While Glen Sather is, in the words of at least two of his friends, “very interested,” in the Rangers’ vacant general manager’s post and has spoken twice in the last two weeks with Garden president Dave Checketts, he has not yet been offered the job, league sources said yesterday.
According to a report in yesterday’s Edmonton Journal, Sather, who remains under contract with the Oilers, was given permission to speak with Checketts, “weeks ago,” by Edmonton governor Jim Hole. It also was reported that Cal Nichols, who recently replaced Hole as chairman of the board, had been unaware that such permission had been granted.
Hole has long been Sather’s staunchest ally among the 37 individuals who comprise Edmonton’s ownership committee. Nichols has no particular allegiance to Sather, who has served as the Oilers’ GM for 19 years and has been a member of the organization for 24 years.
Sather in the past had told people he had no interest in moving to New York but now is telling friends that the opportunity to rebuild the Rangers excites him.
Of course, it’s possible that the opportunity to talk to the Rangers, now having been made public knowledge, excites Sather because it may increase his leverage should the GM position become available in Phoenix, whether or not Wayne Gretzky does become a part owner and CEO of the Coyotes.
The Rangers, according to league sources, are committed to hiring both a GM and a president. And while Checketts prefers a “hockey man” for the position, it’s believed that the president will handle all non-hockey aspects attendant to running the Rangers while also acting as an intermediary between the GM and the Garden corporate hierarchy.
League sources also have indicated that the Garden is all but committed to hiring a man with experience as an NHL general manager, and that ownership would prefer to have a GM in place before the entry draft in late June.
Even while having been granted permission to speak with Sather, the Rangers would almost certainly owe the Oilers compensation in order to bring the five-time Cup-winning GM to Broadway.