from Damien Cox of the Toronto Star,
And now, as Sather nears the end of his career, there is great success again. And perhaps more glory.
From the beginning to the end, or wherever he is at this moment, he’s done it his way. First, he built the fastest, most talented team in hockey and coaxed and prodded that group to five Cups in seven years. Nobody, really, played the way Oilers played, because nobody could and only Sather seemed to imagine the game played at that speed.
Now, he has built the Rangers in a completely different way, a team that is a complete contradiction of the way teams are supposed to be built in the salary cap era.
Maybe only Sather could see this as well.
The Rangers, for starters, aren’t built through the draft at all, at least not their own draft. A major part of the strength of their team has been acquiring undervalued young assets drafted by other teams — Ryan McDonagh, Derrick Brassard, Kevin Hayes — and turning them into very good to excellent NHLers.
New York doesn’t have a true No. 1 centre like Chicago, Pittsburgh or Los Angeles. They have Derek Stepan, a nice player, a reliable two-way player, but not a point-per-game player. In all, 28 NHL centres had more points this season, although most played more than the 68 games Stepan did.
Create an Account
In order to leave a comment, please create an account.