Oilers to raise banner for legendary coach, GM Sather

Glen Sather wore the Oilers’ sweater in the WHA, coached the NHL’s greatest dynasty and managed in Edmonton for two decades. Now he’ll finally have a banner to commemorate his hockey legacy in Alberta’s capital. Fifteen years after Sather left the organization, the Oilers tonight will raise his banner to the rafters at Rexall Place alongside the numbers of Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey, Glenn Anderson, Grant Fuhr, Al Hamilton and those celebrating five Stanley Cups and many more division and conference titles. “I think the best thing I could say is if you asked those greats, those players, about Glen having his banner raised, they’ll say that he warrants that as much as they do,” former Oilers defenceman and current team president Kevin Lowe said last month in Toronto. “You can’t say anything better than that.” Sather coached the Oilers during their transition from the WHA to the NHL and led them to the Cup final five times, winning it in 1984, 1985, 1987 and 1988. He ceded the bench to John Muckler after the 1988-89 season but still has as president and general manager for the Oilers’ 1990 title. “Slats was the straw that stirred the drink that got us all together and on the same path, and that’s what’s so special about him,” Anderson said on a conference call. “Glen Sather was kind of the staple that put us all together and did everything that we needed to do to be successful.” “The Oilers will go down in history as arguably the best team that was ever on the ice in the National Hockey League,” former Calgary Flames general manager Cliff Fletcher said. “Glen is definitely a legendary hockey man, and one of the greatest coaches and general managers this league’s ever had.”