Shane Doan Autographed Card

Man, the Arizona Coyotes sure don't know how to handle their business in a classy manner.

A few days ago, they announced very publicly that they wouldn't re-sign long-time captain and sole player remaining from the organization's days as the Winnipeg Jets, Shane Doan, and they have now terminated head coach and VP of hockey operations Dave Tippett with three years remaining on his contract.

Tippett coached the team through two bankruptcies, four years without an owner, and a near decade-long rebuild, but that's nothing compared to Doan's contribution to the Coyotes. They straight-up would not be an NHL team today if he hadn't stuck with them through thick and thin, re-signing below market value three times instead.

I'm by no means trying to make Doan into what he was not; we're not talking Alex Ovechkin goal-scoring here, as he's only reached the 30-goal plateau twice in 21 NHL seasons, and we're not talking about a Keith Tkachuk-like power forward, as he's only reached the 100-PIM level twice (one of those being his rookie season in 1995-96), and we're not talking about a two-way forward either, as he's in the minuses ten times, and we're not talking about a player who will produce regardless of who he plays with or makes his teammates better, as he was never a point-per-game player - as a matter of fact, he only came close once, posting 78 points (28 goals, 50 assists) in 80 games in 2007-08.

Still, the guy who has put the team ahead of his own benefit for over a decade - your captain, the guy who has helped sign and attract free agents who did not want to come to such a dysfunctional team and, uh, non-traditional hockey market - should not be kicked out the door with so little class.

The sub-par PR moves made since Andrew Barroway became the team's sole owner - including getting rid of its CEO and minority shareholder Anthony Leblanc, who happens to be the guy who bought the team from the league and "saved" it from relocation or contraction - leave an awful taste in my mouth, reminiscent of the takeover and subsequent cash-grab from the sale of the Montréal Expos in MLB over a decade ago. The fact that he's NHL commissioner Gary Bettman's brother-in-law AND a hedge fund capitalist just adds to that feeling that some small town in Arizona is being pitched a monorail, which will end up in the team leaving town anyway, new building or not.

There are veterans out there for whom I wish a(nother) Stanley Cup: Jaromir Jagr, Jarome Iginla, Jaroslav Halak, Andrei Markov, Tomas Plekanec. But after this, I won't be angry if Doan can get one as a balm or payback.

Here he is sporting the team's former white uniform, on card #69 from Upper Deck's 2005-06 Power Play set, seemingly fanning on a shot in front of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks' Jean-Sébastien Giguère:

He signed it in 2008-09, just like this card I featured three and a half years ago, but upon which I only fell when searching for a Jhonas Enroth card, as detailed in this Olaf Kolzig post.

Shane Doan Jersey Card

From all the times I've featured him, you'd think Shane Doan was one of my  favourite players, and while I can appreciate his being one of the best players to ever suit up for the Phoenix / Arizona Coyotes, that's about as far as I take it, but I keep pulling his cards in the boxes I open, year in and year out; sometimes I can trade them, but this one goes for well under $5 on Ebay, so I figure if someone was actually interested in obtaining it, they wouldn't have to give anything away and could probably find it at a buck or two somewhere and combine shipping for extra jersey cards, instead of having to get rid of a card to acquire it.

Still, I'll take this 2013-14 Series 2 card from Upper Deck (#GJ-SD of the Game Jersey sub-set) and place it in my binder with other Doan cards, if only so I can feature a member of the Coyotes as they've defeated dominated the Montréal Canadiens this afternoon:

It shows Doan wearing the Coyotes' white (away) uniform, the captain's 'C' very visible on his chest, with a game-worn burgundy jersey swatch inserted in it.

Arizona is having an awful year, and much of the blame has been placed on goalie Mike Smith's sub-par play (an 8-21-4 record, 3.49 GAA and .888 is very unbecoming of an NHL starter, let alone one making nearly $6M per season), forcing the team to trade away backup Devan Dubnyk who was outplaying him enough to create a goalie controversy, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Their leading scorer - Keith Yandle - is a defenseman who has 34 points in 50 games, and no one on the team has reached the 15-goal mark, 60% deep into the season. Doan's 27 points rank him fourth on the team, at 38 years old.

No player who has suited up for 20 games or more has a positive +/-, and only two of their top-10 scorers have a better than minus-10 rating.

