Ron Francis The Most Underrated Player in NHL History

Ron Francis Most Underrated NHL Player in History

 

So when thinking of the NHL all-time leading scorers do you think of Ron Francis?  Most people do not. Francis was not a flashy player during his consistent NHL career but what he did was produce at a level that most players would dream of over his 23 NHL seasons.  Francis was drafted 4^th overall by the Hartford Whalers in the 1981 draft.  Francis made his debut during the 81-82 season and in only 59 games had 25 G 43 A 68 Pts.  Francis got to play with Dave Keon as a rookie. Keon the classy long time Toronto Maple Leafs Hall of Fame player helped shape Francis to what he would become.  Even though the Whalers were a horrible team at the time, they started to build a core that at least got them competitive and had some mild success in the mid to late 1980s. Francis scored 31 goals and had 90 points in 82-83 season as a 19 year old.  Francis showed in his first seasons that he would be great playmaker and this would be the hallmark of his career.   Francis alongside Kevin Dineen, Pat Verbeek, Ray Ferraro and others finally made the playoffs in the 85-86 season. The Whalers were 12 points behind the Buffalo Sabres in early March in the old Adams division when they caught fire. These players long with Mike Liut did their job and made the playoffs on the last game of that season. Francis broke his leg in Janurary of 86 and missed some time, however when he come back he had a fantastic finish ending up with 24 goals and 77 points in only 53 games. Francis did not have a strong playoff but the team felt his presence as they upset the Quebec Nordiques 3-0.  Francis had 3 pts in 10 games.  Kevin Dineen the fireplug was awesome then.  The Whalers took the powerful Montreal Canadiens to game 7 in the 2^nd round and lost in overtime when Claude Lemieux shot a high backhander over Liut to win in. Dineen was great by scoring in Overtime in game 4 to tie the series on a great rush which was one of the most exiciting plays in their history as most of the success their franchise has had is in Carolina. Dineen also scored the only goal in Game 6 to force that ultimate game 7. 

After a few more consistent seasons even giving the Bruins a huge scare in 1990 taking them to 7 games, Francis would keep plugging along usually scoring about 25 goals and 85 points with Harford Career high of 32 goals and 101 points in 1990.  In 1991 Francis had some things happen to him that to me helped get the Whalers moved to Carolina eventually.  In 67 games,  Francis had 21 goals and 76 points but the horrible GM Eddie Johnson decided to first strip Francis of the captaincy and then trade the best player that ever played in Hartford to the Pittsburgh Penguins on March 4, 1991.  Francis along with Ulf Samuelsson (the dirty player I Have NO respect for) and Grant Jennings for John Cullen, Jeff Parker and Zarley Zalapski.  Cullen did okay in Harford but never was as good as he was in Pittsburgh. Francis flourished and provided Mario Lemieux with the 2^nd line center and all-around player that was needed to propel the Penguins to their first Stanley Cup in 1991.  Francis had 11 points in 14 games but had also 17 points in the playoffs with 7 goals.  I wonder how he felt to go from a mediocre team to the best team in the NHL. It killed me but for the only time in my life, I rooted for Pittsburgh during this time because of my admiration for Francis.  The Whalers would get worse each year, miss the playoffs for 5 years and then move to North Carolina.  More on that in a bit.

In 91-92 Francis had an average regular season by his standards with 21 goals and 54 points but when the playoff started, he showed what a leader he was.  In the first round against the NY Rangers the Penguins were down 2-1 and Adam Graves slashed Mario Lemieux with a viscious chop that to me was very dirty that put Lemieux on the Shelf for a few weeks. So what happened was Ron Francis stepped his game up to his level he had when he was younger in Hartford. He dominated the Rangers series and scored an OT game winner which topped off a hat trick to tie the series at 2.   Francis showed his leadership at his best in this series because he knew that with no Lemieux in the rest of the game, he would have to fill the void.  The Penguins would sweep both the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks to win their 2^nd consecutive Stanley Cup. Francis for good measure scored the Cup Winning goal in one of my favorite stadiums Chicago Stadium.  Mario Lemieux won the Conn Smythe as he came back and was unstoppable but Francis had an excellent playoff with 8 goals and 27 points in 21 games.  

For the rest of his time in Pittsburgh, Francis would top 100 points 2 times with a career high of 119 in 95-96.  Francis had 92 assists that season which was one of the 9^th most in NHL history.  Francis also won the Selke Award in 1995 for the best defensive forward the league and the Lady Byng in 1995 as well as the most gentlemanly player in the league. 

After the 97-98 season Francis went home sort of. He went back to his original franchise that is now the Carolina Hurricanes. Francis became captain again like he should have been always (Thanks Eddie Johnson for being a fool) and helped get the Hurricanes on the map.  Francis led the Canes to their first ever playoff birth there and helped them become consistent, something they never were in Harford. He would get his 20 goals and about 65 to 70 points per season topping out at 77 in 2001-2002. The 2002 playoff were a dream for an upstart franchise. They went on to beat the Devils, Canadiens and Maple Leafs for the first playoff series wins in Franchise history.  Led by Francis, Rod Brind’Amour, Erik Cole and Jeff O’Neil, the Canes had some great moments.  The Series vs. the Canadiens had some really memorable games. In game 4 with Montreal up 2-1 and leading 3-0 the Canes came back with goals from Sean Hill, Bates Battaglia and Eric Cole in the last minute before winning in overtime with a goal from Nic Wallin of all people. The Leafs series was also memorable. 2 more ot wins, one from Nic Wallin and then on a great pass from Ron Francis, Jeff O’Neil scored in ot after he was hit in the face with a puck earlier in the game. It was so gutsy from what I remember.

In the finals the Canes were overmatched by the Detroit Red Wings but did put up somewhat of a fight. Francis scored the game winner at Joe Louis arena in game 0 on a nice tip in front over Dominik Hasek.  The series was tied at 1 going back to Carolina when an epic game happened. The Canes were up 2-1 late when Brett Hull scored to tie it at 2.  In overtime the goalies were great for both teams Arturs Irbe and D Hasek stopped everything. Finally in the 3^rd OT, Igor Larinov scored a goal top shelf on a backhanders to break Caniacnation (including my own at 3 am approx.) heart. The Wings won 4-1.  This however was successful on what was accomplished by a team that so little was expected of and Francis led them. Francis had a couple of more seasons and then slowed down at age 40.  At the end of his last year, he was traded to the Maple Leafs and had 10 points in 12 games. In the playoffs he struggled and had only 4 pts in 12 games.  After this he decided to retire and had nothing to be ashamed about.

Francis has accomplished a lot with scoring 549 Goals, 1249 Assists for 1798 points in 1731 games.  Francis is the 4^th leading scorer of all-time and the 2^nd leading player with assists.  He scored 20 goals or more 20 times in his career and had more than 70 points 16 times yet he played in only 4 all-star games (83, 85, 90 and 96) in 23 years. Are you kidding me 4? Talk about being overlooked in your career.  Ron Francis is a class act on and off the ice.  Thank you for reading this, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it.

 

 

Ron Francis NHL Statistics