Decisions loom for Shane Doan, Dave Tippett regarding futures with Arizona Coyotes
Apr 13, 2015, 11:29 PM | Updated: 11:29 pm
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Stay and assist in the rebuild or go and put themselves in better position to make the playoffs and ultimately compete for the Stanley Cup?
That is the offseason decision facing two of the bigger names with the Arizona Coyotes: captain Shane Doan and head coach Dave Tippett. Both are under contract, Doan for one more season and Tippett three. But each can, if they so chose, go to management and seek new teams.
For Doan, this is the only franchise he’s ever played for, having been drafted by the Winnipeg Jets a year before the team relocated to the desert in 1996.
After missing the playoffs for a third straight year, can Doan afford to be patient through another remake?
Next season will be his 20th in the NHL.
“I don’t think there’s a timeline on (a decision),” Doan said Monday as he and his teammates cleaned out their lockers. “It’ll be just kind of discuss with my family and my wife and everything that’s kind of going on with the team. We’ll see how it goes. I’m still a pretty big believer in a lot of the guys around here. That’s obviously going to weigh on my mind a lot.”
This season Doan totaled 36 points —14 goals and 22 assists —in 79 games, the second time in three seasons he’s been held under 40 points. It’s his worst career stretch since his first four years in the league.
“Shane can be a very valuable part of this team going forward,” GM Don Maloney said. “He’s one guy that shows up every night. It’s just that maybe he has to go from 19 or 20 minutes a game down to a little lower in your lineup. There’s no question to me he can play, he can still be a contributor. It’s really up to us to bring in some better players that can take those minutes.”
Doan will be 39 next season and is due to make $4.55 million to conclude a four-year, $21.2 million extension signed in Sept. 2012.
“That’s their prerogative to do whatever they want to do,” said Doan, referring to the team’s planned rebuild. “I’m just a player that’s going to do everything I can as a player. I don’t think I have any right to ask any other questions other than hope that we can get back to where we were quickly and not have it be four or five years. It has to be a lot quicker than that, for me. But that’s totally up to them. That’s their decision.”
Tippett’s decision, meanwhile, will be more heavily watched.
The Coyotes’ all-time winningest coach reportedly has an out clause in a contract that was extended two years ago.
“We have to sit down as an organization, go through everything,” he said. “It’s going to take a few weeks to do that. I met with all the players today, Don met with all the players today. We’ll get together and kind of collaborate and see where we are.”
Maloney though fully expects Tippett to be around for the long haul.
“Absolutely,” he said. “I think Tip is like myself, I think we’re builders. And I think we have a long-term belief in what it’s going to take to have success here and we’re going to have to work together to make it happen.”
Tippett has taken his team to the Stanley Cup playoffs eight times in 12 years as a head coach, including his first three seasons with the Coyotes after he was hired in 2009 following a stint with the Dallas Stars.
This year marked his first-ever losing campaign (24-50-8).
“I don’t think anybody wants to go through this again. That’s just the reality,” he said. “We’re in this business to win.”
