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Shane Doan has played in two different NHL cities, but has never left the franchise that drafted him 7th overall in 1995. The veteran of nearly 1,200 regular season NHL games, 35-year old Doan faces the tough choice of leaving the team he's captained for 9 years to chase a better chance at a Stanley Cup or hope that the Coyotes team which made it to the 2nd round of last year's playoffs can build off of that success.
Doan told the league that he wouldn't consider listening to offers before July 9th so he could get a better read on the Coyotes' ownership situation going into negotiations. Although there's plenty left to be decided, Doan's agent said they'd start listening to offers tomorrow and would decide from there.
For more info on the Coyotes' ownership saga, start with Five for Howling.
Doan has his fair share of suitors and his agent, Terry Bross, is certainly hard at work trying to leverage them all against one another in order to get the best deal. Helene St. James of the Freep mentioned today that the Wings are among the teams interested in Doan and that (at least according to the agent) Doan has at least teased at a return interest in them.
So who is Shane Doan?
Dude looks like Keanu Reeves in that picture, doesn't he?
Doan is a right-shooting wrecking ball of a power forward who isn't afraid to muck it up in the corners and is hailed as the classiest classyguy to ever class up the classroom.
Whatever, Shane Doan is a jerk on the ice. The thing is that he really doesn't take too many penalties and very much seems to have that Dallas Drake-like drive to win a cup, something that's been questioned in Detroit since 2009. He doesn't score as much as some people would like, but for all intents-and-purposes, Shane Doan would essentially provide just about everything that Red Wings fans want out of Todd Bertuzzi at a higher level.
One of the issues which may stop a deal is that, at age 35, a multi-year deal adds an extra level of risk for Doan, seeing as after the first year expires, Doan may not be removed from the team's cap hit by retiring and can't be hidden in the minors for more than $100k in salary cap relief. That may all change by this September, but current rules dictate this. While he's known as a durable player, eventually age catches up to everybody.
Doan could definitely provide a lot of the things the Red Wings would love to have in their top six next season for the right price and term. The question then becomes what term and how much price would it take to get him. What do you think?