Bobservations: Francis Connection

When Carolina Hurricanes star center Sebastian Aho lines up for faceoffs or jumps over the bench wall to join the power play Wednesday at Climate Pledge Arena, Kraken fans will be watching an elite center who scores frequently and never eschews his defensive responsibilities on all 200 feet of the rink length.
His teammate, Teuvo Teravainen, plays a similar all-zones game as left wing on Aho's line and skates on Carolina's top power play unit too. If Finland prospers at the upcoming Winter Olympics (COVID-19 protocols permitting), Aho and Teravainen will be two major reasons why.

Jacob Slavin is the Hurricanes' No. 1 defenseman, logging big minutes and facing opponents' top lines every night. Brett Pesce leads the second D-pair and quarterbacks the second-unit power play.
Kraken GM Ron Francis held the same position in Carolina from April 2014 to March 2018. Francis drafted Aho 35th overall when most scouts figured the Finn as a late second-round or early-third round pick at best.
Francis traded with Chicago to add Teravainen to the Carolina roster in what is considered an all-time steal, especially when the category is the other team needing to free salary cap space.
Francis signed Slavin and Pesce to team-friendly long-term contracts that have allowed for free agent signings and subsequent trades.
Building that core was all part of the Ron Francis plan. Draft well, make trades when the reward is greater than the risk of eroding your prospects pool, sign your best players and leaders-the glue guys-to fair contracts that allow future moves.
No matter the score Wednesday-and nothing to concede here, Seattle just beat the NHL team with the third-best record over the weekend-Kraken fans can see what Francis had in mind for a team that he led as captain to a surprise Stanley Cup Final and worked his way up to GM in various roles.
One of his teammates on the 2002 Cup Final team was Rod Brind'Amour, Carolina's current head coach acclaimed as one of the league's best. Brind'Amour, like Francis, was a star as a player. He was a younger teammate looking up to Francis (then in his 21st NHL season at 38 years old) in 2002 and emulated Francis (then in Carolina hockey operations) when Carolina won the Stanley Cup in 2006.
Brind'Amour scored 12 goals in the 2006 Cup run, including four game-winning goals. He got to experience Francis as a coach when Francis joined Paul Maurice's staff in 2008, then worked as a Carolina assistant coach when Francis was the GM.
The Francis core of Aho, Teravainen, Slavin and Pesce are not the only pieces of current Carolina prosperity. And Francis will be the first to tell you it was a total team effort of the hockey operations staff, including now Seattle colleagues assistant GM Ricky Olczyk, director of amateur scouting Robert Kron and scouts Mike Dawson and Tony MacDonald.
All four players have been pivotal to Carolina becoming a perennial playoff team and one of the favorites to win the 2022 Stanley Cup. They represent the core building blocks now enhanced by drafting players like first-line wing and former WHL Portland scoring star Seth Jarvis, a 2020 first-round draft choice benefitting from playing top-line minutes with Aho and Teravainen.
There are other key additions to fuel sustainable success, such as signing free-agent goalie Frederick Andersen, who has 11 wins and stands as an early Vezina Trophy candidate. Andre Svechnikov, the No. 2 pick of the 2018 draft, is one goal behind Aho in scoring and leads the team with 12 assists and 19 points. Aho's numbers are 8-10-18.
Kraken fans take note: Francis left his position in March 2018 when new ownership intervened on what clearly was a team headed in the right direction. Svechnikov was drafted three months later on work performed by Francis' scouting staff.
Second-line center Vincent Trocheck (4 G, 9A) was acquired in a trade and stabilizes a second line that includes Martin Necas, a Francis first-rounder in 2017 with four goals and six assists in ames this season. Trocheck was traded for four players, including NHLers Lucas Wallmark and Eetu Luostarinen, both drafted during the Francis years.
There's more, including how now Detroit goaltender and then rookie goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic starred for Carolina last season leading the NHL in goals-against average (1.90) and save percentage (.932). The American-born goaltender was selected by Francis in the second round of the 2014 draft.
But, Kraken fans, guess you get the idea. Ron Francis is a successful team builder. He commanded respect and, more relevant to the Kraken, team chemistry as captain of three NHL teams (Hartford, Pittsburgh, Carolina).
He knows what it takes win a Cup (as both player and hockey ops executive) and has even before sparked a raucous, mega-loud arena in a new NHL market when he led Carolina to that surprise 2002 Cup Final.
It's logical to preach patience in the process of building the Kraken roster, especially if you ponder the NHL standings and next three games in four nights against top-tier contenders with a cross-country flight squeezed in on the one off-day. Let a Ron Francis admirer and current assistant coach vouch for believing in the Francis knack for constructing a winning foundation.
Mike Verlucci, in his second year as a Pittsburgh Penguins assistant coach overseeing the forwards and penalty kill, inherited numerous Ron Francis draft selections when he coached the Charlotte Checkers, then Carolina's minor league affiliate.
Verlucci posted a 97-43-12 coaching record and led his team to the American Hockey League's title in 2019. Eighty percent of the Checkers' Calder Cup goals and assists during the run were scored by players Francis acquired. In fact, that same spring, 80 percent of the goals scored by the Hurricanes during the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs were from Francis acquisitions.
"Ron is an intelligent manager who was one of the all-time most intelligent players," said Verlucci. "It carries over. I'm a little more of a reaction guy. The top lesson I learned from Ron is his patience. He thinks everything out."