EDMONTON — Perhaps more than any other individual with NHL pedigree, Mark Messier has been through it all, from one generation to another, with Glen Sather.
Messier went from a being a teenage novice all the way through to being a 40-plus-year-old iconic athlete with Slats behind the bench, first in Edmonton and then in New York.
Sather had been the Rangers’ general manager for about a month when he brought Messier back for his second term by signing The Captain as a free agent in 2000 after his three-year deal with Vancouver had expired, though it is true Neil Smith tried to trade for Messier at the 1999-2000 deadline but was rebuffed.