Arizona Coyotes Player Grades: Shane Doan

With the Arizona Coyotes 2015-16 season complete, it’s time to dive into each player’s performance and make a final tally on how they fared this season.

The 2015-16 season was a remarkable one for Arizona Coyotes captain Shane Doan.

The 39-year-old winger was coming off of one of the most disappointing campaigns in his storied career, and he wasn’t the only one curious about what 2015-16 would bring for himself and the franchise.

The captain proved the old adage that “age is just a number” as he led the team in goals with 28 and also chipped in 19 assists.

He contributed in a variety of ways, as well, including a Carson Palmer impersonation on a Hail Mary pass to Jordan Martinook:

Shane Doan scored goals from the “Ovi spot” in the circle, as well as pretty much any other way you can think of. Off his back, deflections, rebounds, long-range floaters. If 2014-15 was the season of nightmares for Doaner, 2015-16 was the season he just couldn’t miss.

He set a career high in shooting percentage at 16.5%.

He broke Dale Hawerchuk’s franchise goal-scoring record, as well as Hawerchuk’s points record in short order. Put simply, Doan cemented himself as the greatest Arizona Coyotes player in history.

As if that was really in question.

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More importantly, his work together with Brad Richardson was the backbone of several different productive combinations used by head coach Dave Tippett. That third line virtually carried the team through the middle part of the season, despite age and everything else that you’d predictably hold against them.

He also stepped up as any captain should when the extracurriculars began to flare up with the opposition and the Arizona Coyotes’ young stars.

Doan isn’t quite the possession positive that he was in the past, to be sure, but he’s also not the spriest young chicken anymore either. A little letdown in that department is to be expected, and was more than made up for with his and Richardson’s production.

There was hand-wringing after the season concluded regarding Shane Doan’s future, but he put those fears to rest earlier this month. As soon as a deal can be reached, we’ll see that familiar #19 on the ice at Gila River Arena again this fall.

The captain is the heart and soul of the Arizona Coyotes.

He’s wandered the desert a long, long time searching and waiting for the talent that could lead this team to the promised land.

Next: 2015-16 Player Grades: Antoine Vermette Started Slow But Finished With A Flourish...

If the hype is to be believed, his patience is about to be rewarded.

Welcome back, Captain.