Just to be clear. You mentioned Sather as being the worst GM in the NHL. 30th out of 30. The WORST ONE. Ugh... I can't believe I'm defending the New York ******* Rangers - I feel so dirty.
I never said that.
To me a measure of a good gm is putting together a balanced consistent team with a clear plan while being smart financially.
What does being "smart financially" mean? Does it mean not handing out bad contracts now that there's a Salary Cap? Because it seems that with all the terrible deals given out, these GMs keep finding ways to get out of them. The cap is more of a nuisance than anything else. In 5 years it'll be so high that it won't even matter anymore, anyway.
Does it mean not spending so much that you can't afford other players? Because this doesn't apply in New York. It's a problem in Phoenix and Dallas sure, but not in the big apple.
But lets look at the terrible deals that supposedly hamstrung the Rags from being successful:
Holik - bought out, not my money, don't care.
Gomez - managed to trade him to Montreal in a moment of amazing wizardy.
Redden - was buried in minors, bought out, again not my money, don't care.
Drury - man did this guy suck after being paid $7M/season. Big Sather mistake for sure.
If you look at his track record before 2005 his plan seemed to be to just outspend everyone and sign the biggest names available. Most of these players were on the downswing career wise which led to either just making or just missing the playoffs. Which meant that any player they drafted was mid first round, being a few years away from making an impact, if at all.
The Rangers would sign the top free agents available every summer. They'd throw out huge $$ because they could afford it. What do we care if someone wants to spend that much money? His boss certainly doesn't.
EXACTLY like john fergusen did in toronto.
What? No. Ferguson could never land those top players because he was too busy handing out NTC's like candy to the current aging core. I think you're thinking of Quinn before the cap - the Leafs would move 1st round picks and replace that talent with UFAs because they could afford to. But again - not my money so I really don't care who spends what.
Sather brought in Jagr for... Anson Carter. Yeah. Jagr was a beast for them. He also got Bure for something so insigificant I can't even think of what it was, and Lindros wasn't a FA he was traded for nothing as well. Bure was then destroyed by injuries and same with Lindros, but that's not really the GM's fault.
Lundqvist was a fluke draft.....7th round.
Sure. So they got lucky there, like Detroit with Zetts. But you know what - they still got them, and 29 other teams didn't. Now cherry-pick the Rags' good picks in rounds 1-3 please.
There were 4 teams all trying to sign this guy for ridiculous money if I recall correctly. If Sather is a bad GM for this, then so is Feaster, Burke, Lombardi, and Yzerman. Once again, the Rags landed the #1 UFA on the market.
If they did say they made a mistake and bought him out this summer, guess who would have automatically become the top UFA again? This isn't really a mistake - lets see what happens in a full season.
This guy was traded for Anisimov, Dubinsky, and a first. He also got 42 points in 44 games last season (21G 21A). How is that anything but good? Again - we need to see what a full season can bring.
Now give me reasons why he is "so great."
He's not "so great". He's no magician. He's made several mistakes that hindsight can easily point out, but he's also done some good things. Most importantly, he's done a good enough job to stay in NY for 13 years, which is pretty damn good in a world where most people with the same job don't even get their 5-year pin.
You said he is one of the worst, if not THE WORST, and that is extremely far-removed from reality. Now drop the effing puck so we can all watch some hockey!
