In a terse press release on Monday, the Carolina Hurricanes announced that Ron Francis’s contract had been terminated by the team.
That end point was all but inevitable given the chain of events since his removal from the general manager post.
The path to get here
Since that demotion, Francis had all but disappeared (literally in a couple cases). He was oddly absent from the team’s photo. Don Waddell had become the public face everything GM-ish including the general managers’ meetings and more recently the draft lottery. And the team had added a vice president responsible for player contracts.
When the Canadian media reported that Ron Francis was working from home, some in the Canes Twitterverse tried to say it was the Canadian media making something out of nothing. When someone who was recently demoted and did not previously work from home suddenly starts doing so, it is something though. And in this case it was a very unmistakable sign for how things would end and also a pretty clear indication that the ending would be sooner than later. Sure enough, a few days later, here we are.
What happened?
We might never know exactly what happened inside of 1400 Edwards Mill Road, but the basics are that Ron Francis and new owner Tom Dundon did not see eye to eye on some issues of importance. At that point, the only resolution is for Ron Francis to fall in line deferring to the new owner’s way of business or for Tom Dundon to stand down and let Francis run the hockey side of the business the way he wanted to without much interference. Neither of those happened apparently, so here we are.
Ron Francis’ history as a Hurricanes’ executive
Francis’ place in Hurricanes’ history is already cemented into the foundation of the team and commemorated with his jersey that hangs in the rafters. Despite the fact that he is parting ways, nothing changes in the slightest with that.
Francis’ time with the team started after a brief break following his retirement as a player. With modesty and respect for the fact that his career post player was something new, Francis started at the bottom, filled in where needed and worked his way up. He started as Vice President of Player Development and then spent time on the bench with Paul Maurice before moving back upstairs as an assistant general manager and ultimately the general manager starting in April of 2014. He was nearing the end of his fourth year as general manager when he was moved out of that role.
Ron Francis’ shortcomings over a short period of time ‘on the clock’
Interestingly, I really think you can hang only a single season on Ron Francis.
The team he took over before the 2014-15 season was largely in shambles, and the 2015-16 season was very much still focused on rebuilding. When multiple young players emerged ahead of schedule, the team showed some improvement in 2016-17 and seemed to be within grabbing distance of the playoffs at least a year ahead of schedule. But in my opinion, I would still put the 2016-17 season firmly in the category of rebuilding.
As such, I think the 2017-18 season is really the only season during which one can fairly grade Francis’ for his ability to build a winner. I do think the playoffs were a possibility and should have been the goal for the 2017-18 season. And I do think Francis missed in that regard. He moved aggressively and did not spare expense in adding Scott Darling, but the move was a miss by a huge margin especially as compared to a number of other teams that added starting goalies last summer. And though by refusing to overpay for scoring help, he played a significant role in the repeat of scoring trouble that also played a role in the 2017-18 failure. Finally, the approach to stock the bottom of the lineup with veteran checking line forwards made nearly certain that if plan A for more scoring (seemingly steps up by young players) did not materialize, there really was not much else for a plan B or help.
Some will talk about Francis’ four years with no playoffs and even longer run as an executive for the losing team. But if one wants to grade Francis on winning and losing, I really think it is only fair to hold him accountable for the 2017-18 season. And though there are many factors in the course of a long NHL season, I do think it is fair to say that Francis failed for the 2017-18 season that was a significant disappointment. And with a new owner and significant change needed in some variety, that in itself could have been enough to cost Francis his job, but at the end of the day, it likely was more about working relationship than track record/results.
Ron Francis’ positive legacy
But per my Twitter post this afternoon, Ron Francis will leave behind a legacy that will benefit the team and its fan base for years to come.
3/3 Ron Francis deserves a huge amount of credit for helping rebuild from almost nothing. @NHLCanes and team's fans will benefit in the long run from what he did over the past 4 years.
— Canes and Coffee (@CanesandCoffee) April 30, 2018
The team that Ron Francis’ inherited was short of NHL talent by a wide margin and not particularly young to boot. Further, the team’s prospect pool was ranked in the bottom five in the league by anyone who did those rankings. And the team was coming off another poor season.
In short, the team that Ron Francis inherited was not good in the present and did not project to be good in the future either.
