Shane Doan: A long-term rebuild is a tough pill to swallow

It was not a surprise to see the Arizona Coyotes hold a bit of a firesale at Monday’s NHL trade deadline.

That’s what happens when your team is sputtering toward one of its worst-ever seasons and has some players other teams coveted for their postseason runs.

At the same time, it’s also not a surprise that the Coyotes’ captain, Shane Doan, is not particularly excited about what transpired.

What the moves signified, though, is that the franchise is set on going through a rebuilding process centered around younger players with high upside.

Earlier this week, general manager Don Maloney said the deals are designed to help the team become a contender a few years down the road. Of course, if the goal is to be a contender maybe three or five years down the road, that means they’re not likely to be too good in the immediate future.

And, in the case of someone like Doan, whose career is in its final seasons, that’s not an easy thing to stomach.

“I understand the way, the direction that it’s going, and I’m not going to say one way or the other,” he answered when asked if he wants to stay and be a part of it. “I guess we’ll see how the summer goes and see what everything is and how everything works out.”

While the Coyotes may certainly be a better team in the long run because of the moves they have been making, odds are it will do a player like Doan no good. He wants to win, and he wants to win now.

After all, he will not be playing hockey forever, and wasting his final seasons on a team with no hope of winning a Stanley Cup is not an ideal way to go out.

“That’s tough, there’s no way of getting around that, that was a tough pill to swallow,” he said of the idea of a rebuilding process. “But I’ll tell you what the hardest part is, that you put in 20 years of trying to find a way to win a Stanley Cup and you get to the point where you think you’re close, or a couple years ago you get to the Conference Finals.

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