On The Ball When In The Dot 

Top Kraken prospect Berkly Catton didn’t need to look far when seeking faceoff circle advice on the first day of the team’s development camp.

Skating over to answer some questions was Hockey Hall of Fame centerman Ron Francis, who owns a career 54.8% faceoff percentage ranking among the best of his era throughout the 1980s,1990s and early 2000s. Francis, promoted to president of hockey operations from his general manager’s post in April, had been invited by player development director Jeff Tambellini to offer tips to prospects during Tuesday’s opening workout at the Kraken Community Iceplex.

“He’s probably one of the most knowledgeable guys in that area,” said Catton, an outstanding junior hockey faceoff man whose 59.3% win percentage was the Western Hockey League’s second highest this past season. “It was actually supposed to be only for the centermen to go work with him, but honestly, everybody just kind of gathered around just because of how much knowledge he has. It was pretty cool just to kind of pick his brain apart. I even got some one-on-one time with him just to ask him some questions and stuff.”

Spokane Chiefs star Catton, 19, the team’s eighth overall draft pick a year ago, is expected to get a shot at making the Kraken roster this fall. The 5-foot-11, 170-pound Catton most wanted to know from Francis, 62, who played at 6-foot-3, 200 pounds, what techniques he could use to gain an advantage on faceoff opponents bigger than him.

Height and weight factor into faceoffs because of reach and strength advantages, providing better leverage. Francis confirmed that Catton had asked him how to tweak his faceoff approach against bigger centermen.

“Because sometimes, with pure strength, he’s not going to be as strong as the bigger guy,” Francis said. “So, you try to give him little tricks.”

Francis has a higher faceoff win percentage in his 9,000 or so career draws taken than any Kraken player has managed in a single season of 200 attempts or more. Asked why he excelled at the skill, Francis deadpanned: “I cheated.”

There’s probably some truth to that, as history’s best faceoff men typically bend the rules as far as they can to gain an advantage. That’s why referees are constantly kicking players out of the faceoff circle when they move too quickly or lift their sticks ahead of the puck being dropped.

Francis admits one of his “proudest” moments as a centerman came when the NHL changed the lines inside the faceoff circle – which players can’t cross until the puck is dropped -- from a “T-bar” shape to today’s more modern version resembling a “plus” sign and meant to better prevent them from jumping the draw.

“I said to the linesman, ‘What’s up with this?’,” Francis said. “And he told me, ‘It’s because you cheated too much.’ I don’t know whether he was being serious or not.”

Francis quickly added, “I don’t know if you really cheat. It’s more of just a chess match. It’s a puck battle, and you’re trying to figure out what the other guy’s going to do. And you try to beat them. I hate losing puck battles.”

So, Francis learned to excel at winning them -- both in the faceoff circle and along the boards – from youth hockey onward.

Francis, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007, doesn’t get on the ice much since retiring as a player 21 years ago with 548 career goals and 1,249 assists for a point total of 1,798, which is the NHL’s fifth highest ever. He’s played in four hockey games since: A Hall of Fame game, an outdoor Winter Classic alumni game in Pittsburgh and two alumni games in Carolina with each of his sons, Michael and Connor.

And though Francis tries to get on the Community Iceplex rink privately with his family every Christmas, he hasn’t done so the past two years. His last time skating was at the team’s development camp two years ago.

So, Tambellini’s last-minute invite to him on Monday caught some of the team’s prospects by surprise when he took the ice Tuesday around noon.

The team’s most recent first-round pick from last week, eighth overall selection Jake O’Brien, was grateful for the chance to work with a Hall of Famer on the art of taking the draw.

“It was cool,” said O’Brien, who had a 44.5% faceoff win percentage in the Ontario Hockey League last season. “He was teaching us a little bit about faceoffs, which I need some help with. So, it was cool.”

Catton said players seemed surprised when Francis climbed over the boards.

“No one really knew beforehand,” Catton said. “Some guys out there were clapping when he got out on the ice. So, I think it’s always kind of cool when you’ve got a guy like that who can come out on the ice and help us.”