Long ago and far away, the Edmonton Oilers had a General Manager who looked for other people’s problems. He’d buy the used/damaged talent at a low price, nurse them back to heath/scare them straight, and then let them loose with 250 at-bats to see how they could shine.
1979-80: D Pat Price, R Don Murdoch, C Jim Harrison, L Wayne Bianchin
1980-81: G Gary Edwards, D Tom Bladon
And on it went. Now, some of these guys were at the end of the line and some were mid-career with health issues (Bianchin health issues, Murdoch different health issues) but Price was a fine bet (who worked out for awhile, then fetched Pat Hughes, who was a good NHL player) and Sather was just trying to add useful players. Get good players, keep good players.
The Athletic article today examines Matthew Savoie and his 14-7 EV goal edge over the first 16 AHL games this season. There are other statistical oddities good and bad. Article is here.
OLD GLEN SATHER
They used to call them ‘utility forwards’ and they were the tenth and eleventh forwards who dressed for NHL teams. Back in the 1960’s and 1970’s, teams would have three forward lines and then two extra’s who would (mostly) penalty-kill or jump when for an injured mate. Glen Sather was a good one, although he bounced around the NHL during his career. Gritty, tough, undersized but a game rooster, “Slats” extended his career by being a smart man in a very tough world.
Sather would have watched 50 minutes a game (or so) as an active NHL player and I’d guess he used those minutes more wisely than any fringe NHL player in the game’s history. The wisdom he stored up helped the Edmonton Oilers to five Stanley Cup wins.
On a Thursday in September 1985 he traded one of my all-time favourite players (Gilles Meloche) before he even played a game for Edmonton. I remember being disappointed, and didn’t know jack diddly about the return (some guy named Marty McSorley) but damned if that guy didn’t end up being a stalwart (and ruffian) for the Oilers. Slats did it all the time, even in the 1990’s when things got tough.
Here’s a list of Glen Sather’s major trades from January 1993 through summer 1995. I think you’ll agree these deals had a major impact on the team’s makeup through the end of that decade.
Esa Tikkanen for Doug Weight
Dave Manson for Bo Mironov, Mats Lindgren and a first round pick.
Craig MacTavish for Todd Marchant.
1st rd picks in 1996 and 1997 for Curtis Joseph and Mike Grier.
Those trades had a major impact on the team’s future. Glen Sather made some mistakes (Miro Satan being an obvious one) but getting Weight and Joseph along with some important secondary players gave the young drafted Oilers a lot of sock when they came of age.
Stan Bowman must do the same. He doesn’t have gigantic pieces to trade, and it would be unwise to deal young Matthew Savoie since he could be a plug-and-play on a skill line in the coming months and years. I liked his trades for Vasily Podkolzin and Ty Emberson, the evidence is minute but things seem to be heading in an acceptable direction. The cost for these two was an aging NHL defender who was shy of Adam Larsson (the man he replaced) plus two draft picks (a second and a third). Oilers got a second and a third in the St. Louis Blues offer sheet, plus a prospect in defenseman Paul Fischer.
Now, the world Bowman works in is far different than the one Sather romped through 45 years ago. There are fewer Pakleds in charge of NHL teams. The song remains the same. Get good players, keep good players. What would a Sather deal in this era look like? Paul Fischer for David Jiricek. No pressure, Stan.
Today on the Lowdown (noon to 2pm on Sports 1440) we talk Oilers, Condors, NFL, NBA and will do the famous “Who am I?” segment where Declan Krueger takes a famous and obvious name and befuddles me with vague questions about their careers. Daniel Nugent-Bowman at The Athletic will join me, and Donovan Paulson will also be there to send the show in an edgy and fun direction. I’m at Lowetide on twitter, in the comments section here and on the Sports 1440 text line at 1.833.401.1440 directly. We can be heard at sports1440.ca; iHeartRadio; Radioplayer Canada, we tweet out the show after it’s done and you can catch us on Apple and Spotify.
Ceci for Emberson has an outside chance of being the modern day version of one of those trades.
Serviceable vet entering the back end of their career for a young, mostly unknown defensive Dman.
Emberson won’t be a star but could find a spot as a strong, reliable 4-5 defenceman. Those guys can be sneaky valuable. Surprisingly listed at 6’2 195lbs, I thought he was smaller.
<blockquote>
Esa Tikkanen for Doug Weight
Dave Manson for Bo Mironov, Mats Lindgren and a first round pick.
Craig MacTavish for Todd Marchant.
