Of the 30 teams, 24 made at least one trade Tuesday.
By The Associated Press

Once Ron Francis agreed to leave the Carolina Hurricanes, the Toronto Maple Leafs were more than willing to snag the likely future Hall of Famer.

Francis, the fourth-leading scorer in NHL history, waved his no-trade clause just hours before the league’s dealing deadline and was shipped to Toronto in search of his third Stanley Cup.

Unlike New York Rangers captain Mark Messier, who wanted to stay with an also-ran team, Francis decided to shoot for the Cup.

“Certainly, they’ve got a good team and hopefully I can find a little niche to sort of help them out,” Francis said of the Maple Leafs, five points behind East-leading Tampa Bay, but without a title since 1967.

“I certainly know a lot about that organization and I’m looking forward to trying to help them,” added Francis, who won two championships in Pittsburgh and spent 16 seasons with the Carolina franchise.

It was the headline move on a whirlwind day of trading. A year after records were set when 46 players switched teams in 24 deadline-day deals, another frenzy ensued. No records were broken, but 20 deals were completed involving 32 players.

Of the 30 teams, 24 made at least one trade Tuesday. Only defending Stanley Cup champion New Jersey, and Western Conference-leading Detroit didn’t swap anyone in the past two days.

While many trades were expected, Francis’ departure was not foreseen.

The 41-year-old center, in his 23rd NHL season, was approached Monday by Carolina general manager Jim Rutherford.

Talks then began about Francis waiving his no-trade clause, and he decided Tuesday morning he’d consider a deal to the Leafs, who snared star defenseman Brian Leetch from the Rangers last week.

The Hurricanes received a fourth-round pick.

“It really wasn’t important to me what we got,” Rutherford said. “Quite frankly, if we didn’t get anything for Ron Francis at this point, to accommodate him … that would’ve been fine with me.”

As has been the recent norm, the Rangers and Washington Capitals continued their selloffs. They are approaching the end of disappointing seasons and have begun preparations for an unknown economic system that will be part of the next collective bargaining agreement.

Bitter labor negotiations are expected and a prolonged lockout is feared.

“I don’t think it had a lot to do with it,” Rangers general manager Glen Sather said. “In the back of my mind I knew that I had no idea what’s going to happen.”

He did know that his collection of veterans that made up the NHL’s highest payroll didn’t work. New York is facing its seventh straight year out of the playoffs, it’s fourth under Sather, who made trades with all six Canadian teams in the past week.

The Rangers finished their eight-day roster shakeup by sending defenseman Greg de Vries to the Ottawa Senators for defenseman Karel Rachunek and forward Alexandre Giroux, and dealing left winger Martin Rucinsky to the Vancouver Canucks for unsigned forward R.J. Umberger and defenseman Martin Grenier.

Ottawa, three points behind East-leading Tampa Bay, made room for de Vries by sending fellow defenseman Shane Hnidy to Nashville for a sixth-round draft choice.

The Rangers also sent forward Paul Healey to Florida for defenseman Jeff Paul.

Since last Tuesday, Sather has dealt veterans de Vries, Rucinsky, Vladimir Malakhov, Matthew Barnaby, Brian Leetch, Alex Kovalev, Petr Nedved, Jussi Markkanen and Chris Simon. New York acquired a stockpile of young players and draft picks while cutting high-priced players approaching free agency.

Sather said he didn’t discuss trading Messier.

Vancouver, three points behind first-place Colorado in the Northwest Division, also picked up forwards Geoff Sanderson from Columbus and Sergei Varlamov from the St. Louis Blues to help an offensive unit expected to be without Todd Bertuzzi.

The Canucks forward is facing a long suspension after sucker punching Colorado’s Steve Moore late Monday night.

Colorado didn’t sit back, either.

The Avalanche, who will be without Moore for the rest of the season, got center Chris Gratton and defenseman Ossi Vaananen from Phoenix for defensemen Derek Morris and Keith Ballard.

In goal, they added insurance by acquiring Tommy Salo from Edmonton.

A day after the Capitals shipped Anson Carter to Los Angeles, they sent forward Mike Grier to Buffalo for center Jakub Klepis. In the past few weeks, Washington has traded forwards Peter Bondra, Robert Lang, Jaromir Jagr, and Michael Nylander, along with top defenseman Sergei Gonchar.

They did, however, hold on to goalie Olaf Kolzig.

“I think if there was ever a year to acquire good players and to load up, this was it,” Capitals general manager George McPhee said. “Teams want to get in line for the new collective bargaining agreement.”

Many other clubs are trying to line up for the postseason, including the Buffalo Sabres, who decided to become surprise buyers at the deadline.

Recent talk had Buffalo set to trade forward Miroslav Satan, but he remained with the Sabres, who started picking up other players.

The Sabres are only six points behind the New York Islanders for the final playoff spot in the East. So they picked up Grier and defenseman Jeff Jillson, who came to Buffalo as part of a three-team deal with Boston and San Jose.

Boston received defenseman Andy Delmore from Buffalo, which got Jillson from the Bruins. San Jose got center Brad Boyes from Boston, and traded a draft pick to the Sabres for center Curtis Brown.

The Islanders countered by acquiring veteran defenseman Alexander Karpovtsev from Chicago for a draft pick.

Another team trying to hold on to eighth place, St. Louis in the West, got forward Brian Savage from Phoenix.

AP-ES-03-09-04 1940EST