Shane Doan grateful for opportunity to stay with Phoenix Coyotes
Sep 15, 2012, 2:09 AM | Updated: 3:33 am
Loyalty is not synonymous with free agency in professional sports and athletes often take the contract from the highest bidder when deciding where to sign.
Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan is not the norm; he is the exception to the rule. The veteran winger signed a four-year, $21.2 million contract with the Coyotes Friday, rejecting an offer from the Vancouver Canucks.
Doan’s decision undoubtedly makes him a glowing example to his peers, fans and the hockey community, but he told Arizona Sports 620’s Doug & Wolf Show Friday why he decided to stay in Phoenix.
“I really believe in the group of guys that we have in the room,” Doan said. “I do believe that we have an opportunity to win here and having an opportunity to win with this group means so much more to me than having an opportunity to win pretty much anywhere else.”
Despite the ongoing ownership saga surrounding the Coyotes, Doan felt significant ties to management, head coach Dave Tippett and his teammates. He has spent his entire career with the Coyotes organization.
But, he realized if he didn’t re-sign, his past devotion to the team could have potentially harmed the organization going forward.
“I was definitely aware of the fact that maybe to a certain degree my loyalty might have been working against the Coyotes, where if I were to leave it would be even more of a mark against the organization and against the club just because I have stuck there through a lot of the other stuff,” Doan explained.
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