Ron Francis’ mantra from the beginning was youth focused. Whenever he spoke, he spoke building from within, improving the prospect pool, building a deeper team through the draft and other topics all centered around a youth movement. To Francis’ credit he backed up his words with actions and impeccable consistency. When given the chance to build the prospect pool with young players and draft picks at the trade deadline, he did so. When faced with the temptation of going for quick fixes in the offseason by sacrificing youth for veterans, he was unwavering in his commitment to rebuilding through youth.
A legitimate argument can be made that Francis was too conservative specifically for building the 2017-18 season, but his errors, if you want to call them that, do have a positive flip side. The bottom-dwelling prospect pool that he inherited now ranks at least in the top third of the league which is even more impressive when one considers that multiple players fast-tracked to the NHL level and left gaps below. And though there is still work to be done, the current NHL lineup is both younger and better and therefore a better foundation to build from.
In short, despite not building a playoff team for the 2017-18 season, Ron Francis very clearly left the organization in a better place than he received it. As such, the new general manager will be in a good position to use the emerging prospect pool for some combination of depth and trade chips if necessary to build a winner. And though Ron Francis will not be the general manager when the team returns to the playoffs, he will still have had a major role in the rebuilding process that set the stage for it.
For that and for the class with which Ron Francis represented our team and our hockey community, I am incredibly thankful.
But it is time to move forward
I am on record as wishing there was a way to keep Francis in the mix because I think the organization is better with him than without him. That said, change of the meaningful variety. Comfortable change, where we make Peters a scapegoat, maybe pick one core player and then offload a few depth players really is not change. It is more of a reshuffling of mostly the same deck.
So as I said on Twitter on Monday after the announcement
4/3 And personally it saddens me to see him no longer part of the organization, but at the same time, I do not think it is fair to ask for (necessary) change and the put a huge number of limits on what cannot be changed. #Canes
— Canes and Coffee (@CanesandCoffee) April 30, 2018
By no means am I happy about Monday’s events, but at the same time I recognize that truly changing the organization, its culture and most importantly its success requires meaningful change in the ranks. As painful as it is and though my preference was to keep Francis, this fits under the plan of truly making changes.
What say you Caniacs?
1) As much as Francis is perfect example in class, do you think this was a necessary move?
2) Do you agree with my assessment that Francis did miss in 2017-18 but also that the just-completed season is really the only one on which he can be fairly graded?
3) If you had to describe Francis’ legacy as an executive, how would you do so?
Go Canes!
1. Yes, change was needed. This team has been a country club with plenty of gentlemen in the mix, Francis included. Nobody can lose respect for the man in how he drafted and crafted our prospects. But in the end this is a business like any other that comes down to wins and losses at the NHL level. Very fortunate he was able to turn our organization around from the direction it was going by drafting well and allowing our prospects to grow, but besides a few who shot up the NHL chain quickly, Francis never really catapulted the parent club forward with quality moves until the kids were ready. This was his ultimate demise as GM. The culture likewise went south in Raleigh (notably the last two years) and thus his fate with it.
2. Grading of a GM begins on day one, and RF started out well by shedding bad contracts and making room for his next moves. The true grading began in 2016-17 (two seasons ago). We needed a couple pieces to be playoff-ready…that never happened.
3. Great at stocking the cupboard with talented youth and serving the minor league team well. Not great at reinforcing the parent club with key veterans at times it needed most. I feel his next role is better served in the player development sector.
I admit I probably overreacted yesterday, though I still wish the move could have been made with little more tact (like the owner actually issuing a statement or something). I agree, the Canes have to stop being a country club for NHL stars, but if anybody deserve a plae in such an organization it would be RF himself. But ultimately:
1. This was a necessary decision.
2. We don’t kno the extent of RF’s role, even when he was assistant GM. This club has not been successful since 2009 and RF has been part of the management for a large portion of that time. He may have had no say in JR’s wheeling and dealing and understandably started out counteracting a lot of bad decisions that JR made, but he went too far in the other direction. I think the first round drafting has been suspect for the last 4 or 5 years (hopefully Necas proves to be the big exception) and he could have and should have done more to inject life into the club in 2016. His goalie decisions have been bad since 2014, so bad this club has never really had a chance. So I’d say he’s responsible for 2.5 unsuccessful seasons.
