‘Yotes notes: Doan hopes to decide future soon

Coyotes captain Shane Doan reiterated on Monday that he would decide his future plans this summer with his family. Doan, 39 will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, but he has made it clear this season that he has no desire to continue his career anywhere but in Arizona.

“We’ll talk a little bit more about it and make sure that everything is lining up and in place,” Doan said. “My family, they are so supportive. If I decide I want to come back they’ll be just as happy, maybe happier (than me), but it’s going to be my decision when I make it and hopefully we’ll have it figured out soon.”

Doan had 28 goals this season, his highest total since a career-high of 31 scored in 2008-09. He admitted that performance would weigh in his decision to come back or retire.

“For sure,” he said. “There’s no way if I had had a bad year and hadn’t been able to answer some of the questions I had in my own head from the year before. I was pretty much positive it was going to be my last coming into the year.”

Doan also said the infusion of energy the Coyotes rookie class brought to the team re-energized him and made the locker room a fun place to be.

HANZAL’S LESS UNCERTAIN

Don Maloney said he wanted to sign center Martin Hanzal to a contract extension this summer before Hanzal enters the final year of a deal that will pay him $3.5 million. Now Maloney is gone, leaving Hanzal’s status in doubt.

“A lot of guys know me here; Tip knows me,” said Hanzal, who was a Coyote for all nine seasons of Maloney’s tenure. “It would be nice to sign here because I love it here. I want to spend my career here. We’ll see how it goes this summer.”

Hanzal missed 18 games this season and hasn’t played more than 65 games in a full season since 2009-10, but he plays a crucial role matching up against the big centers of the Western Conference like Anaheim’s Ryan Getzlaf, L.A.’s Anze Kopitar and Chicago’s Jonathan Toews.

It will be worth watching how the new GM approaches his contract this summer.

Hanzal said Monday the injury that shelved him for the final five games of the season was not related to his history of back problems. He called it a minor injury but did not elaborate.

LINDBACK RECOVERY ON TRACK

Backup goalie Anders Lindback is in a walking boot and expects to resume skating in June after surgery on his partially torn Achilles tendon in mid-February.

Lindback said he suffered the injury after about a half hour of stretching when he got up and took a step forward.

“Knowing that it’s going to be 100 percent, I’m trying to stay positive,” he said. “I’ve been through the worst here the first couple weeks.”

Lindback will be an unrestricted free agent this summer and won’t likely be back with the Coyotes.

“I’ll see what options are out there and try to find the best fit,” he said. “I just want to go somewhere where I get the biggest chance to play the most.”

STONE BRACES FOR LONG REHAB

Defenseman Michael Stone was on crutches Monday, one week after surgery to repair a torn ACL and MCL. The minimum estimated recovery time for Stone is six months, which would allow him to return for the end of training camp, but he knows the rehab could take much longer.

“Right when the injury happened, that’s something you think about,” he said. “But like I said earlier, it’s good timing if you’re going to have this injury because I have all summer to recover with the potential to be back for the start of the season.”

Stone said he knew he had done significant damage when he got his left leg tangled with Philadelphia winger Michael Raffl along the boards in a late-March game.

“It wasn’t super painful but if I was to get up I’m not sure I would have been able to hold myself up,” he said.

BABY WATCH

Goaltender Louis Domingue left the team before the final two games of the season because his fiancée is due to deliver their first child. The couple expects to induce labor on Tuesday.

FREE-AGENT WATCH

With Maloney gone and coach Dave Tippett not available for comment Monday, it’s hard to know where the Coyotes stand on their own free agents. Here is a list of the Coyotes’ restricted free agents and unrestricted free agents.

UFAs

F Shane Doan

F Kyle Chipchura

F Boyd Gordon

F Viktor Tikhonov

D Nicklas Grossman

D Alex Grant

RFAs

F Tobias Rieder

F Jiri Sekac

F Sergei Plotnikov

D Michael Stone

D Connor Murphy

D Klas Dahlbeck

D Kevin Connauton

D Jarred Tinordi

G Louis Domingue

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