1st rd picks in 1996 and 1997 for Curtis Joseph and Mike Grier.
</blockquote>
All great trades. A bit of context on the last one: Mike Keenan, then of St. Louis, signed Shayne Corson as a free agent in the summer of ’95. Compensation rules of the day sent 2 first-rounders from the Blues to the Oilers. Keenan then traded the rights to Joseph and Grier to Sather to recover *his own* draft picks.
From an Oilers perspective, it was Corson for Joseph and Grier. Or as I gleefully put it at the time, “a three for zero… we got Joseph, we got Grier, we got *rid* of Corson”.
Joseph was himself without a contract, & held out until mid January of 1995-96 before finally signing here, by which time another season was in the tank, an inconvenient fact that few Oilers fans seem to remember.
Grier, who had wowed many of us at the 1995 World Junior in Edmonton & Red Deer, was a full year away. He played a final season at Boston College before arriving as a fully-ready NHLer in the fall of ’96. He would go on to play 1,060 NHL games & 0 in the minors.
The Oilers made the playoffs for the next 5 seasons, largely on the backs of those trades & the related ones that would follow: Lindgren for Tommy Salo after Joseph flew the coop, and Mironov for Ethan Moreau & others.
True fact: the entire MGM Line came via the trade route. Loved that line.
Well I tried to do a blockquote, have clearly forgotten how. Help?
There’s a little “blockquote” button in my editor.
A big fan. Nice article. 😉
You have some fans, too.
It would be great if Bowman could find a 1B goalie to share the load/lighten the reps for Skinner. Pickard is fine, but has struggled against tougher competition. Plus, if you have a goalie who can shine even when Skinner is struggling, then you give 74 some room for the self improvement he accessed last year to right himself, as well as lowering the cap hit when/if they re-sign him at the end of his current deal.
Pick has been a solid back up. But that is below a guy that can carry weight if need be. I heard Woodley yesterday, and Pick is still well down the list even if showing better than Stu
I don’t this is a starter/back up league anymore. At least for most teams that don’t have one of the top 5 guys that actually stay healthy. It’s a 1A 1B league for most teams now. 1 A’s don’t start as many games as they once did. Blackwood for me, pretty solid numbers on a weak team, not old, and affordable
I agree. Blackwood is my preferred option for the Oilers to acquire. Now that Askarov has arrived in SJ, Blackwood becomes a redundancy. I think they prefer Vanecek as backup.
If Blackwood stays healthy it would be a formidable duo. And hopefully if one was off the other was on. I haven’t heard Woodley talk about Blackwood, my listening is sporadic, but I wonder if he’s better at rush plays which Stu is having a mighty hard time with. One thing I read said he gets across the net well for a big guy
Sather didn’t have to deal with the salary cap and a huge part of any player’s value is impact in relation to cap hit
I definitely agree that the trade for Podz fits the bill here – not only with the cheap acquisition cost of a 4th rounder but the player came signed for $1MM X 2 years.
ahhh some people forget…the Oilers were the most underfinanced team in the league…even Winnipeg with Benny Haskin, and later the Oil barons of Calgary could buy and sell Pocklington several times over….we were the epitome of a penny pinching organization…. Sather was a genius.
Agreed. I interviewed Mark Napier years ago and he said the FIRST night he played as an Oiler, he called his agent and said ‘if Sather offers a deal, accept it’ knowing the Oilers weren’t a team that would spend.
Sather WAS a genius.
And not only as a GM/horse trader, but as an innovative coach and motivator as well
From his early embrace of European systems and practice drills, to being on the cutting edge of conditioning and training science, to him and Pocklington bringing in motivational experts and life coaches, the Oilers of the 80s were a visionary and leading organization across the board. Much of what we take for granted in hockey tactics and sports sciences now was new ground the Oil helped to break.
Much like Gretzky skated to where the puck was going, Slats did the same as a Head Coach.
Gretzky gave them the generational talent to contend for Cups. Sather made them a Dynasty.
Apropos of the pre-salary cap era, some of my favorite teams were the Doug Weight years given the massive discrepancy between the haves and the have-nots.
The EIG was something else…
Sather had to deal with an internal (relatively hard) salary cap much less than what other teams spent because Pocklington was highly leveraged and under-capitalized and the Oilers were perhaps his only cash cow.
Sather had to pay the players in food stamps meanwhile over in Pizza Pizza land Holland who had more money than the Beatles was able to pay defect all-stars from the CCCP anything they wanted.