As we mentioned here while it was going on, perhaps the biggest negative of the lockout was the effect on great players near the end of their career. A slew of them have retired since the lockout was settled, including Scott Stevens, Mark Messier and Ronnie Francis just in the past week.
These retirements have barely been noticed, just a few paragraphs in a wire report. These men deserve so much better than that. They'll most likely be honored by their teams at some point this season, but in normal circumstances their retirements would have been made during the season, which would have given their home team fans and others a chance to show their appreciation for their careers while they were still playing.
Ron Francis is one of my all-time favorite hockey players, right up there with Mario Lemieux and Steve Yzerman. He was the epitome of leadership on and off the ice, modest, a real gentleman, not to mention a great player. Unless he played for your team and you got to see him in action on a regular basis he was easy to underappreciate. After the Penguins traded for himduring the '90-'91 season, he was the key cog that put them on their Stanley Cup run. Thehockey fansin Hartford were very upset whenFrancis was traded. He was the heart and soul of the team and trading him was a prime reason why the franchise ended up relocating to North Carolina.
These retirements have barely been noticed, just a few paragraphs in a wire report. These men deserve so much better than that. They'll most likely be honored by their teams at some point this season, but in normal circumstances their retirements would have been made during the season, which would have given their home team fans and others a chance to show their appreciation for their careers while they were still playing.
Ron Francis is one of my all-time favorite hockey players, right up there with Mario Lemieux and Steve Yzerman. He was the epitome of leadership on and off the ice, modest, a real gentleman, not to mention a great player. Unless he played for your team and you got to see him in action on a regular basis he was easy to underappreciate. After the Penguins traded for himduring the '90-'91 season, he was the key cog that put them on their Stanley Cup run. Thehockey fansin Hartford were very upset whenFrancis was traded. He was the heart and soul of the team and trading him was a prime reason why the franchise ended up relocating to North Carolina.