Whether or not you believe the urban legend that Madison Square Garden corporation owner hired Glen Sather as President and G.M. of the New York Rangers back in 2000 based on an interaction the two had back in the 70s when Dolan was a child and Sather still a player, if nothing else, Sather projected a vision.
Sure, the Hockey Hall of Famer’s ideas about the game of hockey were antiquated and required a fine-tuning. Yet, except for the first four years on the job, Sather designed a perennial contender around goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. As a seventh-round pick that didn’t come to North America for five years, it was a stroke of luck, but so much of hockey is just that, how things bounce.