Through a brief email correspondence with agent Terry Bross, we here at The Predatorial learned today that veteran Phoenix Coyotes captain and right-winger Shane Doan could be a possible target for the Nashville Predators. While we know now that Nashville’s brass has reached out to Bross and his company Legarede Unlimited, the real question is if Doan would possibly want to come to Nashville?
The 35 year old has played with the Phoenix Coyotes since being drafted by the Winnipeg Jets 7th overall in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft. In that time, he’s amassed nearly 1,200 games played (1,198) and scored 788 points in that span (318g, 470a). Doan has scored 50+ points in 11 of his past 12 seasons and has 28 points in 55 career playoff games.
Would Doan be a good fit in Nashville? Absolutely. Playing with the Phoenix Coyotes make this a no-brainer. Even before the time of Dave Tippett, Doan has played an intense two-way brand of hockey and captains a team that can only be described as a “mirror-image” to the Nashville Predators. Heck, they played the same type of game Nashville does and it brought them to the Western Conference Finals this past season.
Would Doan want to come to Nashville? That’s the real dilemma. Obviously the ownership/team issues in Phoenix give any free agent that’s considering signing in the desert something to think about, but at the same time Doan has many options now. With over 11 teams trying to court him to sign on, he has quite a lot to think about. Don’t count what could easily be the front-runner of this race as well: The Vancouver Canucks.
Why the Canucks? James Mirtle of The Globe & Mail noted today that Doan’s wife is from Kamloops, British Columbia, a 3.5 hour drive from Vancouver, where they spend a fair amount of time in the off-season. Doan is also part owner of the Kamloops Blazers, part of the Canadian Hockey League.
While it seems that Vancouver could be a very real destination for Doan, the Predators have reached out and expressed their interest in Shane Doan. To what degree? We’re not sure right now, but it’s safe to assume that if David Poile wants Doan he’ll do what he can to get him in a gold sweater next season. We’ll update this story as we find out more details
Finally some sense! I’ve been screaming Doan since before Suter left! Glad Poile is at least sniffing in the right direction at this point! And next… on to Bobby Ryan!
Expressing an interest and going hard after a guy are two different things. Poile’s “golly gee willakers” approach to free agency thus far is netting the Preds ZERO signings. I’m even further discouraged when I hear him say that he believes we have great forwards already and that Josi is a viable replacement for Suter and that they need to find someone to skate with Klein.
Make this two off-seasons in a row that I’m extremely unhappy with Poile. We got lucky last season when we weeded his decisions out of the lineup fairly early. We may not be so lucky this year if some of those guys go on a sophomore slump like Geoffrion and Blum did. Could be a very long season.
If I’m David Poile, I make a big offer to Doan with a cap hit of 6M over five seasons to bring him out to age 40. The cap space is there. Have to spend at least 15M. Said to be spending 30M. Then, as I speculated (privately), it sounds like Brendan Morrow is on the trading block. He’s only signed for one year, so I don’t know what they would expect in return in trade. That would add 4.1M. There would still be room for a high end defensemen. I don’t know how else Poile would spend an additional 15M. I love the idea of Fisher, Doan, and Morrow on a line together. That’s about as good of a “Predator hockey” line you could build. Three great all around players who are tough to play against in both ends. I love this idea. We’ll see what happens.