Carolina Hurricanes: The Second Ron Francis Trade Tree
In 2004, the Carolina Hurricanes were not going to make the playoffs. They were a long way outside, and there was no hope of making the cut. Just two years after a run to the Stanley Cup Finals, the Canes were put in a tough situation. The face of the franchise, Ron Francis, was in the final year of his contract, and so the Carolina Hurricanes traded him at the 2004 NHL trade deadline.
Ron Francis spent 16 years with the Whalers/Hurricanes organisation. His 382 goals are still the most by any one player in the history of the franchise. His 1,175 points with the organisation also lead the franchise all time. In 2001-02 he won the Lady Byng (best sportsmanship) and the King Clancy (best leader) Awards, en route to the aforementioned 2002 Stanley Cup run.
Francis was sent to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for a 4th round pick in the 2005 NHL entry draft. While not a spectacular return, it wasn’t meant to be. At the age of 40, Francis was winding down in his career, and after his time in Toronto, he would sign a 1-day contract to retire with the Carolina Hurricanes. Francis was also the first Hurricane to have his number immortalised.
Francis wasn’t meant to be the scorer he had been during his glory years in Hartford and Pittsburgh. He was meant to be a leader and provide some depth scoring for the Leafs moving forward. Yet, he struggled. Francis’ struggles in Toronto are well documented, but for the price the Leafs paid, it wasn’t an awful trade-off. He shouldn’t have been expected to lead the Leafs in scoring like he had done with the Penguins a decade prior.
While in Toronto, Francis scored 3 goals and 7 assists in 12 regular season games, but that isn’t what they wanted him for. This was the end of the Maple Leafs window, and they wanted to win the Cup. In the playoffs however, Francis would only find four helpers as the Leafs were knocked out in Round 2. As of the start of the 2020-21 season, this was the last time they won a playoff series. This was also 16 years before they lost to a zamboni driver.
So, what happened with the pick the Canes got for Francis? Well, it was used to draft Jared Boll. From Charlotte, North Carolina, Boll would play 11 years in the NHL between Columbus and Anaheim, tallying 28 goals and 38 assists in 579 NHL games. How did he get to Columbus you might ask? Well, now we get to our next trade of this trade tree.
Kicking the Can Down the Road
Carolina traded that 2005 4th rounder to the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for defenseman Derrick Walser and a 2006 4th round pick. Not a blockbuster trade, and you’re probably thinking “What is the point in all of this?”, so please just bare with me. We will get there when we reach the end of this trade tree.
Walser never played in Carolina. He’d only play 91 NHL games in which he recorded 8 goals and 21 assists for 29 points. In just 4 years on some mediocre Columbus Blue Jackets teams, not a bad NHL career at all. Certainly better than mine will ever be. But, as I said, he never played in Carolina. So, he was traded again.
Walser was traded for Mark Flood. Flood only played for 2 NHL teams, neither of which was Carolina. In 2009-10 he had 6 NHL games for the New York Islanders, recording 1 assist for his first NHL point. In 2011-12, he would play for the new Winnipeg Jets; in 33 games, he had 3 goals and 4 assists for 7 points. 8 points in 39 games for a right-handed defenseman isn’t shabby at all.
Nothing would happen with Flood in Carolina. He just walked away in free agency. So, we move onto the 2006 4th round pick. We’ll get to that because it is someone on the active roster. It was traded along with Danny Richmond to Chicago in exchange for Anton Babchuk and a 4th round pick in 2007.
Danny Richmond played 49 career NHL games, 10 of which were with the Carolina Hurricanes. He would only amass 3 points, all of them assists. Yet, his first NHL point was with the Carolina Hurricanes. Not a hall of fame career by any means.
Anton Babchuk, though, was a beast of a man. 6’5″, 200lbs and had a slapshot that could force a goalie into the net, he was a mammoth of a player. He was acquired at the 2006 NHL deadline, meaning he was with the Carolina Hurricanes when they hoisted Lord Stanley’s Cup. However, he didn’t play a particularly big part in that playoff run.
He played a much bigger role in the 2009 playoff run, including scoring the overtime winner from a point slapshot in overtime to clinch a playoff spot. For 10 years, he was the last Cane to score a playoff clinching goal. A sad fact, but he really was a weapon when he was used correctly. Back in the 2009 3rd Round run, he would record just 1 assist, but he would play 13 games out of the 18 the Canes played; these would be his only career playoff appearances.
So, Babchuck’s time in Carolina was drawing to an end. After the 2009 season, it was looking very likely he would be moved out of town, and indeed he was, but where his new home would be and what the trade value would look like were the questions on the minds of every Canes fan.
