The Post’s Mollie Walker takes a look at longtime Rangers executive Glen Sathers’s top three hits and misses of his 24-year tenure in New York:
Hits
Discovering Henrik Lundqvist
During Lundqvist’s pregame jersey retirement ceremony at the Garden in January 2022, both Sather and the Rangers’ franchise goalie of 15 years reminisced about the day the two connected in Sweden in 2004.
Sather proudly recalled how he referred to Lundqvist as “The Next One,” and finding No. 30 became one of his most notable accomplishments.
Trading for Ryan McDonagh’s signing rights
In July 2010, Sather traded Scott Gomez, Tom Pyatt and Michael Busto to the Canadiens in exchange for the signing rights to McDonagh.
Not only did the defenseman ultimately become captain in his fifth season in New York, but the Minnesota native played 516 games for the Blueshirts during a time when the club appeared in the playoffs every year, including a trip to the final in 2014.
Trading for Jaromir Jagr
Sather sent Anson Carter to the Capitals in exchange for Jagr and got Washington to agree to pay approximately $4 million per year of Jagr’s salary.
Jagr also agreed to defer (with interest) $1 million per year for the remainder of his contract. To this day, Jagr is still all over the Rangers’ record books despite playing only 277 games across four seasons in New York.
Misses
Drafting Hugh Jessiman 12th overall
One look at the 2003 first-round draft board will tell you all you need to know about how this Sather pick panned out.
Jessiman was the first New York City-born player to be drafted by the Rangers, but the right winger never played a single game for the organization as he fell short of expectations and suffered multiple injuries.
He played just two NHL games, for the Predators, while players such as Dustin Brown (1,296 games), Brent Seabrook (1,114), Zach Parise (1,254) and Ryan Getzlaf (1,157) followed in the draft.
Wade Redden’s massive deal
Sather signed Redden to a lucrative six-year, $39 million contract in July 2008, when the defenseman became an unrestricted free agent after 11 strong seasons with the Senators.
It was a deal The Post’s Larry Brooks described as “the worst in the history of the NHL, if not in the history of hard-cap pro sports.”
The Rangers ultimately had to bury him in the minors for two seasons before they used an amnesty buyout on Redden in 2013.
This ill-fated quote …
When he was with the Oilers, Sather once famously said, “If I had the Rangers payroll, I’d never lose a game.”
Well, he did, for four seasons before the hard salary cap was first introduced in 2005-06.
The Rangers missed the playoffs all four years, but also never topped hockey’s Mount Everest with Sather in the front office.
