Caron was one of a kind - STLtoday.com

One of the most influential and vibrant personalities in St. Louis Blues history, Ron Caron has passed away at the age 82. Caron died in Montreal on Monday night after an extended illness.

Caron was the general manager of the Blues from 1983-1993, engineering deals that involved many of the most prominent players in franchise history, including Brett Hull, Adam Oates, Bernie Federko, Al MacInnis, Brendan Shanahan and Scott Stevens. Caron retired in 1994 but returned as Blues general manager in 1996 before giving way to Larry Pleau.

In between, "The Professor" entertained reporters and tantalized fans with colorful "meat on the burner" analogies, explosive hockey passion, love for baseball and the New York Yankees and stories of his glorious past in Montreal.

"I can definitely say â€" and I mean this in only a most special and kind way â€" that the good Lord broke the mold when he made Mr. Caron," former Blues star and coach Brian Sutter said. "And when he did, the Big Guy upstairs said, 'We're never going to do that again.' Ron Caron was a very special man."

Before coming to the Blues, Caron spent 26 years with the Montreal Canadiens, ascending the ranks from head scout to assistant general manager, participating in six Stanley Cup winners.

In St. Louis, he helped navigate a franchise through its most tumultuous times, ownership changes, financial hardships and competitive calamity. When he was hired by new owner Harry Ornest in 1983, the Blues did not even participate in the NHL entry draft. While some teams had 10 scouts, the Blues had three part-timers.

"When Ron came here, he hired Jacques Demers to coach," recalled Bob Plager, a former Blues player who also has served the organization in various capacities. "My brother Barclay was the assistant coach. We had Ted Hampson as a head scout and I worked with Ron doing a little bit of everything. We had a trainer, an assistant trainer and we had Susie Mathieu doing public relations. That was our whole staff.

"There's more guys behind the bench now than we had on our entire staff. And you had to get rid of your top players every year because they were making too much money and Harry Ornest wasn't going to pay them. When you consider the budgets we had ... the things he went through, Ron Caron did an amazing job."

Making his mark

With his hockey acumen and eye for talent, Caron helped the Blues remain competitive. He sometimes traded prominent veterans for promising â€" and cheaper â€" young talent. He sometimes caulked cracks with moderately-priced veterans. He kept the Blues in the playoffs over 11 consecutive seasons and he kept things interesting.

"He was kind of miscast here a little bit," said Michael Shanahan, part of a local ownership group that succeeded Ornest in 1986. "We were in a position where we had to win now to keep the fans coming. We couldn't afford to take years to build a winner.

"I think if he would have been in a position to build something from the ground up, that's where he would have been an especially successful guy. ... Look at some of the guys he drafted and look where they all ended up."

Nothing epitomized Caron's intuition than a trade he orchestrated on March, 7 1988, sending All-Star defenseman Rob Ramage and veteran goaltender Rick Wamsley to Calgary for an enigmatic young Brett Hull. The son of legendary Bobby Hull, the 24-year old "Golden Brett" was playing infrequently in Calgary, out of favor with coach Terry Crisp.

Upon making the deal, Caron predicted Hull would score 50 goals for the Blues.

Hull exceeded those bold expectations, scoring as many as 86 goals in a season, scoring more than 50 five times. He became the face of the franchise, the Blues' career leader with 571 goals and joined his father in the Hall of Fame. He also became eternally appreciative of Caron.

"There will never be a man with more passion and love for the Blues, and for hockey in general," Hull said. "I will be forever grateful to him for bringing me to St. Louis. I will miss him dearly."

During a conversation in 1998, Caron suggested the trade should have made him a popular figure in Calgary, as well.

"I felt it would be good for the Blues to bring Brett Hull here, with the name and his charisma," Caron recalled. "I talked to (Calgary executive) Cliff Fletcher as the trade deadline approached and I asked him, 'Do you want to win the Stanley Cup? If you do, I have the pieces that will help you win a Stanley Cup.'

"With Rob Ramage and Rick Wamsley, Calgary won the Stanley Cup that year. That's the only Stanley Cup in the history of the franchise."

AN Emotional, kind man

The emotional Caron was legendary for his demonstrative tirades in press boxes and arena corridors when the thought the Blues had been wronged. During the 1991 playoffs, he was banned from the press box in Detroit for scuffling with Red Wings goaltender Glen Hanlon.

That occurred after Detroit enforcer Bob Probert was given a double-minor penalty for slashing Blues defenseman Garth Butcher and punching goalie Vincent Riendeau. Incensed, he left the private box to traverse the arena's perimeter and protest Probert's antics. In the press box as a healthy scratch, Hanlon took offense and the two wound up tussling.

But any profile of Caron would be grossly insufficient without relating his loyalty and uncommon kindness. Among countless stories involves his friendship with the Frisella family. Dee Frisella was Caron's secretary when her daughter, Andrea, was in a horrific auto accident. Andrea Frisella had to be airlifted to a hospital and remained in a coma for some time.

In those days, the tempestuous Ornest was firing people all the time. To his dismay, Caron returned from a trip to find Ornest arbitrarily had fired Frisella. The termination notwithstanding, Caron visited Andrea Frisella at the hospital every day until she recovered.

"That, to me, was typical Ron," said Mathieu, a Blues executive for 20 years. "You didn't have to be a NHL star for him to show his generosity, love and kindness. And to this day, he and Andrea remained very close friends.

"He stepped way beyond and cared so much about Dee and Andrea and their whole family. That's the kind of person he was. He was just a great man and St. Louis was so blessed to have him."