The way they're built, they were always made to contend for the top draft pick; they clearly have less talent than the Edmonton Oilers (perennial underachievers) and Buffalo Sabres (totally rebuilding with a line-up of 20-year-olds and low-scoring veterans), probably on par with that of the Carolina Hurricanes, who might have a better offense on the first line but not Arizona's top-two defenders (Yandle and Oliver Ekman-Larsson), so it evens out. Except that the Canes' goalie, Cam Ward, is actually (mostly) stopping pucks from going in.

They're clearly sellers at the deadline, with Yandle, Zbynek Michalek and Antoine Vermette the most likely candidates to be traded; Doan, with a no-movement clause to his contract and no will to win a Stanley Cup on a contending team, should stay put.

Shane Doan Autographed Card

Currently on a hot streak is Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan, on pace to have one of his most successful NHL seasons at age 37.

Then again, he never once scored a point per game in any season, though he did come close a few times with 78- and 73-point seasons, and he did score 30+ goals twice. With his reputation and numerous Team Canada nods, however, you'd have thunk he'd have been a better producer, but you have to remember he's played in the Arizona desert pretty much his whole career, save for his rookie year when they were still the Winnipeg Jets. Not exactly statistic-friendly...

He was the 7th player drafted in 1995, a fairly decent crop of players that included Wade Redden (2nd), Chad Kilger (4th), Daymond Langkow (5th), Steve Kelly (6th), Radek Dvorak (10th), Jarome Iginla (11th), the rejuvenated Jean-Sébastien Giguère (13th), recent retiree Martin Biron (16th), Petr Sykora (18th), Jochen Hecht (49th), Miikka Kiprusoff (116th), and Stéphane Robidas (164th).

Of the lot, there is one sure-fire Hall Of Famer (Iginla), and two who are on the bubble but, in my opinion, should make it: Giggy (Conn Smythe in 2003, Stanley Cup in 2007) and Kipper (the best goalie in the world for 5 straight years despite a few Vezinas lost to Martin Brodeur).

Doan just doesn't have the numbers, nor the hardware. But he does have heart, in droves and enough for a whole team to rely on for a decade. I got him to sign this card of him wearing the Coyotes' ''peyote'' uniform (though the logo isn't clear on the jersey itself):

It's from Topps' 2002-03 O-Pee-Chee set (card #131) and was signed in black sharpie outside the Bell Centre in the beginning of the 2008-09 season; I also got Steven Reinprecht at that time, though I can't seem to find that card at the moment.

Shane Doan Autograph Card

One of the many never-ending sagas this off-season has been ''the Shane Doan situation''. I touched briefly on the status of the Phoenix Coyotes yesterday, and the fact that their captain is taking his merry time before signing a new contract wouldn't be so annoying if every hockey blogger didn't write about it every day.

I understand sticking with the team through thick and thin - that's what makes Doan captain material. But the fact that he's contemplating signing 4-year deals elsewhere is puzzling, although not as much as teams offering him $7.5M per season when, at age 35, he has never made that much money - and is on a clear down slope, points-wise, going from 78 points in 2007-08 (28 goals) to 73 in 2008-09 (31 goals) to 55 in 2009-10 (18 goals) to a slight increase to 60 points in 2010-11 (20 goals) to another drop in 2011-12 with 50 points (22 goals).

Sure, with better players, he could produce a little bit more; on the other hand, on a stronger team, he probably wouldn't be on the first line anymore, meaning a drop in ice time may lead to a slip in production as well... and giving more than 10% of your payroll on a has-been isn't exactly the best use of cap space I've heard of.

Doan is a distant cousin to Carey Price, which may or may not matter, in the end. He shares another highlight with the Montréal Canadiens, as he was involved in a discussion with a teammate that degenerated quickly when the Habs took a 4-0 lead, and Doan looked at referee Michel Cormier and said to a teammate ''What do you expect? Four French refs in Montréal...'' implying that Quebecers, as a sub-race, couldn't remain impartial despite their jobs depending on it, while four English-Canadians in Toronto or Ottawa could. His teammate replied ''Fucking Frenchmen'', igniting a controversy that would span both of Doan's next Team Canada appearances (2006 Olympics and 2007 Worlds, where he captained the team).

In any event, Doan's a decent hockey player, and this is the ''signed insert version'' of his rookie card, from Upper Deck's 1995-96 Be A Player set (card #S172, the Rookie Quotebook sub-set). It's one of those sets that BAP had an NHLPA license for, but not one from the NHL, so the Jets aren't mentioned anywhere. Other cards had the team logos airbrushed out or hidden by a player's pose...