The New York Rangers are in the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in 20 years. Their new GM, Glen Sather, has a track record of success, but is that enough to ensure the Rangers will win the Cup?
In 1994, the Rangers were crowned champions. It had been 54 years since they had last won the Stanley Cup in 1940. Between 1940 and 1994, they went to the Cup Finals three times. In 1950, with Frank Boucher as GM, they lost to the Detroit Red Wings, a team built by GM Jack Adams; in 1972, with Emile Francis as GM, they lost to the Boston Bruins, a team built by GM Milt Schmidt; and, in 1979, with Fred Shero as GM, they lost to the Montreal Canadiens led by Irving Grundman as GM but built by legendary Sam Pollock. Prior to 1940, the New York Rangers had won the Cup in 1928 and 1933. The 1928, 1933 and 1940 Cup-winning teams had been built by Lester Patrick who served as New York’s GM from the 1926/27 season to midway through the 1945/46 season when the GM job went to Frank Boucher. Patrick had also built teams that reached the finals without winning the Cup in 1929, 1932 and 1937.
In June 2000, then Madison Square Garden’s President Dave Checketts hired Glen Sather to be the Rangers’ President and GM. The reasons were: to bring instant respect to the Rangers who had missed the playoffs the previous three seasons; because Sather had a track record of success (i.e., he had built five Cup-winning teams in Edmonton in his first 10 years as GM); and, because Sather had a previous connection with the Rangers (he had played 188 games with them from 1970 to 1973).
How did the Rangers do in Sather’s first 13 years? They finished out of the playoffs five times with four of those times coming in Sather’s first four years as GM. They lost in the first round of the playoffs three times; they lost in the second round three times; and, they lost in the third round once. There was a lockout in the 2003/04 season. So, in Sather’s 14th season as the Ranger’s GM, he has finally built a team capable of making it into the Finals. Certainly, this is not a record comparable to his first 10 with the Oilers. And leads to the following question: Can the 2013/14 Ranger’s team win the Stanley Cup? Did Sather build a Stanley Cup winner?
History says no!
From the 1915/16 season to the start of the 2013/2014 season, 178 men have served as the GM of the teams that have played in the NHL. These teams include the current 30 teams, the Oakland Seals, in its various configurations, from 1967 to 1978, and nine other teams that played between 1917 and 1942. These teams played as few as six games (the Montreal Wanderers in the first half of the 1917/18 season) to as many as 784 games (the NY/Brooklyn Americans from 1925 to 1942).
Of these 178 GMs, only 36 built Cup-winning teams – a ratio of 20.2 percent. Of these 36 Cup-winning GMs, 20 built two or more Cup winners with the same team – a ratio of 55.6 percent. For example, Sam Pollock built nine in 14 seasons with the Montreal Canadiens, Conn Smythe built seven in 27 seasons with Toronto, Jack Adams built seven in 35 seasons with Detroit, and Frank Selke, Sr. built six in 18 seasons with the Canadiens. Sather is next with five in 20 seasons with Edmonton. There is no doubt he is a great GM given what he accomplished in Edmonton.
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However, one GM who built seven Cup-winning teams is missing from this list because he did it with four different teams (three with Ottawa in 1920, 1921 and 1923, one with Chicago in 1934, one with the Montreal Maroons in 1935 and two with the Canadiens in 1944 and 1946). In fact, Tommy P. Gorman is the only GM in the history of the NHL to build Cup-winning teams with more than one team. No one else has accomplished this feat. One might ask how many have been given the opportunity. There have been nine: Gorman, Bob Gainey, Cliff Fletcher, Bill Torrey, Milt Schmidt, Punch Imlach, Brian Burke, Jay Feaster and Glen Sather. Only Sather is still being given the opportunity.
So, one out of nine – 11.1 percent!
- Note: If we include Lester Patrick, who built the Victoria Cougars of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association into a Cup winner in 1925 when they defeated the Canadiens for the Cup, as well as his three Cups with New York, it could be argued that there were two GMs out of 10 who built Cup winners with two or more teams – a ratio of 20.0 percent.
- I also note that Jim Rutherford has been given the opportunity to build a Cup-winning team in Pittsburgh effective June 6, 2014. He was hired because he won a Cup with Carolina in 2006. He was hired even though Carolina had not made the playoffs in the past five seasons. This was a mistake by team owners.
History suggests that Los Angeles’ GM Dean Lombardi who built a Cup winner in the 2011/2012 season – his first - has a 55 percent chance of having built a Cup winner in 2014.
55.6 percent versus 11.1 percent – that is 5 to 1 odds.
If Sather has not built a Cup winner it does not mean that he is not a great GM – he is one of only five GMs who have won five or more Cups with the same team. If he has built a Cup winner and the Rangers beat Los Angeles, Sather will be in very select company indeed: he will be one of only two GMs who have built Cup-winning teams in the NHL with two different organizations from the 1915/16 season to the 2013/2014 season.
Has Sather done it? Has he built a Cup winning team? History says no! Los Angeles should win the Cup.
