State of the New York Rangers: A Positive Outlook on Glen Sather's Overhaul

As the frenzy of free agency has abated, we can sit back and examine the results with more perspective.

The gist of my stance on the Rangers’ offseason is simple: I trust Glen Sather completely, and so should you. “Why?” People ask, and quickly point to the dark years of the early 2000s.

Let’s start at the beginning. Glen Sather took over from Neil Smith, who, while he deserves credit for winning the Stanley Cup in 1994, dismantled the team not only in the short term, but for the future as well. The price of the win-now team of 1994 was almost unprecedented.

If you think that Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen and Angelo Esposito was a high price for two months of Marian Hossa, how about the group led by Tony Amonte, Doug Weight and Mike Gartner?

Soon after the party was over, Glenn Anderson, Stephane Matteau, and Brian Noonan were gone, and Esa Tikkanen was in his last throws. In 1997, GM Smith again reloaded for a win-now team. The next season, with Mark Messier gone, Adam Graves was no longer the same, and Leetch, Gretzky, and Richter could not win by themselves.

Literally NOTHING was left in the Rangers’ system. When a prospect made a mark, he found himself gone with surprising speed (i.e., Marc Savard).

Enter Glen Sather, the architect of maybe the most powerful dynasty of all-time. Rangers fans forget that Glen Sather built a team so powerful that he was able to relinquish Wayne Gretzky in his prime and still win the Stanley Cup.

Sather's talent evaluating ability in the early 80s may be unparalleled in the history of the NHL. In a span of several years, Sather picked up stars such as Grant Fuhr and Paul Coffey in the early first round of the draft, but it is his later-round selections that are amazing.

Mark Messier (third round), Glenn Anderson (fourth round), Andy Moog (seventh round), Jari Kurri (fourth round), Esa Tikkanen (fourth round) are all examples of Sather’s talent gauging ability.

Admittedly, Sather’s magic touch was nowhere to be seen as the Oilers finally faded. However (as a headline bragged while Lou Lamoriello struggled with his mistakes just following the lockout), “Slats is back.”

Glen Sather has built the Rangers back up. There is no longer a huge hole in the minor leagues, as was the case under Neil Smith. The minor league system teems with prospects such as by Bobby Sanguinetti and Alexei Cherepanov.

It is time that Rangers fans appreciated Sather for what he has done the last couple of years.

I don’t feel that he has the respect he deserves for several reasons: First, that he is friends with Jim Dolan (no further explanation required). Second, that the Rangers did not win for the first four years Sather was general manager. Third, because we have not yet fully seen the extent of the young talent pool Sather has compiled.

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