Last week saw upset added to injury for Cody Franson.
Three months into a one-year, $1 million contract with the Chicago Blackhawks, the Sicamous-born defenceman received a double-whammy of disappointment. It began on Jan. 8 when the Blackhawks announced they were putting Franson on waivers.
The move was a surprise for Franson, as it was for his family and fans.
“It was definitely a shock. Nobody saw it coming. He never saw it coming, his agent never saw it coming, they had no idea… ,” said Cody’s father Cal Franson. “That was a pretty heaving shocker to begin with.”
The following day, it was announced Franson had cleared waivers and was being assigned to the Blackhawks’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs.
Franson played 17 games this season with the Blackhawks before sustaining an upper-body injury during a game against his former team, the Buffalo Sabres, on Dec. 8. After being sidelined for seven games, the 30-year-old was back on the ice by the end of December.
“After the injury he came up here and played for the Western swing, and he played against Edmonton and Calgary… and then they played the Rangers again after that and everybody I knew that were at any of those games said he looked superior in their opinion. They said they thought he looked great,” said Cal.
Though the injury may have been a factor in the decision to put Cody on waivers, Cal explained there were other elements at play, and that his son had been reassured by the Blackhawks that they are happy with his performance.
“From what our understanding is, he was informed they had to clear a roster spot to bring up one of their young guys… There was that, in combination with (Artem) Anisimov, one of the forwards, coming back off of the injured reserve,” said Cal. “I don’t know how much of it had to do with the contract end of things for cap space, but I understand the two scenarios had something to do with him being put on waivers.
“I guess you can say he’s the easier guy for them to do that with just because his cap hit is so small. I think he’s only got $485,000 left on his cap hit for the balance of the year, so it makes it pretty easy for them to choose him over and above anybody else because a lot of the other defencemen are making way more than that.”
Despite all of this, Cal says his son is keeping a positive attitude, choosing to roll with the punches and give it his all until he’s called back up to the NHL.
“When he’s calling his mom and dad first and you can hear it in his voice, it was tough to listen to, that’s for sure,” said Franson. “But he seems to be in a pretty good place now. They’re playing him a ton and they’re playing him in every situation. He’s probably playing 25 minutes a night… You can tell they look at him as a leader right away the way they’re handling him. So that’s good.
“We’re real hopeful. He’s just going to go down there he said and just do whatever he can do to the maximum he can do it. Everybody here that we’ve spoken to feels that it won’t be long before he’s back up.”