"A week before the deadline, I had three defensemen hurt in one game in Pittsburgh, so I had to plug the hole real quick and that's when I made the deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was a plus to get him and I had to work fast to get him on a Sunday night around 11:30 at night."

And Francis says the shrewdest trader was Montreal GM Sam Pollack.

"We never traded with him. The only trade I made with him I got Cesare Maniago (in June, 1965), but we used to stay away from one another as well as Boston. The Rangers, Boston and Montreal made very few deals. We stayed away from one another."

Francis is asked whether there was one deal he wished he was in on, and by this time he was GM of the St. Louis Blues.

"Jack Kent Cooke owned L.A. and Jack always had a habit of calling either Sammy Pollack or myself. So Cooke calls and says he's thinking of making a deal with Boston. ‘We really need a goalie and I'm talking about getting (Ron) Grahame from Boston.' I said what will you give up for him and he said a first-round pick because he never believed in keeping draft choices. I said don't trade Grahame for a first-round pick; don't give your first-round pick to them for Grahame. I am not even sure if he could play in the NHL.

"'Oh,"' he said. "You think that would be a bad deal?" I said I sure do. Guess what he did. He traded his first-round pick and guess who Boston ends up with? Ray Bourque."

Although Francis spent less than a handful of years in the NHL at a time when trades were infrequent as compared to today, he was on the other side of the transaction at one point. Instead of making the deal, he was part of the trade.

He was playing for Chicago at the time and the Blackhawks were struggling.

"Charlie Conacher was our coach and we had been on a three-game road trip, Montreal Toronto and New York. We were on our way back and we traveled by train then and he called me to into his compartment. The coach always had a compartment. He said, ‘I just want to let you know that I think you are playing well and you do not have to be concerned about being traded.' He said there were all sorts of rumors about our goaltending and I said 'That's nice.'

Ratelle, one of Francis' best finds, played 16 years for New York before being traded to Boston during the 1975-76 season.

"So we got back to Chicago and I sent out my laundry and my dry cleaning and about two hours later, I got a call telling me I was traded to the New York Rangers. I said, ‘Hey I just sent out my dry cleaning and laundry' and he said 'Pick it up next time you are in town.' The next time I came to town was with the Rangers and we shut out the Hawks 3-0. And to the right of our bench, that's where (the Hawks GM) always sat and at the end of the game I have him the thumbs-up signal, if you know what I mean, and that cost me $250 and it was worth it."

Francis is a member of the Hall of Fame and he lives in Florida and keeps close tabs on the game he loves. He says he's not surprised by how the arms race heated up prior to the March 9 deadline.

"The trade deadline will be hectic this year. Teams are loading up early. But they won't be sitting there at 3 in the morning. I sat there at 3 and I was goofy."

Those were the days.