Doan’s jersey headed to the rafters

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This article was published 21/02/2019 (2390 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The phrase “end of an era” gets bandied about rather cavalierly, yet when considering the long, distinguished career of Shane Doan, no other words fit the bill.

He was the last first-round draft choice (1995) of the Winnipeg Jets 1.0 and the final member of that fraternity to suit up in the NHL, retiring at the age of 40. That means something to Doan, whose No. 19 jersey will be retired and raised to the rafters when the Arizona Coyotes host the Jets on Sunday night at Gila River Arena.

Doan played his first NHL season in Winnipeg and two decades with the Coyotes after the franchise relocated to Arizona in 1996. He retired in August 2017 with little fanfare after playing 1,540 NHL games, scoring 402 goals and 972 points over the course of a 21-year career, including 13 seasons with the C on his jersey.

Manitoba’s capital and the Jets organization, then and now, hold a special place in his heart and mind, Doan said.

“I sure appreciated the way they set (Sunday’s special night) up. Winnipeg meant a ton to me,” Doan said in a recent conference call. “I got to play my first game in Western Canada, being a western Canadian kid, growing up watching the Smythe Division and everything that went along with that. There was a stretch in, like, the mid-’80s where Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg were, like, the top-three teams in the league. I thought it was so unique that I got to play in one of those cities. That was special.

“So, for the Jets here — and I’m sure ’Zinger (Jets assistant general manager Craig Heisinger) and Chevy (GM Kevin Cheveldayoff) helped out with this — was something I really appreciate and am grateful for.”

Doan had a brilliant junior career in Kamloops, B.C., winning back-to-back Memorial Cup national championships with the Blazers. Mere months before draft day, he was named most valuable player of the Canadian Hockey League’s “final four,” held that year in the Blazers’ home rink.

He was snapped up by the Jets with the seventh-overall pick in the draft, exactly one selection after his favourite team, the Oilers, overlooked him and went with Vancouver product Steve Kelly.

It’s widely considered one of Edmonton’s worst draft-day gaffes.

Doan remembers it was, indeed, a bittersweet day.

“I don’t know if I was shocked. I was probably pretty disappointed. I was a huge, huge Oilers fan,” he said. “But, it turned out to be unbelievable going to Winnipeg. (General manager) John Paddock and them, it was unbelievable. I was so grateful for it.

“I don’t think I was shocked. I might have had my heart a little bit hurt by that one.”

Trying to crack the Jets roster that fall as an 18-year-old, Doan stepped onto the ice at training camp and showed no resemblance to a rookie forward.

Paddock said only Doan’s baby face and birth certificate contradicted an instant veteran presence — a calm demeanour, the crispness of his skill set and a strong work ethic.

The cowboy from Halkirk, Alta., was definitely in his element.

“He wasn’t much like a rookie as far as maturity and the way he conducted himself, on and off the ice. That comes from his background, how he was brought up,” Paddock said. “It wasn’t necessarily easy for him to make the team. We weren’t going to keep him if we didn’t think he was capable of playing. But he was a learning variation of what he turned out to be, and that was good enough to be on our team and play.”

Doan remembers walking into the dressing room at training camp and being awed by the stars that surrounded him.

“The veterans on that team — there was Keith Tkachuk, Alexei Zhamnov and Teemu Selanne, Igor Korolev… all these great players, and that was probably the part that I remember the most, just how amazing the veteran guys were,” he said.

Doan picked up a pair of assists in his NHL debut, a 7-5 win over the Dallas Stars, on Oct. 7, 1995, and another helper two nights later in a 4-3 victory over the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. He fired the first two goals of his career on Nov. 14, the second coming in overtime to lift Winnipeg to a 6-5 win over the Chicago Blackhawks.

But his production slowed as the season progressed and the grind to the playoffs intensified. He finished with seven goals and 10 assists in 74 games in his one and only NHL campaign north of the border.

Doan, who accumulated 101 penalty minutes in his final year in the WHL, could more than handle himself when tempers flared.

“I also remember Shane getting in a tussle with (Vancouver Canucks heavyweight) Gino Odjick and seeing how powerful a young man he was. He pushed Odjick all over the zone, actually pushed him through the net, knocked the net off its moorings,” recalled former Jets assistant coach Perry Pearn, a longtime friend of the Doan family. Shane attended Pearn’s hockey camp in St. Albert, Alta., when he was a kid.

“We wondered how much more powerful he would likely be when he matured.”

Pearn wasn’t around Doan long enough to witness his development up close. He moved to Ottawa to work with Senators head coach Jacques Martin the next season, while Doan and the rest of the Jets from that lame-duck campaign headed to the Valley of the Sun.

Team owner Barry Shenkarow sold to Richard Burke and Steven Gluckstern of New York for US$65 million in October 1995, and the new owners moved the franchise to Phoenix.

Just 19, Doan was considered a key piece when the team hit the desert. Gone was the Finnish Flash, dealt to the Ducks midway through the final season on Maroons Road. Tkachuk, the team captain, was the star of the show and Kris King an authoritative presence, but some new characters with impressive resumés — veteran forwards Jeremy Roenick, Mike Gartner and Cliff Ronning — were added to the cast.

Some larger-than-life personalities to be sure, but blessed with innate leadership skills and interpersonal savvy, it didn’t take long for Doan to find his voice.

“In Anaheim one time, we had a team meeting and he was one of the first ones to step up. He was still super young at the time, but he said what he wanted to say and a lot of us were a little surprised, but it showed what type of leader he was and the confidence he had in the kind of player he was and in the kind of team he thought we could be,” said former Jets/Coyotes teammate Dallas Drake, now retired and living in Traverse City, Mich.

“We knew what he said was coming from the heart. A kid like that didn’t just say it to hear his own voice. When he said something, he meant it. And he backed it up. He pointed the finger at himself. He wasn’t shy about voicing his opinion, and that was just another step of one day becoming captain.”

More than 18 months after hanging up his skates, Doan is, undoubtedly, one of the most popular athletes in Arizona history. Heck, the guy was Toronto Maple Leafs centre Auston Matthews’ childhood idol.

Doan will be the first player to have his number retired by the Coyotes organization and will join Bobby Hull, Dale Hawerchuk, Thomas Steen, Tkachuk, Roenick and Teppo Numminen in the franchise’s ring of honour.

“I’m really excited. The Coyotes have done such a great job of making this a big deal. It’s been cool to talk to all the people coming… that’s the part that I’m really excited about, to get to share it with the fans here in Arizona and to have my family and friends here for it,” he says.

“It’s something you never, ever dream of, and to get to experience it is pretty amazing.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell