Ron Francis chose to make Raleigh his home nine years ago. On the ice and behind the scenes, the soon-to-be Hockey Hall of Famer helped ensure that his frozen sport found its own warm home here as well.

As his Nov. 12 induction into the Hall approaches, Francis still maintains a modest element of anonymity in the Triangle, at least with a generation of young hockey players who never knew a Raleigh without professional hockey.

Many of the younger school-age hockey players he has coached in area youth leagues never saw Francis play before he announced his retirement after the lockout that wiped out the 2004-05 season.

It's also unlikely that many of them ever would have taken up the sport without the impact "The Franchise" and the Hurricanes have had the past 10 years.

"They're kind of getting these fabled stories," Doug Warf, the Hurricanes' manager of promotions and fan development said of the new generation of home-grown hockey players accustomed to seeing Francis at youth-league games. "When you see him shaking hands with kids, coaching teams, it's not very often that you have a Hall of Fame player who can be your kid's coach."

Franchise restores credibility

His free-agent return in July 1998 to the franchise that had traded him away in 1991 helped cement the Hurricanes' shaky foundation in the state and served notice of a change in direction for a struggling team.

Francis was the first premier free agent signed by the Hurricanes a year after they moved from Hartford, Conn., to North Carolina and underwent a name change.

The Hartford Whalers originally traded Francis away in 1991 in a lopsided deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Francis helped Mario Lemieux and the Penguins win two Stanley Cups while the Whalers foundered in his absence, going six seasons without a playoff appearance.

His first four seasons with the Hurricanes marked the only four consecutive winning seasons in franchise history, and Francis led them to the Stanley Cup finals in 2002. Not so suddenly, Francis' No. 10 jersey was a familiar sight on converted fans' backs.

"I kind of correlate it to my time in Pittsburgh when we won the Cups in '91 and '92, and all of a sudden it was an explosion of hockey rinks, an explosion of a lot of kids playing hockey," said Francis, who rejoined the Hurricanes in November as director of player development. "I think we're starting to see that with the Cup run of 2002 and winning the Cup here a couple years later."

Other veteran Hurricanes players remember serving as team ambassadors in the early Triangle years, juggling public appearances at area schools and other events to help broaden the team's appeal. For the converted hockey fans in the area, though, it was the signing of Francis that sparked an enthusiastic following, defenseman Glen Wesley said.

"I think the big thing was when he was considering his options and it came down to Carolina and a couple other teams, he gave this franchise back the credibility it lost when he was traded away when we were in Hartford," Wesley said.

A native of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Francis played 16 of his 23 NHL seasons with the Whalers-Hurricanes franchise. He ranks second in league history in assists with 1,249, third in games played with 1,731 and fourth in career points with 1,798.

Only one other player -- Gordie Howe -- posted 22 consecutive seasons with 50 or more points.

Francis, 44, put off an official return to the Hurricanes' front office until last year while continuing to live in Raleigh with his wife and three children. His new job includes traveling to the franchise's American Hockey League affiliate in Albany, N.Y., and other hockey outposts to work with young Hurricanes prospects.

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