Player Biography: Ron Francis

[ScottM]

 

I'm back at this after some time, and I'm going to try to get some of the requests made a while back taken care of. I'll start with Ron Francis.

 

Every sport has players that are underrated. Sometimes they toil in relative obscurity because they play for teams that just aren’t very good. Sometimes they’re overshadowed by bigger stars on the team. Sometimes they just don’t get attention because they’re not flashy. All of those applied to Ron Francis at some point or another in his career. Today, we’ll take a look at the life and career of one of the most underrated players in the history of our great sport.

 

Ron Michael Francis was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario on March 1, 1963. His hockey career began in his hometown, when he joined the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League at the age of 17. His time with the Greyhounds were certainly a harbinger of the greatness to come, as he compiled 117 points in just 89 games, or just under a one and a half seasons. His talent was obvious to NHL scouts as evidenced by the fact that he was the fourth overall pick in the 1981 NHL entry draft following his inaugural season in the OHL. However, he wasn’t the original target of the team that chose him.

 

In the lead-up to the draft, the Hartford Whalers made no secret of the fact that they intended to choose Boston native Bob Carpenter. Perhaps the Whalers wished that they wouldn’t have been quite so public with their intentions when the Washington Capitals, who chose one slot ahead of Hartford “stole” Carpenter right out from under their nose. The Whalers needed a backup plan, and decided that Francis was their man.  In fairness, Carpenter was far from a bust in the NHL – he actually had a quite successful NHL career. Nonetheless, as time passed, the Whalers certainly couldn’t have helped but be happy about how things turned out.

 

Ron spent nine-plus seasons with the Whalers, spending six seasons as team captain, beginning with the 1984-85 season. The Whalers made the playoffs five times during Francis’s years with the team, but outside of the 1986-87 season, when the team won the Adams Division, they finished 4^th or 5^th in the division every year. At that time, while there were only 21 teams in the league, 16 of them made the playoffs every year, meaning that some teams that really weren’t very good made the playoffs every year.

The Whalers teams of the 80’s may not have been very good, but that wasn’t Ron Francis’s fault. In the nearly 10 years he spent with Hartford, Ron amassed 264 goals and 557 assists in 714 games for an average of 1.15 points per game. He played in three all-star games during his Whalers career, in 1983, 1985, and 1990. Late in the 1990-91 season, however, Francis moved from a bottom-feeder to a champion when he was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins. That season, Ron would have his name engraved on the Stanley Cup after the Penguins defeated the Minnesota North Stars in a six game finals series. Francis and the Penguins repeated as Stanley Cup champions in the 1991-92 season, sweeping the Chicago Blackhawks in the Finals.

 

Still, Francis toiled in relative obscurity. It wasn’t that he was an unknown, or that he failed to produce for the Penguins; he was simply overshadowed by superstars Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr. Even with players like Lemieux and Jagr on the team, however, Francis was a key member of the team, with two of his three 100-plus point seasons coming during his years in Pittsburgh. Most importantly for the Penguins, Francis led the team in the 1992 Cup run after Lemieux was sidelined by a broken hand. Francis even scored the Cup-securing goal.

 

Ron spent two stints as the captain of the Penguins, first during the 1994-95 season when Lemieux was out with an injury, and once again in 1997 after Lemieux’s retirement.  During his Pittsburgh years, Francis also established a reputation as being one of the most sporting players in the league.  In the lockout-shortened 1994-95 season, Francis was awarded the Lady Byng trophy as the league’s most gentlemanly player, an accomplishment he would repeat in the 1997-98 season. His 1994-95 season stands out, however, because that season he became the first player in NHL history to win the Lady Byng and the Selke Trophy (awarded to the best defensive forward) in the same season. Additionally, Francis played in his fourth all-star game in 1996.

 

Ron’s second Lady Byng season was his last in Pittsburgh. In 1998, he was an unrestricted free agent, and chose, in a manner of speaking, to return home. The Hartford Whalers no longer existed, because the franchise had relocated to Raleigh, North Carolina and been redubbed the Carolina Hurricanes. Even so, Francis decided to return to the squad with which he first entered the league. After donning the sweater of the Hurricanes, Francis accomplished another first. After being named team captain, he became the first player in NHL history to be named team captain of two different franchises on two separate occasions.

