In judging a player's all time worth I think it's important to look at how he was judged at the time (all-star recognition, trophy balloting, and placing in the end of the year scoring leaders). It's easy to look at Ron Francis' all-time regular season statisics (which speak more to his longevity) and proclaim him as one of the best ever.
For me however, to be judged as one of the best ever, you must ask yourself, this question, was Ron Francis ever an elite player, and was he ever viewed as one when he played.
In the course of researching something else I came across this little tidbit. At the time of his trade to the Penguins in 1991, the Hockey News speculated that Hartford may have gotten the better of the trade. Now we all know that they didn't, but that gives you an idea of how Francis was viewed at the time. Nowhere in the article is he mentioned as one of the league's best centers.
Interestingly enough he only played in the All-Star game four times in his career, and three of those were during his stint with the Whalers, and only one came with the Penguins - in 1996.
In the posts I've seen him compared to others who played during the same time (Sakic, Yzerman, etc..). Clearly he's lacking in award recognition, so what other indicators do we have to "prove" his elite status during his career?
Now when speaking of a players as the best ever, I think it's important to look beyond the regular season points and take a look at the playoff record, since for me that is where true greatness is confirmed.
Taking that into consideration, I thought it might be interesting to look at Francis' playoff point totals when compared to some of his contemporaries, since many of his supporters bring up his regular season career point totals as proof of his greatness.
Joe Sakic - playoff games - 172 /playoff points - 188
Doug Gilmour - playoff games - 182 /playoff points - 188
Steve Yzerman - playoff games - 196 /playoff points - 185
Denis Savard - playoff games - 169 /playoff points - 175
Sergei Federov - playoff games - 169 /playoff points - 168
Ron Francis - playoff games - 171 /playoff points - 143