Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Yes Glen, It Is Time For A Change (Again)

Back when Tom Renney got canned at the end of February '09, I posted a list of Glen Sather's track record and in honour of his 10 year anniversary today, I felt it was worth re-posting. Mind you, since then Glen signed Donald Brashear and Ales Kotalik but also added Marian Gaborik, Jody Shelley and Brandon Prust - earning a C from me since I saw it as a season where he broke even - after all, the horrific signings of John Tortorella, Chris Drury and Wade Redden were all prior to July 1st, the date the new season begins (for me at least).
Well, now that Glen Sather has managed to shove the blame for his failings upon someone else yet again, I figured it might be good to look at just what he has done. Sather was officially hired by the Rangers June 1st, 2000. Let's take a look at some of his more memorable works - both good and bad - using Outside The Garden's transaction listings ...

July 1st, 2000 - Signed Vladimir Malakhov for four years for $14 million

June 24th, 2001 - Traded Adam Graves to San Jose for Mikael Samuelsson

August 20th, 2001 - Traded Jan Hlavac, Kim Johnsson, Pavel Brendl and 2003 3rd Round Pick to Philadelphia for Eric Lindros

March 18th, 2002 - Traded Igor Ulanov, Filip Novak, 2002 1st Round Pick, 2002 2nd Round Pick and 2003 4th Round Pick to Florida for Pavel Bure and 2002 2nd Round Pick

March 19th, 2002 - Traded Mike York and 2002 4th Round Pick to Edmonton for Tom Poti and Rem Murray

June 26th, 2002 - Traded Theo Fleury to San Jose for a 2002 6th Round Pick

July 1st, 2002 - Signed Bobby Holik for five years for $45 million

July 2nd, 2002 - Signed Darius Kasparaitus for six years for $25.5 million

December 12th, 2002 - Traded Tomas Kloucek, Rem Murray and Marek Zidlicky to Nashville for Mike Dunham

January 8th, 2003 - Traded 2004 4th Round Pick to Chicago for Boris Mironov

February 10th, 2003 - Traded Samuelsson, Joel Bouchard, Rico Fata, Richard Lintner and cash to Pittsburgh for Alexei Kovalev, Dan Lacouture, Janne Laukkanen and Mike Wilson

March 11th, 2003 - Traded Radek Dvorak and Cory Cross to Edmonton for Anson Carter and Ales Pisa

August 14th, 2003 - Re-signed Tom Poti for two years at $5.9 million

September 3rd, 2003 - Signed Boris Mironov for one year at $1,925,000

January 23rd, 2004 - Traded Anson Carter to Washington for Jaromir Jagr and cash

March 2nd, 2004 - Traded Alexei Kovalev to Montreal for Josef Balej and a 2004 2nd Round Pick

March 3rd, 2004 - Traded Briant Leetch and a Conditional Draft Pick to Toronto for Maxim Kondratiev, Jarkko Immonen, a 2004 1st Round Pick and a 2005 2nd Round Pick

March 3rd, 2004 - Traded Petr Nedved and Jussi Markkanen to Edmonton for Dwight Helminen, Stephen Valiquette and a 2004 2nd Round Pick

March 6th, 2004 - Traded Chris Simon and Conditional 2004 7th Round Draft Pick to Calgary for Jamie McLenna, Blair Betts and Greg Moore

March 8th, 2004 - Traded Matt Barnaby and a 2004 3rd Round Pick to Colorado for Chris McAllister, David Liffiton and a 2004 2nd Round Pick

March 8th, 2004 - Traded Vladimir Makarov to Philadelphia for Rick Kozak and a 2005 2nd Round Draft Pick

March 9th, 2004 - Traded Martin Rucinsky to Vancouver Canucks for R J Umberger and Martin Grenier

March 9th, 2004 - Traded Greg de Vries to Ottawa for Karel Rachunek and Alexandre Giroux

August 10th, 2004 - Signed Michael Nylander for three years for $8.9 million

July 29th, 2005 - Paid out Bobby Holik

August 2nd, 2005 - Signed Marek Malik for three years for $7.5 million

August 2nd, 2005 - Signed Martin Straka for one year for $3 million

October 7th, 2005 - Traded Jozef Balej to Vancouver with conditional pick for Fedor Fedorov

January 8th, 2006 - Traded Maxim Kondratiev for Petr Sykora and 2007 4th round pick

March 9th, 2006 - Traded 2006 3rd Round Pick to Anaheim for Sandis Ozolinsh

July 1st, 2006 - Signed Matt Cullen for four years for $11.2 million

July 3rd, 2006 - Signed Aaron Ward for two years for $5.5 million

July 9th, 2006 - Signed Brendan Shanahan for one year for $4 million

February 5th, 2007 - Traded Jan Marek, Marc-Andre Cliche and Jason Ward for Sean Avery and John Seymour

July 1st, 2007 - Signed Scott Gomez for seven years for $51.5 million

July 1st, 2007 - Signed Chris Drury for five years for $35.25 million

July 17th, 2007 - Traded Matt Cullen to Carolina for Andrew Hutchinson, Joe Barnes and a 2008 3rd Round Pick

February 26th, 2008 - Traded Al Montoya and Marcel Hossa to Phoenix for Fredrik Sjostrom, Josh Gratton and David LeNeveu

February 26th, 2008 - Traded 6th Round pick to St. Louis for Christian Backman

July 1st, 2008 - Signed Aaron Voros for three years for $3 million

July 1st, 2008 - Signed Wade Redden for six years for $39 million

July 2nd, 2008 - Traded Fedor Tyutin and Christian Backman to Columbus for Nikolai Zherdev and Dan Fritsche

Tom Renney came in just prior to the lockout to finish off a terrible season, and then guided the franchise through the "new" NHL and into the playoffs three straight years. If/when John Tortorella fails to bring in a even playoff team this year he will be let off the hook. But no Cup by 2012? Let's hope that Sather is the one to take the fall then ...
Remarkably, Torts got the team to the playoffs (and knocked them out of them himself) in '09 and then failed to make the postseason by a point in '10 and was let off the hook both times. It is the Garden's MO to turn a blind eye to pathetic administration but how could they possibly ignore no playoff revenue?

Well, easily.

Sather starts season number 11 under seemingly the same accountability his coach demanded from his players: none. Looking back at the last decade of epic disasters, I can't imagine what the next 10 years will hold for us. But, that being said, we keep buying tickets for this ride aboard the Hindenburg, despite the fact we've been going down in horrible, burning flames for years so the question is who is the bigger failure - Sather or us?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Us.

If we stop going to games, things will change.

Anonymous said...

If you bought tickets the Garden would not have thousands of empty seats at games which you consistently point out.

The only thing Sather proved was he got less out of half payroll of what Milbury did making four playoffs.

Scotty Hockey said...

Second Anon - those empty seats are paid for, that's the problem ...