Penguins Hire Ron Francis As Special Advisor

The Pittsburgh Penguins are bringing a former Stanley Cup champion back to the organization. According to a team announcement, the Penguins have hired Ron Francis as a Special Advisor in the Hockey Operations department.

It’s a step down for Francis, and could be a stopgap role as a more enticing opportunity arises. In early April, Francis revealed that he’d be stepping down from his role as President of Hockey Operations with the Seattle Kraken at the end of the 2025-26 season.

Before being the team’s President of Hockey Operations, Francis had been the Kraken’s General Manager since they played their first game. Additionally, Francis worked with the Carolina Hurricanes for over a decade, primarily as the team’s General Manager and Director of Hockey Operations.

In Seattle, Francis’ tenure is somewhat of a mixed bag. He and the scouting department excelled at the NHL Draft for several years, which has set the Kraken up with an above-average prospect pool for the foreseeable future. Still, Francis saddled the Kraken’s salary cap table with expensive contracts for Philipp Grubauer, Chandler Stephenson, and Andre Burakovsky, to name a few.

Meanwhile, it was much of the same with the Hurricanes. In 2015, Francis selected Sebastian Aho with the 35th overall pick of that summer’s draft. Aho is ranked fourth in scoring from the 2015 NHL Draft class and has become a core piece for Carolina, arguably their best forward.

Still, similar to his time with the Kraken, Francis saddled the Hurricanes with contracts that got hardly any return on investment. In the summer of 2016, Francis signed center Victor Rask to a six-year, $24MM contract, and one offseason later, signed netminder Scott Darling to a four-year, $16.6MM deal. Neither player lived up to their price tag, and the Hurricanes eventually had to move off from both.

Regardless, although he’ll have some input, he won’t be the man in charge in Pittsburgh. He has a unique bond with the organization, having been acquired during the trade deadline of the 1990-91 season, assisting the Penguins in achieving back-to-back Stanley Cup championships.