EDMONTON — In a perfect world, Glen Sather likely never would have left the Oilers in late May of 2000, a year shy of a quarter-century with the franchise he guided to four Stanley Cup championships as general manager-coach and a fifth as GM alone within a seven-year stretch from 1984 through 1990.
But at that time, the Edmonton environment for Sather was far from perfect in the aftermath of an ownership change from Peter “Sold Wayne Gretzky” Pocklington to a 37-person committee chaired by Cal Nichols.
“The situation in Edmonton was not something I was prepared to live under,” Sather, who will have a banner raised in his honor before Friday’s match against the Blueshirts, told a small group of New York reporters before the Rangers’ 2-1 defeat in Vancouver on Wednesday.