3. He has laid a great foundation as a GM, hopefully we’ll see the harvest of those efforts in the next couple of years.
When a relationship ends this badly it is rarely just one party’s fault. My bet is neither Francis nor Dundon handled this well. From the rumors I have heard the move was necessary as their relationship wasn’t salvageable.
Francis’ legacy is that he did rebuild the depth of the organization, but also made some key mistakes that ultimately led to his demise. The contracts of Darling and Rask stand out as blatantly awful. I get taking the chance on Darling, but four years? Woof. The Rask move was even worse, IMO. $4M every year for six years to a guy who can’t skate, has effort issues, and had time on his current deal. Both of those deals are essentially dead money. A lot of it. If I’m an owner that would really hack me off.
I wouldn’t cry for Ron Francis. My guess is he will be working very soon. His name still appears to be pristine in hockey circles though a closer inspection should raise some red flags.
1. Move was necessary for several reasons. First, he apparently wasn’t on the same page with Dundon. Second, his presence makes getting a qualified new GM more difficult as who would want the job with RF looking over his shoulder every day as his eventual replacement. Third, RF was too conservative in player development and acquisition. In no professional sport today can a GM expect to take 5 years to turn things around. In pro football, baseball, and hockey, teams go from bottom to competing for championships in a year or two. Fourth, the fan base was dwindling to the point it was embarrassing to be a season ticket holder. Fans want to see a competitive team on the ice. Only one team can win the championship (in hockey the Cup), but over half in hockey can be competitive enough to make the playoffs. We were never in that better than half for RF’s 4 years. That’s failure in today’s sports.
3. RF is an all-time great player and individual. He will always be one of the most revered players in Canes hockey history. On the ice and off he was class and gave his all. While he wasn’t IMO a great GM, I don’t think anything less of him. It just didn’t work out for whatever reason. Gretzky, Roy, and many other on ice super stars just didn’t work out in various management roles. This never caused fans to admire them less. The same will go for RF.
2. I grade RF based on every one of his 4 years being the sum of his performance. The bottom line is he came in and rightfully so fired Muller, a JR hold over for lack of performance. He then hired BP as coach and BP left here having a worse record than Muller had in his last year. That is a sign of NO IMPROVEMENT relative to the rest of the league. In other words, the rest of the league teams were improving at a faster rate than the Canes were under RF’s management.
I wasn’t a fan when Francis played but I respect him as a player and he seems to be a stand-up guy. However, this is a business and we are now the owners of the longest streak of being in the bottom half of the league. Change was absolutely necessary and I did not see this as unexpected in the least. I will not comment on circumstances as I have no idea what the exact circumstances leading up to the termination yesterday. The only thing I could’ve seen as done better was if Dundon had made some sort of announcement.
I will still have a feeling of uneasiness until we get a new GM and coach in place from the unknown; which is completely normal during times of change. I still have hope though. Dundon gets a lot of negativity in the press but maybe he really is on to something.
Also, just seeing some rumors this morning that Rick Dudley may be coming on as VP of Hockey Ops. I know he has a history with Waddell and isn’t exactly the most popular guy but don’t know much else. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
And it’s official. Dudley announced as Senior VP of Hockey Ops.
How does hiring/promoting two guys who effectively wrecked a similar franchise in Atlanta jel with rewarding success and that the job of the owner is to “find someone better than you” philosophy of TD? He even made comments to the tune of “we wouldn’t want a UFA because clearly that’s a player that a team let walk away, they can’t be any good”.”
Sadly my respect for the new ownership is quickly fading, I hope it can be revitalized.
The more I read the less worried I am. The situation in Atlanta wasn’t salvageable by any GM between their arena/lease situation and the fact that ownership just didn’t care anymore.
Outside of that Dudley and Waddell seemed competent. He brought in Buff, Wheeler, and Ladd; two of which are huge influences in how well the Jets are doing right now. Dudley also had success in Tampa Bay and Chicago.
This may actually explain the Francis situation. Seems that he may have gone up against Waddell and lost. Now Waddell is getting to bring in some of “his” guys to form the braintrust and with Montreal making an announcement about Dudley coming to Carolina we were forced to make a quick announcement about RF.
This still is in line with what TD has said all along. He wanted to surround himself with hockey minds to help him learn the business. Despite any number of question marks that may be looming you can’t deny that Waddell and Dudley don’t have a lot of experience in NHL front offices.
