Hall of Famer Glen Sather is retiring after six decades, culminating in building the Oilers dynasty

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman congratulated Sather on a remarkable career highlighted by the Oilers with five Cup victories in seven years.

“Whether it was the dynastic Edmonton Oilers teams of the 1980s, the embattled New York Rangers clubs of recent years or various iterations of Team Canada, Sather always demonstrated a keen eye for elite talent and a deft way of getting the best to bring out,” Bettman said. in a statement.

“Just as importantly, he cared deeply about his players as people, he tried to develop them as men and supported them through all the challenges on the ice,” he added.

Sather, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997 as a builder, won five Stanley Cups as the Oilers’ general manager. He was also the head coach of the first four, with John Muckler overseeing the last in 1990.

“Having the opportunity to be associated with the National Hockey League, and in particular the New York Rangers and Edmonton Oilers, has been one of the great privileges of my life,” Sather said in a statement.

Sather, known to most as “Slats,” is one of two people in hockey history to win at least four Stanley Cups as a head coach and as a general manager. Punch Imlach of the Toronto Maple Leafs is the other.

Sather led Edmonton to Cup championships in 1984, ’85, ’87, ’88 and 1990. He served as head coach in 932 NHL regular season games with the Oilers and Rangers, compiling a record of 497-307-121 yielded -7. .

In 126 Stanley Cup playoff games, Sather had an 89–37 record, and his .706 winning percentage in the playoffs is the best of any head coach in NHL history. He won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s Coach of the Year in 1985-86.

A feisty third- and fourth-line player, Sather immediately joined the coaching ranks upon his retirement after the 1976-77 season. He led the Oilers to twelve consecutive WHA and NHL playoff appearances, bucking the NHL trend of playing defense first.

Acquiring Wayne Gretzky from a cash-strapped owner helped, and combining with scout Barry Fraser to appoint Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Glenn Anderson, Jari Kurri, Andy Moog and Kevin Lowe in his first two years as general manager , turned the Oilers into a powerhouse.

Sather served as general manager and coach of Team Canada for the 1996 Hockey World Cup. He also managed Team Canada’s 1994 Canada Cup championship and was the general manager of the gold medal-winning team at the 1994 World Hockey Championship.

Sather played for Boston, Pittsburgh, the Rangers, St. Louis, Montreal and Minnesota in a 10-year career. He had 80 goals and 113 assists and 724 penalty minutes. He was part of the 1971-72 Rangers team that advanced to the Stanley Cup Final.

At the time Sather’s tenure as general manager ended in July 2015, he held the NHL record for regular season games played (2,700) and regular season wins (1,319) by a general manager.

Sather joined the Rangers in June 2000 as president and general manager. He was president for the first 19 years and GM for the first 14 seasons. He also spent parts of two seasons as head coach.

Over a twelve-season span from 2005-2006 to 2016-2017, the Rangers were one of four NHL teams to reach the playoffs eleven times. In his final year as general manager in 2014–15, the team recorded 53 wins and 113 points (single-season franchise records at the time) and captured the Presidents’ Trophy for the third time.

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