Referee Francis Charron will work the 900th regular-season game of his NHL career tonight as the Calgary Flames visit the Los Angeles Kings. He’ll take the ice alongside referee Corey Syvret (#23), with Ryan Gibbons (#58) and Libor Suchanek (#60) on the lines.
Charron, an Ottawa, Ontario native, reaches 900 regular season games, to go along with 114 Stanley Cup Playoff games on his resume, including three Stanley Cup Finals.
His road up was fast by officiating standards. Charron started in the QMJHL as a linesman in 2002, moved into the referee’s armbands the following season, and piled up the big junior assignments: 328 QMJHL regular-season and playoff contests, three straight Memorial Cup tournaments (2006, 2007 and 2008), and two World Junior Championships (2007 and 2008). He capped the run by working Games 1, 4 and 7 of the 2009 ECHL Kelly Cup Finals.
The NHL signed him on August 25, 2009. He started the 2009-10 season in the AHL, with his first NHL game coming later that leason on April 5, 2010, in St. Louis – Columbus Blue Jackets visiting the Blues – alongside referee Dan O’Halloran, with Shane Heyer and Thor Nelson on the lines.
His first Stanley Cup Playoff assignment came four seasons later on April 18, 2014 – Game 1 of Detroit at Boston – and he’s been a postseason fixture ever since, working Stanley Cup Finals in 2020, 2021 and 2025. He also handled the 2019 Winter Classic at Notre Dame Stadium, the 2025 Stadium Series in Columbus, the 2024 NHL All-Star Game in Toronto, and the league’s 2022 Global Series stops in Berlin and Prague.
Sixteen years after that debut in St. Louis, game 900 comes tonight in Los Angeles.
Congratulations to Francis on 900 games!