Maybe this is all a lead up to Waddell being named GM or they may really still be looking for an untraditional up-and-comer to fill that spot, but I’m still optimistic that they will make it work.
If we put a competitive team out on the ice then I don’t care what happens in the front office. Either way, I will withhold ultimate judgment until I see the outcome of next season.
Totally agree with that last sentence! If TD can create a winning product on the ice, I support him 100%.
On Hockey Central telecast today the three moderators were very positive about Dudley and had nothing but good things to say about him. I would just say everyone should just settle down and wait for things to fall out. Running around yelling “the sky is falling..the sky is falling” when we have no idea what is going on, much less why it is going the way it is, is just so much panic that accomplishes nothing. Hiring a new GM and coach requires proper legwork and investigation to identify viable candidates that might have an interest in the job(s).
You’re absolutely right, I’m just still emotionally attached to GMRF and his building process. I’ll be over it in a couple more weeks, I promise.
1. It was a necessary move because of RF inability or unwillingness to manage Bill Peters. The train wreck was obviously starting at the 2017 end of season press conference with RF and BP.
RF reconfirmed his commitment to building from within; immediately after BP said (paraphrasing) “the answers are not in Charlotte, they’re just not. We need experienced NHLers.”
RF put his head down, but didn’t respond. That is the day BP should have been fired, he was not the man for the job for rebuilding from within. It probably led to the Kruger/Jooris deals and this failed season.
Speaking of Kruger/Jooris, they weren’t sent to CLT to work on scoring or PK or anything else, they were discarded. That tells me BP completely lost them and they didn’t believe in his system. Or there was friction between RF and BP, these events all tie together in the “lost season”.
2. Yes. This season’s failure led to the burn-down including RF dismissal.
That said, the hurricanes.com optics were terrible yesterday. Underneath the story of RF “contract termination” – a linguistic mush-mouth term, it was Francis who was fired – under that was a video image of Don Waddell laughing. No statement of thank you or well wishes, just laughing. I am sure not on purpose, just poor management and/or a complete lack of consideration.
So while necessary, handled poorly.
You are recalling history that really is worth recalling. RF gave Peters just what he asked for. Peters should have been let go the first time he dumped on RF after RF gave him what he requested. RF let Peters seal his fate by being indecisive and slow to make changes.
We are all adults and should realize by now that all coaches and GM’s are hired and virtually all are fired, let go, asked to retire, or just quit. The aesthetics around this event are meaningless and will be forgotten as soon as new people are hired. There is no pleasant way to let someone go that will result in any opinion as to why other than “he didn’t do a good enough job.” No one has been concerned with my paying for season tickets for 9 years and having to put up with 9 years of futility. By the same token, I’m not that concerned about nor do I feel bad when some millionaire loses his job when he was directly involved in creating 4 of those futile years. As far as technique for firing the Canes management could have dressed things up a little with a bunch of meaningless plaudits. But would that have accomplished anything except allowing us fans to forgo having to go through the exercise of evaluating how well the canning was handled. This is especially an odd situation to worry about when many of us contributors on this site (me included) were recommending letting RF go. Were we traitors and heartless individuals for expressing those thoughts? Was our denegration of RF’s job performance any less harsh than what TD has done? Did our saying “we admired, or “we loved him as a player”, or some other such accolade before we said “get rid of him” make us more compassionate in this matter? Not in my opinion. It just made us feel better because we somehow thought these accolades made things all right, but it did nothing to change the outcome.
RedRyder, well said! Function over form is the requirement of the day.
I disagree with the firing as I think ‘change for the sake of change’ is a dumb concept, so clearly TD and I probably won’t be a good match for potential GMness. That and my business acumen is not good.
Point is we just virtually traded RON FRANCIS who legit built a fantastic foundation that the #2 pick can fill in almost seamlessly, and we traded him for Waddell, who just hired his friend from Atlanta, where they tag teamed and wrecked a franchise.
The team tuned out BP this year. He probably needed to go. Ron’s job was to give the coach talent. He will be handing the next coach talent years after he left this job. Did he make mistakes? Yes. Everybody does. He’s freaking human. Is Darling a firable mistake one year in? Maybe if you’re half-starved and emotional after 9 years, but I feel like RF deserves far more credit than anyone for the great spot where in right now.