White-ing a Wrong
Anton Babchuk was traded on Novemeber 10th, 2010 alongside Tom Kostopoulos to Calgary in exchange for Brett Sutter and Ian White. Not a blockbuster trade, this was more of the Carolina Hurricanes trying desperately to pull more value out of these players. In this case, it worked.
Kostopoulos only played 99 games as a Carolina Hurricane. He tallied 9 goals and 16 assists for 25 points during his time in Raleigh, but he wasn’t there for his scoring. He was there more to scare people and hit anything that moved in the other color jersey. He was a grinder; not someone you would expect to hit the headlines every single game.
We will get to White in a second, but let’s start with Brett Sutter. One of the infamous Sutter family, Brett never reached the height of his uncles, or even some of his cousins. More of a grinder, he’s still in the AHL playing with the Ontario Reign, the AHL affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings. Brett played 36 games for Carolina tallying a goal and 4 assists.
Ian White is the important part of this trade. He was a big, physical defenseman who hit anything that moved, and punched what hit him back. He would play 39 games in Carolina, tallying 10 assists and drastically raising his own value to be traded to a contender before the trade deadline. Playing as well as he did was good for Carolina, and he wanted a chance to win the Stanley Cup.
Carolina gladly obliged and sent him to the San Jose Sharks for a 2nd round pick in the 2012 NHL entry draft. This pick was used to select someone who is on the active roster, so we will revisit him at the end of this whole thing. This pick is actually the reason I started to dive into this entire thing, and you will see why at the end.
If you remember, I said that the Carolina Hurricanes acquired a pick with Babchuk, right? So whatever could have come of that? In 2005-06, Carolina found themselves towards the top of the NHL standings. Genuine cup contenders, they decided to go for it. Why not? They traded that pick along with the kitchen sink, the next door neighbors dog, and part of the constitution for some help.
In all seriousness the trade was:
To St Louis: Michael Zigomanis, Jesse Boulerice, Magnus Kahnberg, 2006 1st round pick (Matthew Corrente) , 2006 4th round pick (Reto Berra) , 2007 4th round pick (Cade Fairchild)
To Carolina: Doug Weight, Erkki Rajamäki
This isn’t really and truly part of the trade tree itself, but I thought it was a cool little thing that a piece they got from trading down years in a draft would help them pick up Weight, who would be a key contributor on the path to the Canes 2006 Stanley Cup triumph. Not that it was the main piece, the main piece was the 1st round pick, but still, it’s a cool little addition.
The Active Players
So, I skipped over two players because they are both active players on the NHL roster right now, both the 2006 4th round draft selection the Carolina Hurricanes got from Columbus, and the 2012 2nd round pick they got from San Jose. Some of you may already know who the second rounder is, but I guarantee you do not know who the 4th round pick was without using a search engine.
The 2012 2nd round pick was used to pick a player from the OHL. This player had played for Scott Walker’s Guelph Storm, and had played half a season with a broken hand without saying a word to anyone because all he wanted to do was play hockey. As tough as they come, he’s started to find his scoring touch this year too. Of course I am talking about Brock McGinn.
So far in his career, Brock McGinn has scored 50 goals and 52 assists as I’m writing this for 102 points. He hit both the 50 goal and 100 point plateau in a 7-3 win over Columbus in his second ever 4-point game. He has done all of this in a career total of 321 games. This may not seem like a lot for a 27-year old, but he took a lot of time to develop in the AHL and he really came up through the system.
He’s being rewarded with his best start to a season ever. He’s currently tied for the lead in goal-scoring throughout the organisation, and he’s 5th in point production. While he’s not a traditional source of scoring for the Hurricanes, he can provide points and he did score a certain overtime goal against Washington in Game 7 to knock the defending Stanley Cup Champions out.
So, on to the other player. You’re probably thinking, who’s old enough to be drafted in 2006? Well, if I told you that Chicago would trade that pick to Toronto, and the Leafs would actually be the team to make that pick, does that make it any easier? Probably not, but maybe a few people will get it. If you’re newer to hockey, you won’t have any idea.
With the 99th overall pick in the 2006 NHL entry draft, the Toronto Maple Leafs selected goaltender James Reimer. Picking up a nothing pick for a player who was going to retire, but kicking the can as far down the road as they could allowed them to pick up two pieces helping them right now from a trade that happened 17 years ago.
It took a long time to rebuild the franchise after some mismanagement in the late 2000’s, but the Carolina Hurricanes are still reaping the benefits of this deal. While not particularly headline grabbing, most people that read this will have forgotten that Francis even was a Toronto Maple Leaf for about 5 minutes. It just goes to show that a well managed team can get value from any sort of deal.
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