.
Professional playing career
Sather played 10 full seasons in the NHL and another season in the WHA. He played 739 regular season games as a pro, scoring 99–146–245 and earned 801 minutes in penalties. In the playoffs he added 77 games played and scored 2–6–8 with 88PIM. His career as a player ended at the conclusion of the 1976–77 WHA season.
Post-playing career
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Edmonton Oilers
Sather became head coach of the Oilers in 1977 and maintained the post when they joined the NHL in 1979–80. After taking them to the first round of the playoffs in their inaugural season, he was promoted to President and General Manager, but remained the Head Coach of the Oilers. This was the start of a tremendous run for the Oilers, who won the Stanley Cup in five of the next ten seasons following their first season in the NHL. The team made the playoffs with Sather as head coach from 1979–80 until 1984–85. From 1985 until 1989, Sather split coaching duties with John Muckler, but retained the title of head coach. With Sather at the helm in various duties, the team won five Stanley Cups in seven years, after losing in the finals to the New York Islanders in 1983.
New York Rangers General Manager
In 2000, Sather left the Oilers organization and joined the Rangers to become their President and General Manager, a position he currently holds despite not making the playoffs during his first four years at Madison Square Garden and cutting ties with many beloved Rangers, such as Adam Graves and Brian Leetch to bring in high-profile (yet unsuccessful in New York) players such as Eric Lindros, Pavel Bure, and Bobby Holík. He replaced Bryan Trottier after 54 games in the 2002–2003 Season as the head coach of the New York Rangers only to give the head coaching job to Former coach Tom Renney after 62 games in the 2003–2004 season. Sather's record as the Rangers coach was 33–39–11–7 over 90 games. That pushed his NHL career win total to 497, currently 10th all-time.
Many good, young players were also drafted during his tenure as the Rangers general manager, such as Henrik Lundqvist, Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan, Marc Staal and Michael Del Zotto. The team greatly improved after the lockout under Renney, making the Stanley Cup playoffs four consecutive years. After the Rangers lost in the second round of the 2007 and 2008 playoffs and were struggling to make the playoffs in 2009, Sather fired Renney and replaced him with John Tortorella. The Rangers made the playoffs as the seventh seed but ultimately lost in the first round to the Washington Capitals in seven games. He will remain the general manager of the Rangers until Rangers fans rise up as one and slay him.
Coaching record
Team | Year | Regular season | Post season | |||||||||
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G | W | L | T | OTL | Pts | Finish | W | L | Win % | Result | ||
EDM | 76–77 | 18 | 9 | 7 | 2 | – | (72) | 4th in WHA West | 1 | 4 | .200 | Quarter-Finalist |
EDM | 77–78 | 80 | 38 | 39 | 3 | – | 79 | 5th in WHA West | 1 | 4 | .200 | Quarter-Finalist |
EDM | 78–79 | 80 | 48 | 30 | 2 | – | 98 | 1st in WHA West | 6 | 7 | .462 | Lost in Final |
EDM | 79–80 | 80 | 28 | 39 | 13 | – | 69 | 4th in Smythe Division | 0 | 3 | .000 | Lost in preliminary round |
EDM | 80–81 | 62 | 25 | 26 | 11 | – | 74 | 3rd in Smythe Division | 5 | 4 | .556 | Quarter-Finalist |
EDM | 81–82 | 80 | 48 | 17 | 15 | – | 111 | 1st in Smythe Division | 2 | 3 | .400 | Division Semi-Finalist |
EDM | 82–83 | 80 | 47 | 21 | 12 | – | 106 | 1st in Smythe Division | 11 | 5 | .689 | Stanley Cup Finalist |
EDM | 83–84 | 80 | 57 | 18 | 5 | – | 119 | 1st in Smythe Division | 15 | 4 | .789 | Won Stanley Cup |
EDM | 84–85 | 80 | 49 | 20 | 11 | – | 109 | 1st in Smythe Division | 15 | 3 | .833 | Won Stanley Cup |
