Arizona Coyotes: Shane Doan Agrees To One-Year Contract
Arizona Coyotes captain Shane Doan has agreed to a one-year deal with the franchise.
Who are the Arizona Coyotes without Shane Doan?
Fans won’t have to find out for at least one more year.
The 39-year-old Doan is coming off of a resurgent season in Arizona where he scored 28 goals and put up 47 points while pairing up with Brad Richardson on the Coyotes’ highly effective third line.
Arizona Sports’ Craig Morgan reports that the deal is worth $2.5 million with a deferred signing bonus and deferred incentives that bring the total to around $5 million for 2016-17.
Many fans, writers, and personalities around the team were saying that General Manager John Chayka and the IceArizona ownership group should just back the truck up to Doan’s house and allow him to pick out what he wanted.
This deal isn’t quite that, but it is a pretty solid payday for the aging, yet productive winger.
A few months back, we hypothesized who might take over the reigns as the leader and captain of the Arizona Coyotes when Shane Doan departs.
That discussion is now tabled for one more year.
That means another year of growth for Oliver Ekman-Larsson before he has to step in as the next face of the franchise.
It also means more time to develop under the watchful eye of Doan for young sensations Max Domi and Anthony Duclair.
Lastly, Doan’s return will allow the incoming youngsters like Dylan Strome and Christian Dvorak to spend a season in the locker room with the best captain in the National Hockey League provided they make the team out of training camp.
He’ll be there to keep them honest and driven, just as he has been for countless rookies before.
Beyond the leadership, it’s worth mentioning yet again that Shane Doan is still pretty good at hockey. His career arc is more like Tim Duncan’s than Kobe Bryant’s.
Over the last three seasons he’s scored 65 goals and 65 assists, which is the long way of saying he’s good for about 20 goals and 20 assists per year.
His underlying stats and basic stats both tell us that over the past three seasons he’s played consistently at the level of a second line winger in spite of his advanced age and the poor teams that have surrounded him.
That’s pretty damn remarkable, to be frank.
It’s highly doubtful that Shane Doan will post a 16.5% shooting percentage in 2016-17, but barring injury Chayka and Head Coach Dave Tippett know they are getting a productive player with the kind of good ole Canadian boy intangibles that make Don Cherry wax emotional.
Next: 2015-16 Player Grades: Shane Doan Had A Resurgent...
This may be his last hurrah with the Arizona Coyotes. It may not.
Either way, welcome back captain! Can’t wait to see you this fall.