After 1,500-plus games and more than half of his lifetime spent with the same National Hockey League organization, Shane Doan admitted on Monday that he would waive his no-movement clause for a chance to win a Stanley Cup elsewhere.
“It would have to be so perfect, so right. It’s pretty hard for it all to line up perfectly,” he cautioned. Doan admitted that, at age 40 and on an Arizona Coyotes team that isn’t going to make the playoffs, he’d sign off on a deal if it were to a team he thought could cap his career with his first trip to a Stanley Cup Final.
The only problem? Which team to choose?
“That’s kind of the issue,” said Doan. “Last year, no one would have picked San Jose and Pittsburgh to be playing in the Cup Final. Afterwards you’d say … they’re both great teams. But no one was picking them [at the March trade deadline]. They were picking Washington and Chicago.
“There are so many different teams that can go on a run.”
Doan’s contemporary, Jarome Iginla—who went four picks after Doan in the 1995 draft—is another 40-year-old right-winger on the market this spring. Many teams are asking their scouts which of the two has more games left at this late stage of their storied careers.
Today, both slot in as fourth-line wingers on a good team, with Iginla seen as a player who can help on the second power-play unit with his still-dangerous shot.
While Doan stayed with the Coyotes, Iginla has had his choice of teams at a couple of deadlines and hasn’t been able to choose the right club. Doan, who said Monday that going to an Eastern Conference team wouldn’t be a problem, will likely garner the most interest from teams in the West.
San Jose has long coveted Doan, while the Anaheim Ducks would have a fourth-line right-wing spot as well. Los Angeles Kings head coach Darryl Sutter has traditionally loved players of Doan’s ilk, and the Edmonton Oilers have depth issues at right wing.
Doan, a Halkirk, Alta., native, would make his decision based on which teams he sees having a legitimate Cup shot. But he won’t consider his career incomplete if he never wins a ring himself.
“My whole goal has been to win a Stanley Cup,” he said. “But I’ve played with guys who haven’t won Stanley Cups who I’d consider to be the ultimate winner, and I’ve played with guys who have won Stanley Cups who don’t compare to those guys who haven’t.”
Doan says he hasn’t had any trade scenario conversations with Coyotes GM John Chayka, but expects them to happen with the March 1 deadline looming.
“I’ve had that talk with Don,” he said of former Coyotes GM Don Maloney. “The Coyotes have been respectful of me. If it comes to that point we’ll sit down and talk about it.
“It’s happened in the past, it’s just that no one has ever really heard about it.”
