{"id":19006,"date":"2017-11-14T10:30:54","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T15:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=19006"},"modified":"2017-11-14T10:19:30","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T15:19:30","slug":"arizona-coyotes-shane-doan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2017\/11\/14\/arizona-coyotes-shane-doan\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Coyotes Forcing Out Shane Doan was a Bad Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"

On June 19, the Arizona Coyotes<\/a> announced they would not be offering captain Shane Doan<\/a><\/strong> a new contract<\/a>, despite his NHL-best 10 years as leader of the team, and 21 in the organization. The 40-year-old right wing retired<\/a> just over two months later.<\/p>\n

Owner Andrew Barroway<\/strong> and general manager John Chayka<\/strong> made the call. They saw a need to focus on the future and transition leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter serious consideration, we have decided to not offer [Doan] a contract for the upcoming season.\u00a0The time has come for us to move on and to focus on our young, talented group of players and our very bright future,\u201d Barroway said in a statement via NHL.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a very difficult decision given what Shane has done for the Coyotes and his unparalleled importance to the organization.\u00a0With that said, this is necessary to move us forward as a franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn’t expecting it so there was an element of surprise,” Doan told Arizona Sports 98.7 FM<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It was the owner\u2019s decision. He chose that he wanted to go with the younger group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arizona Coyotes Forcing Out Shane Doan was a Bad Idea<\/h1>\n

While Doan was his ever-understanding and diplomatic self, his comments identify a level of bitterness about the situation. Barroway later admitted he could have handled the situation better by informing his captain himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to make a decision that’s right and not just out of competitiveness and<\/em> anger<\/em>,” Doan said when discussing retirement.<\/p>\n

“To the fans, I’ve been treated so much better than so many guys with more talent than me. I’m sure grateful.”<\/p>\n

Bad decision?<\/h1>\n

Perhaps a measure of karma came back to bite Arizona, as their start to the season was the league\u2019s worst in 74 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Through plenty of soul-searching, the \u2018Yotes would\u2019ve greatly benefited from Doan\u2019s leadership. He was there through each and every peril the club has faced over the past two decades since moving from Winnipeg. This year, he was not.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have more young guys than you do veteran guys, it starts to become \u2014 the room gets turned a little bit,\u201d Shane Doan recently said, discussing his former team\u2019s start<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt becomes more about, am I in the lineup tonight? Because if I\u2019m in the lineup tonight, I\u2019m happy. I know we\u2019ve lost 10 in a row, but I\u2019m still playing in the NHL. There\u2019s an element to that which is so hard to get past.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation they\u2019re in, it\u2019s inevitable for that to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Transitioning leadership<\/h1>\n

Still, Chayka defended the decision to part with Doan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cShane did a phenomenal job for a long time but we had to transition our leadership. That’s what gets missed from what happened over the summer,\u201d the 28-year-old told ESPN.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point, we need people who are in the primes of their careers to step up and be leaders. Right now, it’s awkward. It takes some time. But we had to go through it. It’s not like we’re devoid of leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is hard to argue with what we do not see behind the scenes. However, Arizona\u2019s 11 losses to start the season is solid evidence against Chayka\u2019s \u201cdevoid of leadership\u201d claims.<\/p>\n

There is a power void in Glendale right now, and their old captain was not exactly ready to vacate it.<\/p>\n

It will not be known whether this was a good decision for the organization or not for some time. Not until someone like Max Domi<\/a><\/strong>, Oliver Ekman-Larsson<\/a><\/strong>, Niklas Hjalmarsson<\/a><\/strong> or even Clayton Keller<\/a><\/strong> steps up and takes the captaincy by force.<\/p>\n

Leadership Problems<\/h1>\n

We know the Coyotes are weaker as the game goes on. New Head Coach Rick Tocchet<\/a> has questioned the fitness of his men. They have given up 42% of an NHL-leading 74 goals against in the third period<\/a>. They have lead in 14 of their 19 games.<\/p>\n

If Doan were on the ice to kick off the third period, or there to address the team after a goal against, how many of these losses would be wins? What about if he were just around the organization at all?<\/p>\n

He is not, despite the fact many assumed Doan would be offered a job by the Coyotes after his retirement. Instead, he is in Hockey Operations with the NHL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“We are thrilled to welcome Shane, whose vast experience and in-depth knowledge of the game will be invaluable to the League office,” vice president of hockey operations Colin Campbell<\/a><\/strong> said when introducing Doan in his new role.<\/p>\n

“We look forward to calling upon his two decades of playing experience \u2013 particularly his incomparable understanding of the game as it is being played today.”<\/p>\n

These all sound like qualities Arizona could have used in their own organization this year, be it on the ice or off it.<\/p>\n

Main Photo:\u00a0TORONTO, ON – DECEMBER 15: Shane Doan #19 of the Arizona Coyotes skates against the Toronto Maple Leafs during an NHL game at the Air Canada Centre on December 15, 2016 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Coyotes defeated the Maple Leafs 3-2 in an overtime shoot-out. (Photo by Claus Andersen\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On June 19, the Arizona Coyotes announced they would not be offering captain Shane Doan a new contract, despite his NHL-best 10 years as leader of the team, and 21 in the organization. The 40-year-old right wing retired just over two months later. Owner Andrew Barroway and general manager John Chayka made the call. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2050,"featured_media":10893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[107,37,38],"class_list":["post-19006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mammoth","tag-arizona-coyotes","tag-hockey","tag-nhl"],"modified_by":"Johannes Wheeldon, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2050"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}