Glen Sather Steps Down As Rangers General Manager
After a 15 year reign at the position, Glen Sather is stepping down as the Rangers GM while keeping his position as Rangers President. Jeff Gorton will take over and be the 11th Rangers General Manager and the 2nd in the 21st century.
The move wasn’t a huge surprise. Sather is 73, and Gorton has very publicly taken on more and more of the GM responsibilities the past few years within the Rangers organization. A lot of people saw this move coming.
While Sather wasn’t able to duplicate the level of success he had with the Oilers (it turns out having the greatest player of all-time on your franchise is a great competitive advantage) where he forged a legitimate dynasty, the Sather era of Rangers hockey has to be considered a success. Except for one blip in 2009, the Rangers making the playoffs has been our birthright as a fanbase for a decade. He was able to draft and sign several talented players, especially in later rounds, and develop them into stars and fan favorites, especially one handsome Swedish goaltender nicknamed Hank, maybe you’ve heard of him. Another great characteristic of Sather was his ability to get whatever he wants out of trades, whether or not you agreed on the net effect of the result. While some people think that some of his moves like moving away Gaborik or the still hotly-debated Duclair-for-Yandle were misguided, at least you know that when Sather made a trade, it was going to be on his terms. No one was walks into a negotiation with a swinging dick, demanding exactly what he wants quite like Slats.
A lot of high-horse bloggers and #hockeytwitter armchair geniuses love to take pot shots and criticize Sather, but those people are idiots. Sure he isn’t perfect, no General Manager ever is, and some of the blind spots he seemed to have for players who he favored led to a few bad contracts that have resulted in the Rangers having less flexibility than we would like to make an aggressive move to get a scorer as a contingency for Playoff Rick Nash’s long-stretches of not scoring, but Sather is right far, far, far more often than he is wrong, and that’s really all you can ask for as a fan. So farewell to a legend, and we should feel collectively #blessed that he’s still going to be in the building in MSG having an effect on the organization. Farewell my Sweet Prince Sather, and hopefully in your role as President you can help General Manager Gorton achieve the one milestone that always eluded you in your 15 years at the helm of the Rangers; the Lord Stanley.