Saturday will be a very special evening for the Pittsburgh Penguins' organization as well as some of its players, coaches, and executives who have been part of its winning legacy.
And this is because - prior to the Penguins' home game against the Columbus Blue Jackets - they will induct four new members to the Penguins' Hall of Fame.
One of those four is Ron Francis, who is not only one of the greatest Penguins of all time, but also one of the greatest players in hockey history.
Francis, 62, will join former Penguins' power forward Kevin Stevens, former head coach Scotty Bowman, and former general manager Eddie Johnston on the ice Saturday in a ceremony prior to puck drop. He is currently serving as general manager for the Seattle Kraken, and he was previously GM of the Carolina Hurricanes.
But, before his career as an NHL executive began in 2011, he enjoyed a 23-year NHL career that is one of the best in league history. His 1,798 points are fifth all-time, his 1,249 assists are second all-time, and his 1,731 career games played are third all-time.
And some of those best years - in fact, most of them - came donning Pittsburgh Penguins' black and gold.
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Francis was dealt to Pittsburgh on Mar. 4, 1991, in one of the biggest blockbusters in NHL history. He came to the Penguins - along with defensemen Ulf Samuelsson and Grant Jennings - in exchange for John Cullen, Jeff Parker, and Zarley Zalapski.
At the time, the Penguins were vying for a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and Francis helped them get there with a pair of goals and 11 points in 14 games leading up to the 1991 postseason. He also helped in the playoffs, centering the second line and recording seven goals and 17 points - along with a plus-13 - en route to Pittsburgh's first-ever Cup championship.
Francis also helped lead Pittsburgh to its back-to-back in 1992, as Mario Lemieux missed part of the playoffs due to a broken hand via an Adam Graves slash during their second-round series against the New York Rangers. In the final four games of the series, Francis had 10 points - including a hat trick and the overtime winner in Game 4 - to help lead the Penguins to victory in the series in come-from-behind fashion.
Later on, he also scored the Cup-clinching goal against the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 4. But, even if he helped lead the franchise to the two Stanley Cup championships, Francis's impact extends beyond that.
It's impossible to measure how much Lemieux means to the Penguins' franchise, but unfortunately - as many Penguins' fans are well-aware - he missed so much time in the 1990s due to injury and his Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosis. In Lemieux's absence, Francis was called upon twice to fill in as team captain.
The first was when Lemieux missed the entire 1994-95 season, and the second was after Lemieux's first retirement following the 1996-97 season.
Of course, no one could replace the greatest player in franchise history, and Francis had big shoes to fill. But he was known throughout the sport as one of its greatest leaders at the time. He captained the Hartford Whalers for six seasons before coming to the Penguins, and he was always looked up to as a leader in the Penguins' locker room, anyway.
He was one of the Penguins' most important - and one of their best - players during a time in which there was so much uncertainty surrounding their very best player. He became the first Penguin ever to win the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the league's best defensive forward in 1994-95, and he had four seasons of 90-plus points (1992-93, 1993-94, 1995-96, 1996-97) and two seasons of 100-plus points (1992-93 and 1995-96).
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Francis left in free agency to return to the Whalers' franchise ahead of the 1998-99 season, which - by that time - had moved to Carolina to become the Hurricanes. He was with Carolina until the 2004 trade deadline, when he was dealt to the Toronto Maple Leafs in order to have the chance to compete for one more Stanley Cup with a playoff-bound team.
He decided to retire after the NHL was locked out for the 2004-05 season. But, 20 years later, his NHL legacy lives on, and he's happy to be part of the 2025 Hall of Fame class for the team he won two championships with - and the one on which he made some lifelong friends.
"To have the chance to go into the Penguins Hall of Fame, where I won two Stanley Cups, was part of some great teams - got to play with a lot of great players and go in with Craig Patrick and Scotty Bowman and Kevin Stevens and others that I spent a lot of those years with and became great friends with - it's extremely exciting and very humbling, to be honest with you," Francis told Penguins' team reporter Michelle Crechiolo.
In his seven-plus seasons with the Penguins from 1991-98, Francis recorded 164 goals and 613 points in 533 games.
Penguins Hall of Fame Class of 2025: Ron Francis | Pittsburgh Penguins
A couple of weeks after the Penguins acquired Ron Francis and Ulf Samuelsson in ‘The Trade’ from Hartford, they went to a movie theater in Robinson Township, as coach Bob Johnson told them to get out and relax.
“I don’t remember what the movie was, but walking out of the
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