 

In 2002, Ron added more hardware to his personal trophy case. That season, he won his third career Lady Byng Trophy and was awarded the King Clancy Trophy for leadership and humanitarian contribution. That season was not marked only by personal success, but by team success as well. The Hurricanes won the Southeastern Division, and were awarded with the number three seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs as a result, despite having the 16^th best record in the league as a whole. Few expected the team to make a deep playoff run, but the Hurricanes did just that. The team beat the Devils, Canadiens, and Maple Leafs to earn a spot in the Stanley Cup Finals opposite the Detroit Red Wings. The Red Wings defeated the Hurricanes four games to one, but no one could question the success of the campaign.

 

Francis remained with the Hurricanes until late in the 2003-04 season when he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Hurricanes did not have a good season, and the trade was arranged to give Francis one last shot at another Stanley Cup Final, as the season was expected to be Francis’s last. The plan fell short however, when the Leafs fell to the Flyers in the conference semifinals. Ironically, the Hurricanes won their first Stanley Cup in the next NHL season, the 2005-06 campaign.

 

If there was any chance of Ron Francis returning to play in the NHL, the lockout that pre-empted the 2004-05 season, dashed it. Francis announced his retirement in the summer of 2005. His #10 jersey was retired by the Hurricanes in 2006. Having last played in 2004, Francis was eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2007, and was elected in his first year of eligibility. In 2013, he became the first hockey player elected to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. Looking back at his career, the numbers are staggering. His 522 goals rank 24^th in league history, his 1798 points rank 4^th, his 1,731 games rank 3^rd, and his 1,249 assists rank 2^nd.

 

Francis’s career with the Hurricanes wasn’t over when he unlaced his skates for the last time. In 2006, he became the team’s director of player development. In 2007, he was named assistant general manager. In 2008, he assumed the positions of associate head coach and director of player personnel. In 2011, he was named director of hockey operations. In 2012, he became a minority owner of the team, and finally, in 2014, he was named general manager.

 

Ron Francis may not often be mentioned as one of the greatest players to step out onto the ice, but in this writer’s opinion, this is a gross miscarriage of justice. Few have had the production and longevity of Ron Francis. He’s not only the greatest player in Whalers/Hurricanes history, he’s one of the greatest ever.

 

Further Reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Francis

http://www.legendsofhockey.net/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/LegendsMember.jsp?mem=p200701&type=Player&page=bio&list=ByName

http://hurricanes.nhl.com/club/page.htm?id=45234

http://www.hockey-fans.com/players/francis.php

http://www.hockey-reference.com/players/f/francro01.html

[Polaris922]

A lot of us in Pittsburgh lived Francis. Jagr was a rising star but Francis was actually recognized for all he was here by the majority of fans. In those years we had a lot of very talented players... Lemiuex, Coffey, Recchi, Tochhet, Murphy, Stevens, Mullen, Trottier... But Francis got a lot of attention none the less.

Yes he was very underrated as an NHL star, but he was a huge part of those Pens teams and at least got some recognition by the home team crowd.

[ScottM]

A lot of us in Pittsburgh lived Francis. Jagr was a rising star but Francis was actually recognized for all he was here by the majority of fans. In those years we had a lot of very talented players... Lemiuex, Coffey, Recchi, Tochhet, Murphy, Stevens, Mullen, Trottier... But Francis got a lot of attention none the less.

Yes he was very underrated as an NHL star, but he was a huge part of those Pens teams and at least got some recognition by the home team crowd.

 

I have a friend who is a big Penguins fan, and I've heard the same thing from him in the past. The comment about toiling in relative obscurity wasn't about Penguins fans, but the hockey world as a whole. I know he was appreciated in Pittsburgh, but it seems like a lot of other people think of Lemieux and Jagr and Francis is an afterthought.

[OccamsRazor]

Nice read thanks.

[Polaris922]

I have a friend who is a big Penguins fan, and I've heard the same thing from him in the past. The comment about toiling in relative obscurity wasn't about Penguins fans, but the hockey world as a whole. I know he was appreciated in Pittsburgh, but it seems like a lot of other people think of Lemieux and Jagr and Francis is an afterthought.

Wholeheartedly agree he deserved far more credit than he got.

[jammer2]

@ScottM  Nice job Scott...a fun read!

[JagerMeister]

One of the most underrated players, Its amazing that he managed to stay above a ppg playing 1700 games. Probably one of the few compliers that actually deserve the HHOF. His name never gets mentioned among the best players ever, yet he was very consistent and a great two way player. I dont think many playerr would be able to keep their career ppg over a point per game playing 1700 games.

[ScottM]

I just noticed a mistake in the original post. Francis had 549 career goals, not 522.