Arizona Coyotes Near Deal With Shane Doan
The Arizona Coyotes are finally seeing some clarity on a deal with captain Shane Doan. After Doan is locked up, are there more deals on the horizon for GM John Chayka?
After much delay, the Arizona Coyotes and Shane Doan aren’t exactly seeing eye-to-eye, but they are close.
“We’re close enough that I’m not really worrying about other teams and things like that,” Doan told Arizona Sports’ Craig Morgan.
The reassurance from the captain couldn’t have came at a much better time.
Concern over Shane Doan‘s status was reaching a favor pitch among Arizona Coyotes fans on social media. So much so that the dominant conversation was Doan’s contract instead of the multiple free agent signings picked up for both the Roadrunners and the big club in Glendale.
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Now, though, longtime fans can rest a little easier.
Doan has said, “I don’t want to play anywhere else. I had that opportunity before and I passed on it. I’m not going anywhere.”
The team he is returning to looks to be a decent-sized upgrade over the roster former General Manager Don Maloney trotted out last October.
With two solid, if somewhat inconsistent goalies in net the back end should be much more reliable than it was throughout 2015-16.
The addition of Alex Goligoski, coupled with another season under the belt of Connor Murphy should provide better protection for Mike Smith and Louis Domingue as well.
Jamie McGinn will hopefully step in and be a more reliable scorer in all situations than Mikkel Boedker was last season, and there’s that none-too-small matter of at least one or two highly skilled prospects potentially making their debut with the Yotes in October.
Chayka’s own imprint on the way the team plays may be as important as any addition, however.
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Terms like “analytics” and “fancy stats” get thrown around a lot regarding John Chayka, but what that all boils down to is possession.
Chayka wants his version of Arizona Coyotes to play with the puck more than without it. That’s been mirrored in his draft picks, in the acquisition of Goligoski, and one would assume it will be mirrored in the prospects who actually make the team out of camp this fall.
Hopefully it will be mirrored on the ice in the way they are deployed once the puck drops.
The 2015-16 version of the Yotes was one of the worst possession teams in the league. That’s even with a strong possession player like Oliver Ekman-Larsson eating up a tremendous amount of minutes.
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In order to be consistently successful, Head Coach Dave Tippett and John Chayka will have to find a way to get the personnel they have to be the team taking 30-plus shots per night, not facing them.
The Arizona Coyotes are on the right path, and soon they’ll have the captain back in the fold to lead the charge.