The Quietest Superstar - Ron Francis of the Carolina Hurricanes

The Hurricanes' Ron Francis surges up the all-time statistical rankings with more of a hush than a storm

IS IT POSSIBLE TO QUIETLY PLAY your way into the Hall of Fame? Ron Francis seems to be doing just that.

Francis doesn't gather many headlines. In a career that began in 1981 with the Hartford Whalers and which includes two Stanley Cup titles from a stint with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Francis has made a living out of efficiently doing his job. Nothing spectacular. Nothing controversial Nothing all that noticeable.

Except when you look at the all-time statistics and see Francis keeping company with hallowed names such as Gretzky, Howe, Esposito, Hull--well, you get the idea. Maybe this guy can play hockey.

"I guess I would probably describe myself as pretty much a blue-collar type of player with hopefully white-collar results," he says. "I bring to the rink every night a work ethic that was sort of instilled at me at an early age by my dad. They can count on me to show up every night and give it everything I have."

Just ask someone who knows all about Francis and who knows about superstardom--Mario Lemieux.

"When you talk about the total professional, someone who takes everything about his game seriously and who is a true team player, that's Ron Francis," says Lemieux, the only teammate in Francis' two decade-long NHL career good enough to relegate Francis to the second line. "He isn't fancy or flashy, but he's as solid as they come. If you need a guy to win faceoffs, he does it. If you need a guy to kill penalties or work the power play, he does it. He can play the point, too.

"If you want a leader, even if he isn't loud or outspoken, that's Ron. Everyone who has played with him would tell you the same thing."

True. While Francis seems to blend in with everyone else on the ice, he stands out among his peers.

"He's amazing to play with in your own end. He just knows where to be," veteran Carolina defenseman Glen Wesley says. "It's automatic. He's just very good at reading those situations. You feel good when he's out there, because you know he's going to be there to help you out."

Adds former Carolina teammate Nelson Emerson, who is now with the Los Angeles Kings: "He's obviously a world-class, Hall of Fame player. Just watching him over the past few years, it seems like whoever plays with him has a great season."

For instance, Jeff O'Neill, who is developing into a sharpshooting demon with the Canes, a franchise that could use a guy who regularly appears on "SportsCenter" to draw more fans to its impressive new arena.

"He has that confidence now in his game," Francis says of O'Neill. "He's going to score a lot of goals, and that's good for the team."

What's good for the team always has been Francis' prime concern. That was true when he broke in with the Whalers in 1981. It was true when he was dealt to Pittsburgh in 1991. It certainly was true when he returned to the whalers' franchise, which was now in Raleigh, N.C., in 1998.

"When you trade a franchise player like Ron Francis and end up with nothing for him, it takes a long time for the franchise to recover," Carolina general manager Jim Rutherford admitted upon announcing the return of Francis, who signed a four-year, $20.8 million contract in 1998. The 1991 deal with Pittsburgh brought to Hartford the hardly immortal trio of John Cullen, Jeff Parker, and Zarley Zalapski.

"Quite frankly, we're just at the point now where we're starting to recover," Rutherford said.

Francis understood he was rejoining a club that was a long way from title contention. And it still is.

But there were other reasons for becoming a Cane at the age of 35, when 10 other teams were in the bidding.

"I have two Stanley Cups under my belt, so my choice didn't have to be a team that could win it immediately, although that is still my goal," Francis says. "There were a lot of factors I took into consideration. I'm not going to lie and say money wasn't one of them, but it wasn't the only factor. I felt I wanted to go to an organization I could help both on the ice and off the ice.

"We may or may not have gotten more someplace else, but when we got to a point with Carolina, we never really pursued [more money]. This is the place I felt made sense--in a hockey sense and in a family sense.

"I was very interested in going to a city that I feel is a good place to raise a family. that also was a factor."

Deep into his third season with the Canes, Francis sees steady improvement. He likes the way O'Neill, Bates Battaglia, David Tanabe, and Sami Kapanen and several other youngsters are developing. He believes the community is coming around to a sport with a strong regional minor league history.

Rutherford insists Francis, who has been considering a contract extension, not retirement, is the centerpiece of anything the Hurricanes achieve this season.

"He is the guy who leads this team and because of that it was a good investment," Rutherford says. "I think we'll get full value out of our investment right to the end, and as he has said on some real good days, we might have to talk about playing longer."

Still, Francis never will be the icon Gretzky and Lemieux are. While he's trailing Mark Messier for the fourth spot in career points and trying to keep ahead of Steve Yzerman for fifth [see chart], observers rarely mention him in the same breath as those two superstars.

