It’s hard to know what to make of this coaching search of Glen Sather’s that has meandered along for five weeks now, honest it is.
While most of the hockey world has believed for a week that Ron Low’s hiring was all but a done deal, the Ranger GM insists that it is not, that he has not offered the job to anyone, that he is continuing the interview process, albeit at his own unique pace.
And while it would be a mistake to parse Sather’s words too carefully, something he said yesterday in a late afternoon conversation seems to indicate that Mike Keenan might actually be a serious candidate to return to the Garden.
“The Rangers are a special situation as opposed to other teams,” Sather told The Post when asked if he would be conducting a similar-type search had he assumed command of a different squad. “There are so many guys on the team who are there after signing as free agents, there are so many veteran players, that I would prefer to hire a coach who knows a lot of them and who has a relationship with them.
“He has to have the respect of the players, and he has to respect them, too. And I don’t want this guy to be too much of a hard-ass but he can’t be soft, either.
“This is a difficult job and it may be difficult to find the individual with all of these qualities going for him. But that’s what I’m in the process of trying to do.”
Of all the names connected thus far to the search, Keenan and Keenan alone has a relationship with the core of the team, having coached Brian Leetch, Adam Graves and Mike Richter here and Theo Fleury on Team Canada in the 1991 Canada Cup. He coached Mark Messier-not yet signed-here and in Vancouver. He coached free agent Claude Lemeiux on Team Canada in the 1987 Canada Cup. And does it count that he was, in effect, traded for Petr Nedved in 1995?
Low, on the other hand, has a relationship only with Messier, with whom he played in Edmonton from 1979-80 into 1982-83. He hasn’t coached a single player on the team.
Sather, who first spoke with Keenan a week ago today, said he had not spoken again with him as of late yesterday afternoon. But the GM also said that Keenan remained in the mix.
“I said I would speak to him again and I will,” Sather said. “As I said before, Mike deserves the opportunity to state his case.
“The thing about this job, with all the contracts involved, you can’t just clean house. It’s just not possible. You can make adjustments in personnel, but probably limited. So you need to have a coach who can run things, who can get the guys to play with effort.”
While neither Leetch nor Richter stocked up on crying towels when Keenan originally departed, each over the last couple of years has spoken warmly about the coach, or at least the impact the coach had on their team and their respective careers. Messier, of course, remains a staunch ally. Fleury and Lemieux won with Keenan, too.
Now in the face of all reason, it’s possible a door might be open for a return.
How far open, if at all, only Sather knows.
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No news on free agents Claude Lemieux and Vladimir Malakhov, and with Glen and Ann Sather’s son, Justin, getting married tomorrow at his parents’ Banff home, there isn’t likely to be Ranger news this weekend unless Don Maloney steps in if a pinch-hitter becomes necessary.
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Rangers prospects including Pavel Brendl, Jamie Lundmark and Mike Mottau (still unsigned) are spending the week at Rye for physical testing and evaluation.