Ladies and Gentleman starting at Center #21 Ron Francis???

Last night at around 9 pm, my phone alerted me to the news that The Carolina Hurricanes have relieved Ron Francis of his duties as General Manager ( he will remain VP of Hockey Operations). While Francis has been responsible for drafting Canes Stalwarts Jaccob Slavin, Noah Hanifin and Sebastian Aho, his inactivity at the trade deadline, whiffing on Free-Agents such as Scott Darling, as well as failing to acquire a true number one center seemed to be what has done him in . Despite his lackluster success as the teams General Manager and his inability to provide the team with the tools needed to break the 9 year playoff drought in Raleigh. It can not be denied he still is arguably the greatest player to ever wear a Canes sweater. This is evidenced by the fact that in January 2006 the Carolina Hurricanes retired Ron Francis #10 Sweater and raised it into the Rafters of the PNC Arena. Yet Number 10 was not the only sweater he wore in Raleigh, he also wore number 21 and here is why?


Ron Francis began his career with the Carolina Hurricanes predecessor the Hartford Whalers captaining the team from 1985 until 1990 when he was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Francis delighted fans in Raleigh when he signed with the team in 1998. While the fans were excited, something was different when Francis took the ice in 1998, he wasn't wearing the number 10 sweater that had graced his back for the previous 15 years. Why the change? The reason was the number 10 sweater was being worn by team captain Gary Roberts. Instead of approaching Roberts for the change, Francis with the encouragement of his kids opted to don number 21 in his debut season in Raleigh.

The sweater change lasted until 2000 when he switched back to the more familiar number 10 reclaimed the captaincy and led the Canes on the 2002 Stanley Cup Final run even scoring the OT game winner in Game 1 stunning the favorited Detroit Red Wings. So next time you are in the PNC Arena and look up to see the Number 10 in the rafters, just remember that at one point the Canes legend donned another sweater. Thanks for reading and Redvolution!


The Caniac Collector


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