EDM | 85–86 | 80 | 56 | 17 | 7 | – | 119 | 1st in Smythe Division | 6 | 4 | .600 | Division Finalist |
EDM | 86–87 | 80 | 50 | 24 | 6 | – | 106 | 1st in Smythe Division | 16 | 5 | .762 | Won Stanley Cup |
EDM | 87–88 | 80 | 44 | 25 | 11 | – | 99 | 2nd in Smythe Division | 16 | 2 | .889 | Won Stanley Cup |
EDM | 88–89 | 80 | 38 | 34 | 8 | – | 84 | 3rd in Smythe Division | 3 | 4 | .429 | Division Semi-Finalist |
EDM | 93–94 | 60 | 22 | 27 | 11 | – | (64) | 6th in Pacific Division | - | - | - | Missed playoffs |
WHA total | 160 | 86 | 69 | 5 | 0 | |||||||
EDM total | 842 | 464 | 268 | 110 | 0 | |||||||
NYR | 02–03 | 28 | 11 | 10 | 4 | 3 | (78) | 4th in Atlantic Division | - | - | - | Missed playoffs |
NYR | 03–04 | 62 | 22 | 29 | 7 | 4 | (69) | 4th in Atlantic Division | - | - | - | Missed playoffs |
NYR total | 90 | 33 | 39 | 11 | 7 | |||||||
NHL total | 932 | 497 | 307 | 121 | 7 |
Career statistics
--- Regular Season --- ---- Playoffs ---- Season Team Lge GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1964-65 Memphis Wings CPHL 69 19 29 48 98 -- -- -- -- -- 1965-66 Oklahoma City Blazers CPHL 64 13 12 25 76 9 4 4 8 14 1966-67 Oklahoma City Blazers CPHL 57 14 19 33 147 11 2 6 8 24 1966-67 Boston Bruins NHL 5 0 0 0 0 -- -- -- -- -- 1967-68 Boston Bruins NHL 65 8 12 20 34 3 0 0 0 0 1968-69 Boston Bruins NHL 76 4 11 15 67 10 0 0 0 18 1969-70 Pittsburgh Penguins NHL 76 12 14 26 114 10 0 2 2 17 1970-71 Pittsburgh Penguins NHL 46 8 3 11 96 -- -- -- -- -- 1970-71 New York Rangers NHL 31 2 0 2 52 13 0 1 1 18 1971-72 New York Rangers NHL 76 5 9 14 77 16 0 1 1 22 1972-73 New York Rangers NHL 77 11 15 26 64 9 0 0 0 7 1973-74 New York Rangers NHL 2 0 0 0 0 -- -- -- -- -- 1973-74 St. Louis Blues NHL 69 15 29 44 82 -- -- -- -- -- 1974-75 Montreal Canadiens NHL 63 6 9 15 44 11 1 1 2 4 1975-76 Minnesota North Stars NHL 72 9 10 19 94 -- -- -- -- -- 1976-77 Edmonton Oilers WHA 81 19 34 53 77 5 1 1 2 2 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHA Totals 81 19 34 53 77 5 1 1 2 2 NHL Totals 658 80 112 192 724 72 1 5 6 86
Notable achievements
- Glen Sather is the most successful coach in Oilers history. Under his leadership the team set several NHL records, including most team goals for and holding several spots in the best winning seasons ever. They won 3 President's Trophies for best league regular season record. Their playoff record was even more impressive, winning 133 games and losing 82 en route to five Stanley Cups in six Finals appearances. In 1985–86, Sather won the Jack Adams Award as the league's best coach. Teams he has coached for a full season have only finished out of the playoffs once and had winning records 8 out of 11 seasons. He currently stands tenth in coaching wins in NHL history.
- Stanley Cup Champion 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990
- Outside of the NHL, Sather has been instrumental in building Canadian national teams for the 1984 Canada Cup ( tournament champions ), the 1994 Ice Hockey World Championship ( Gold Medal winners ) and 1996 World Cup of Hockey ( Finalists ).
Sather was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1997.
External links
- Wikipedia neutral point of view disputes from March 2009
- Boston Bruins players
- Canadian ice hockey left wingers
- Edmonton Oil Kings (WCHL) alumni
- Edmonton Oilers coaches
- Edmonton Oilers (WHA) players
- Hockey Hall of Fame inductees
- Ice hockey personnel from Alberta
- Jack Adams Award winners
- Minnesota North Stars players
- Montreal Canadiens players
- National Hockey League executives
- New York Rangers coaches
- New York Rangers players
- People from Calgary Region
- People from New York
- Pittsburgh Penguins players
- St. Louis Blues players
- Stanley Cup champions
- 1943 births
- Living people