THE image can be fixed more quickly than the franchise.
Mark Messier, the beloved ex-sheriff, would be the sight for the sorest eyes both inside and outside a locker room where years and dollars are more important than wins and losses.
The rats who scurried away in March will have to re-man battle stations in the attempted raising of the luxury battleship.
The Rangers have a few kids – Jan Hlavac, Radek Dvorak, Kim Johnsson, Mike York – who can play; one, Jamie Lundmark, who has a chance to be special; two more, Pavel Brendl and Manny Malhotra, who they have over hyped, and a bunch of overpaid aging veterans nobody wants.
They really don’t possess a player whose growth as a leader would be retarded by the presence of Messier. So as long as he acknowledges the maturation of Petr Nedved, a player the captain once disdained, it is practically a no-brainer to bring back the guy who brought the Cup, as long as it is understood another one isn’t coming with him.
The Rangers, a non-playoff qualifier three years running, are too old and small to compete at anywhere close to the level of energy required of the teams that have thrived in the playoffs. Glen Sather’s first job, essentially, will be an ironic attempt to prove that last season’s collapse was all the fault of John Muckler, his respected former right-hand man. Sather’s second task will be to unload the ridiculous contracts left by his predecessor.
You can expect both obligations to take some time. Sather’s wife of 30 years, Ann, has said that asking her to marry him was the only impulsive thing the new Ranger GM has ever done. The fastest hockey team in history Sather created in Edmonton and the wheeling and dealing he did to keep the franchise afloat are anomalies to his basic, conservative nature.
Sather is a consensus builder who tests his people to consider every angle in a deal that he subsequently holds up in the end by asking for one more thing.
He has frustrated his assistants with his inertia, but also lets them do their jobs, inspiring loyalty he values to a fault. Barry Fraser, who struck the mother lode of Kevin Lowe with the 21st pick, Messier with the 48th, and Glenn Anderson with the 69th pick of the 1979 draft kept his job and autonomy long after the head scout’s good judgment dried up.
Since 1983, the Oilers’ have had only three No. 1 picks, Jason Arnott, Ryan Smith and Martin Rucinsky, become more than marginal NHL players. Except for Tom Poti (a No. 3), Mirsolav Satan (a No. 5), and Kirk Maltby (a No. 3) the Oilers have mined minimal gold in later rounds, too. The trades have been better, but a spectacular body of early work recently appears mediocre.
It has been eight years since the Oilers had a winning record, which could make you wonder why Sather was virtually the only choice on Dave Checketts’ and Jim Dolan’s list.
Checketts didn’t want to trust a New York team to a rookie. The recommendations from Wayne Gretzky and Gary Bettman still glowed, a decade after the Edmonton dynasty died, not without reason considering Sather’s ability to work through Peter Pocklington’s financial problems and the differing agendas of the small investors who succeeded him.
The wolf is still at the door and the team still in Edmonton, no small endorsement of managerial skills that any owners, even ones at the opposite end of the revenue stream, would appreciate.
Stuck with a league-high payroll of $61 million for a team of dogs, be assured the Dolans didn’t bring Sather here to learn new tricks. He won’t be a kid in the candy store, more likely one happy finally to be able to keep what assets he has and who will remain conscious as ever of making players earn their contracts. Following last season’s disaster, this is a higher priority for the Rangers than throwing more bad money at an Alexei Yashin.
Having coached a champion, Sather understands the dynamics of a team and its locker room. Unlike Neil Smith, who took the sometimes failures of his best players personally and distanced himself for survival reasons, Sather is an extremely loyal man who supports his employees and tries to find ways to help, not undercut, them.
The Rangers already have some speed, which he always has coveted and Sather will bring in size he knows they need to compete. Ultimately, he will find them a new star, too, because he loved having the ones he had to sell off. But, knowing a true big-time player when he sees him, Sather won’t be hurried into any false messiahs while his broom sweeps at his methodical pace.
Not until he understands fully what cards he holds does Sather play his hand. He is a manager, not a collector, a step forward for the Rangers that will take years to become appreciated.