Not necessary in my opinion, and handled poorly. And this is why I feel change for the sake of change is dumb. Because now we have Waddell. Great job Tommy D
Francis created depth, but crippled a small market team with terrible contracts. Darling, Rask and Kruger at $4.1M, $4M and $3M respectively. That’s $11M dollars wasted. We will still be paying them next year. That’s bad….really bad.
Also, Dundon has been pretty clear he wants a collaborative front office where everyone talks and shares opinions. This is likely code for I want to be involved in player movement. Pretty sure this was the big breakdown in the relationship between Francis and Dundon. No one is wrong in this situation. It’s just unworkable. How it was handled…well…not so well on either side.
Finally, our talent pool is no where near as good as many of you make it out to be. Plenty of depth, but no players that look like stars. IMO Francis totally whiffed in the first round a couple years ago with Bean and Gauthier. Another crippling move by RF. Francis did plenty of good work and plenty of bad work. He made his own bed.
I mean you and I just have a different perspective man. As they are 19, I will hold all judgments on the Bean and the Gauthier for at least another three years.
Rask is slightly overpaid, we can afford the last year of Kruger’s contract which was an attempt to give BP HIS players, and well…let’s just say I was far more confident in his moves and ability to evaluate than i am in some of our fans.
1) RF made a tremendous difference in building out talent pool. It does take time to do that. We are not far away from seeing the results of that. I do believe the move was necessary because TD felt it was necessary. Again, we do not know the internal conversations. When the boss dictates a certain direction and you do not go in that direction, we know what the result will be, and that is what happened. It had nothing to do with RF having class because everyone knows he did. Its clear he did not want to carry out TD’s direction. That means the end.
2) Yes, I do agree with your assessment that Francis did miss in 2017-18 but also that the just-completed season is really the only one on which he can be fairly graded. I said yesterday he was too conservative. We did not bring up our AHL players and we did not do anything at the trade deadline. It was probably a combination of RF and BP but the result is we should have made the playoffs and we did not. That means broken. I think the lack of moves made by RF caused TD question the job RF was doing. He probably did have his hands tied with PK, but had the green light with TD.
Very good article Matt.
3) I believe RF took total junk and built a very good group of prospects who are about to make a difference. He did very good things and it will show. So, I believe he will be viewed positive for how he built the AHL but view negatively for not doing enough at the NHL level. The problem, he did not want to go in the direction TD wanted him to go, and TD is the boss.
Your last sentence says it all.
This move was necessary; a clean break is best for everyone. RF gambled big on Darling and lost. I believe TD’s statement that they didn’t see eye to eye and that their personalities didn’t mesh was the standard company line. I still think that RF’s failure to make trade deadline moves this season was the final nail in the coffin and clearly exhibited his conservative style versus TD’s aggressive approach.
By all accounts RF is a classy guy and that will be his legacy. Time will tell how much credit he deserves depending on the future of the Canes.
I’m glad RF didn’t make any moves with our 1st round pick at the deadline…
Once Dundon was in the house Francis had no ability to make that kind of move.
Just to get a different (negative) perspective on recent events (just for the sake of argument):
TD has put his trust in two guys who were at least partly responsible for the downfall of the Thrashers, one of them has been a part of the last 3 or 4 years of Canes failure, not just on the ice, but also off the ice. He is one of the guys responsible for the increasing disconnect between the team and the fans and a less-than-mind blowing game experience, not to mention the guy who lets a picture of him laughing nex to the announcement of RF’s dismissal be published on the official team website. I’m not saying he should look all zomber and sad, but as a PR manager for the team, that is an extremely bad move.
Sure, we can say the downfall of the Thrashers was not their fault, but I think we can equally claim that most of the Canes failures were not RFs fault, we just don’t know enough detail to speculate, but we see the end result, in their case a complete failure which led to the team being moved to another country, in RFs case another 4 seasons without a playoff birth.
If RF is being fired based on lack of results, these guys should not be put in charge of the team.
If tD is hiring them because they agree with everything he says, we are not getting a braintrust of experts to steer the team in the right direction, rather a bunch of guys that do whatever the owner says, and the owner has very little professional background in hockey, or sports teams management for that matter.
Again, I’m just being slightly obtuse here for fun, I am not convinced this is an idiot move, but I admit that, at least my initial reaction is more concern than happiness.
I’m still more excited for this offseason than the last 4 or 5 and still truly believe that next April we will see playoff hockey in the city of oaks.