Glen Sather

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Glen "Slats" Sather (born September 2, 1943 in High River, Alberta, Canada) is a retired professional ice hockey left winger in the World Hockey Association and National Hockey League and current President and General Manager of the New York Rangers of the 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.

Contents 1 Background and early career 2 Professional playing career 3 Post playing career 4 Coaching record 5 Notable achievements 6 Sources/External references

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 penalties in minutes. 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.

[edit] Post playing career

Sather became head coach of the NHL Oilers in 1979 and took them to the first round of the playoffs in their inaugural season. This was the start of a tremendous run for the Oilers, who became a genuine NHL dynasty with him as the coach and general manager. 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.

In 2000, Sather left the Oilers organisation 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 Holik. He also has coached the Rangers for 90 games (33-46-11) in that timespan.

[edit] Coaching record

Team	Year	Regular Season							Post Season
		G	W	L	T	OTL	Pts	Finish	W	L	Win %	Result
EDM	77-78	80	38	39	3	-	79	5th	1	4	.200	Quarter-Finalist
EDM	78-79	80	48	30	2	-	98	1st	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	15	4	.789	Won Stanley Cup
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	-
EDM	85-86	80				-
EDM	86-87	80				-
EDM	87-88	80				-
EDM	88-89	80				-
EDM	94-95	60				-
EDM Total
NYR	02-03	28				-
NYR	03-04	54				-
NYR Total		82
Total		2,146	1,248 58.2%	574 26.7%	314 14.6%	10 0.5%	2,814		223	130	.632	28 Playoff Appearances 9 Stanley Cup Championships

[edit] 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. With him as head coach, the Oilers won 791 games, lost 660, and tied 215. 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 ninth in coaching wins in NHL history.

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 the 1996 World Cup of Hockey ( Finalists ).

Sather was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1997, and as of January 2005 is currently the NHL's longest-tenured general manager.

[edit] Sources/External references

• Slate, Ralph. The Internet Hockey Database. Stats checked 22 January 2005.
• Unknown. Oilers Heritage.
• Unknown. HockeyDraft Central.
• Unknown. The Garden.

Preceded by Bep Guidolin	Head Coaches of the Edmonton Oilers 1977–1980	Succeeded by Bryan Watson
Preceded by Bryan Watson	Head Coaches of the Edmonton Oilers 1980–1989	Succeeded by John Muckler
Preceded by Ted Green	Head Coaches of the Edmonton Oilers 1993–1994	Succeeded by George Burnett
Preceded by Bryan Trottier	Head Coaches of the New York Rangers 2003	Succeeded by Tom Renney
Preceded by Al Hamilton	Edmonton Oilers captains 1976-77	Succeeded by Paul Shmyr