Up the Ladder

WITH PRACTICALLY EVERY GAME, FRANCIS keeps moving up the all-time statistical rankings. Here's where he stood at press time:

Category   Total   Rank                Next in line(*)

Goals        484   33rd (tied)     Brian Bellows (485)
Assists    1,124   4th             Paul Coffey (1,131)
Points:    1,608   5th           Marcel Dionne (1,771)
Games:     1,468   8th           Wayne Gretzky (1,487)

(*) Retired players only

Francis doesn't even shrug when such slights are mentioned--because he doesn't view them as slights. Instead, he concentrates on what matters most: performing, whether he gets noticed or not.

"I remember being 18 and saying if I could play 12 seasons, until I was 30, and get out of the game that would be it," he explains. "But here we are 20 years later and I'm still enjoying it and having fun. That's the key.

"It's kind of neat now, because my kids are a little older and you start to see their perspective on it. You start to relive it a little through their eyes."

Through most kids' eyes, the Jagrs, Kariyas, Bures, and Sakics are the most recognizable NHLers. Francis falls into a category occupied at various times in his career by the likes of Ken Morrow and Clark Gillies with the early '80s Islanders; by Kevin Lowe and Charlie Huddy with the Gretzky-Messier Oilers; or, currently, by players such as Vincent Damphousse, Adam Oates, Adam Foote, Dave Andreychuk, Daniel Alfredsson, Ziggy Palffy, and Mark Recchi.

All of those skaters have been significant contributors to their teams, even though the spotlight rarely falls on them. While Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier, Denis Potvin, and Billy Smith were the big names for the Islanders, Morrow and Gillies were almost as irreplaceable. Lowe and Huddy had the same dynamic with the Oilers.

Francis never has toiled in obscurity. He's had his share of All-Star berths (four) and awards (the Selke for the top defensive forward in 1995 and the Lady Byng for gentlemanly play in 1995 and '98). He's scored 100 or more points three times (1989-90, 1992-93, and 1995-96). In the lockout 1994-95 campaign, he was a plus-30 to lead the league, scoring 59 points in 44 games, including a league-best 48 assists. The next year, his 92 assists again paced the NHL.

Yet how often do you hear Francis' name mentioned along with other instant Hall-of-Famers?

"It's kind of unbelievable the way he gets ignored when people mention the best players in hockey," Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice says. "But we know his value. In fact, those of us who see him on the ice every day and in the [locker] room know what he does for a team."

Maurice and Rutherford are among the many supporters who marvel at Francis' ability to stay in shape. In the last five seasons, he's missed only 11 games.

"Francis is just genetically superior," Maurice says. "At his age, he can go through one of these practices and at the end of them you are thinking, `Gee, I hope I didn't hurt that guy today' and he's barely sweating. He might be a closet workout guy who goes home and works out and doesn't tell anyone."

When Maurice runs sprint drills at the end of practices in training camp, he can count on Francis leading the charge.

"That's just a great thing for a coach. How can you be 23 years old and skate like the wind and not be able to stay with a guy who is 38?" Maurice asks. "I didn't even have to say it because everybody on the ice was thinking it, saying, `Man, I've got to catch this guy and I can't.'"

Nearing the end of his 20th NHL campaign, Francis has outlasted all his contemporaries but Messier, Ray Bourque, and Larry Murphy. He's been an integral part of championship squads. He's been a key in the building of a franchise first in Hartford and now in Carolina.

"It's been a fun ride," Francis says wistfully. "But hey," he adds, "I'm not thinking about ending it."

Ron Francis' Career Stats

POSITION: Center HEIGHT: 6'3" WEIGHT: 200 lbs. BORN: March 1,1963, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario DRAFTED: Hartford, No. 4 overall, 1981 AWARDS: Selke Trophy (top defensive forward) 1995; Lady Byng Trophy (gentlemanly play) 1995, 1998.

Season           Team          Games   Goals   Asst.    Pts.   PIM

1981-82          Hartford         59      25      43      68    51
1982-83          Hartford         79      31      59      90    60
1983-84          Hartford         72      23      60      83    45
1984-85          Hartford         80      24      57      81    66
1985-86          Hartford         53      24      53      77    24
1986-87          Hartford         75      30      63      93    45
1987-88          Hartford         80      25      50      75    87
1988-89          Hartford         69      29      48      77    36
1989-90          Hartford         80      32      69     101    73
1990-91          Hart./Pitt.      81      23      64      87    72
1991-92          Pittsburgh       70      21      33      54    30
1992-93          Pittsburgh       84      24      76     100    68
1993-94          Pittsburgh       82      27      66      93    62
1994-95          Pittsburgh       44      11      48      59    18
1995-96          Pittsburgh       77      27      92     119    56
1996-97          Pittsburgh       81      27      63      90    20
1997-98          Pittsburgh       81      25      62      87    20
1998-99          Carolina         82      21      31      52    34
1999-2000        Carolina         78      23      50      73    18
2000-01(*)       Carolina         61      12      37      49    26

Totals(*)                      1,468     484   1,124   1,608   911

Playoff Totals                   133      40      83     123    87

(*) Through February 26

COPYRIGHT 2001 Century Publishing
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group