The Rangers have announced that Glen Sather is retiring from his position with the Rangers and from pro hockey.
Sather said in a statement, “Having the opportunity to be associated with the National Hockey League, and specifically the New York Rangers and Edmonton Oilers, has been one of the great privileges of my life. I want to thank Jim Dolan for giving me the chance to work for the Rangers 24 years ago and for his consistent guidance and friendship. I want to thank everyone in the Rangers organization for their dedication and pursuit of excellence throughout the years, as well as the family atmosphere they helped create. I would also like to thank the great Rangers fans for their passion and loyalty. This experience is something I will always treasure.”
James Dolan said: “From the time he joined the Rangers organization 24 years ago, Glen Sather has been the consummate professional. I am thankful for the friendship that Glen and I have had over these many years and for the success he helped bring the Rangers franchise during his tenure. Glen, Ann, and his family will always be a part of the Rangers and Madison Square Garden family, and I wish them all the best in the years ahead.”
Chris Drury said “I would like to congratulate Glen on his tremendous career. I will forever be grateful to Glen for giving me the opportunity to play for the Rangers, and I was so fortunate to lean on him for guidance as I began my own career in the front office. I wish Glen – along with Ann and the entire Sather family – best of luck in the next chapter of their lives.”
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement: “The National Hockey League congratulates Glen Sather on his retirement and salutes him for his legendary career. “Glen enjoyed a remarkable six-decade career as a Player, coach, general manager and executive that earned him election to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1997. “Whether with the dynastic Edmonton Oilers teams of the 1980s, the contending New York Rangers clubs of recent years or various iterations of Team Canada, Sather always showed a keen eye for elite talent and a deft touch for bringing out its best. “As important, he cared deeply about his players as people, sought to develop them as men and supported them through any off-ice challenges. “Congratulations, ‘Slats,’ on a remarkable career.”
From the Rangers:
- Sather joined the Rangers organization on June 1, 2000, when he was named President and General Manager. He served as Rangers President for his first 19 years in the organization (2000-01 – 2018-19) and was the team’s General Manager for the first 14 seasons of his tenure with the Blueshirts (2000-01 – 2014-15).
- Over the 14 seasons that Sather was Rangers General Manager, he earned more wins (556) and held the position for more games (1,114) than any general manager in franchise history. Sather oversaw one of the most successful eras in franchise history. Over a 12-season span from 2005-06 – 2016-17, the Rangers were one of four NHL teams that reached the playoffs 11 times and were the only NHL team that was not mathematically eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs prior to the start of a regular season game during the stretch.
- New York played in more playoff games than any NHL team over a six-year stretch from 2011-12 – 2016-17 (93) and was the only NHL team that won at least one playoff series in five of those six seasons.
- In Sather’s final year as General Manager in 2014-15, the team he assembled earned 53 wins and 113 points – establishing single-season franchise records at the time – and captured the Presidents’ Trophy for the third time in franchise history.
- Sather held the role of Senior Advisor to the Owner and Alternate Governor for the final five years of his tenure with the Rangers. During those five years, the Blueshirts advanced to the Eastern Conference Final twice in a three-season span and won the Presidents’ Trophy for having the NHL’s best regular season record in 2023-24.
- Sather also served as Rangers Head Coach during his tenure with the organization, holding the role from January 30, 2003 to February 25, 2004.
-
Over nearly half a century as a front office executive in the NHL, Sather illustrated why he is one of the great architects in the history of hockey management. Sather, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1997, won five Stanley Cups as a general manager, and he was also the head coach of his team for four of those five Stanley Cup Championships. Sather is one of only two people in hockey history who won at least four Stanley Cups as both a head coach and a general manager (along with Punch Imlach). At the time when Sather’s tenure as a general manager ended in July of 2015, he held the NHL record for career regular season games (2,700) and career regular season wins (1,319) by a general manager.
Adam Rotter: Glen Sather earned James Dolan’s trust at some point early on in their relationship and he parlayed that trust into a 24-year relationship with the Rangers. The perception, whether true or not, was that Sather knew how to “manage” Dolan and that allowed him to run the Rangers as he saw fit and without any of the interference that Dolan was said to have in how the Knicks were run. There are some, again whether true or not, that believe he still held a lot of influence within the organization and has helped Chris Drury develop his relationship with Dolan.
It’s hard to really look at his whole career with the Rangers because there were so many different eras. The pre-lockout era was lots of big contracts, lots of big names, questionable coaches, he himself going behind the bench and ultimately no playoff appearances. There were the three years with Jaromir Jagr, the Tortorella years bleeding into the contender years and him stepping down as GM after the loss to Tampa in 2015. As President he and Jeff Gorton kicked off the rebuild and then he stepped down as President to become an Advisor. Some think he had a part in the decision to remove John Davidson and his former protégé Jeff Gorton from their positions though that has never been confirmed.
But Sather’s time with the Rangers will most likely always be linked, outside of Dolan, to Henrik Lundqvist. Lundqvist was the constant for the Rangers and the one who was the backbone of the team and Franchise player throughout almost all of Sather’s tenure.