Glen Sather, ex-Oilers coach, GM to be honoured with banner-raising ceremony

The man called "Slats," the man who guided the team to four Stanley Cups as head coach and another as general manager in the 1980s and early '90s, will be honoured on Friday.

Hockey Hall of Famer Glen Sather will become the ninth Oiler to have a banner raised by the team, joining Al Hamilton, Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Grant Fuhr, Paul Coffey, Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson and longtime Oilers radio voice Rod Phillips.

"I think the best thing I could say is if you asked those greats, those players, about Glen having his banner raised, they'll say that he warrants that as much as they do," former Oilers defenceman and current team president Kevin Lowe said last month in Toronto. "You can't say anything better than that."

Sather, 73, will be honoured in a series of events over two days, beginning with a city of Edmonton public celebration and culminating in the banner raising ceremony prior to Edmonton's game against the New York Rangers, with whom he was GM the past 15 years until July of this year.

"We are delighted to host Glen and his family in Edmonton for what will be a very special time for him, our organization and the city," Oilers Entertainment Group CEO Bob Nicholson said in a statement released by the team.

Glen Sather was kind of the staple that put us all together and did everything that we needed to do to be successful.- Former Oilers forward Glenn Anderson on the team's ex-GM

Sather, who hails from High River, Alta., spent 24 years with Edmonton before stepping down on May 18, 2000 following disagreements with the team's 37-member ownership group regarding the team's budget.

Inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1997, he has been one of the league's most successful executives for more than two decades and was GM or coach as the Oilers won five Cups from 1984-90.

"Slats was the straw that stirred the drink that got us all together and on the same path, and that's what's so special about him," Anderson said on a conference call. "Glen Sather was kind of the staple that put us all together and did everything that we needed to do to be successful."

Gretzky purchase

After playing one season for the Oilers in the 1976-77 season as members of the World Hockey Association, Sather laid the groundwork for Edmonton's success by purchasing Gretzky from the Indianapolis Racers of the WHA.

Acquiring the likes of Gretzky and Messier was only half the battle. He had to manage egos and make such a talented group worth together.

"He was great at allowing Wayne to have three-minute shifts so he could score 200-hundred-how-ever-many-points he did," Lowe said. "And he allowed Mess to develop into what he was and Coff and Fuhrsie and all those great players. He had the vision of the style of play and that's all well-documented."

Glen, he was really ahead of his time. The way Glen believed in skill and speed, his teams you couldn't catch them to get a piece of them.- Former Flames GM Cliff Fletcher on Sather

Sather, a HOF inductee in the builder category, was responsible for ushering in a different era of hockey. Former Calgary Flames general manager Cliff Fletcher said after the "hangover" of the 1970s Philadelphia Flyers' "Broad Street Bullies" teams intimidating their way to the Cup, the Oilers represented the peak of skill.

"Glen, he was really ahead of his time," Fletcher said on a conference call. "The way Glen believed in skill and speed, his teams you couldn't catch them to get a piece of them. He really changed the game, how the game's started to develop to be played with all the skill and speed he had on his teams."

Following the Oilers' inaugural NHL season, Sather was named GM, and in 1980, he drafted Coffey, Kurri and goalie Andy Moog.

Even after dealing Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings before the 1988-89 campaign, Sather's Oilers won their fifth Cup in 1990 and reached the conference finals in 1991 and 1992.

But, starting with Coffey, Sather was forced to trade away the nucleus of those championship squads due to budget constraints and it caught up to Edmonton in 1993, the first of four consecutive years it missed the playoffs.