On the other hand, the 40-year-old forward knows full well that hockey is a business.
"I wasn't necessarily shocked that they didn't want me to play (with them) again," he said. "I understand the direction they're going (in), I don't completely agree with a lot of the decisions they've made, but ... I'm a player and ... you sometimes start to think you're bigger than you are, and ... (my) job is (simply) to play. I understand their job is to make decisions like this, and that's what they had to do."
Doan said he was waiting to hear from the Coyotes about whether they wanted him back, and general manager John Chayka met with him Saturday to inform him of the club's intent.
The longtime captain believes it was Coyotes owner Andrew Barroway who opted to move on.
"It was the owner's decision," Doan said Monday. "When (he) got possession of the team, he ... wanted to go with a younger group and me being around might have delayed things. Sometimes, you have to rip the Band-Aid off, and I guess that's kind of the approach they were looking at."
When asked if he had any hard feelings, Doan insisted he won't hold a grudge.
"I don't like the way it ended, and ... I'm not happy. If you talked to me two days ago, it would have been probably a little bit different," he said. "But at the same time, I'm not going throw everything away that I've worked hard to build up as collateral with the Coyotes over an individual's decision.
"I understand it is what it is. Yeah, I'm hurt and I'm upset, and I wish it hadn't ended the way that it (did) ... but I don't think I'm going to be bitter."
Doan's agent, Terry Bross, told 98.7's Craig Morgan earlier Monday that his client is ready to test the free-agent market and wants a chance to win the Stanley Cup.
He'll officially become an unrestricted free agent July 1.
Shane Doan's agent says his client isn't done playing just yet.
"Shane is ready to enter the free-agent market and see where it goes," Terry Bross told Arizona Sports 98.7 FM's Craig Morgan. "Time for him to get a shot at the Cup."
The Coyotes opted not to offer Doan a contract for next season, with team owner Andrew Barroway saying in a statement Monday that "the time has come for us to move on and focus on our young, talented group of players and our very bright future."
Doan will now become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. The 40-year-old didn't provide much in the way of production this past season, as he posted only six goals and 27 points on an abysmal Coyotes squad.
Most of his value is of the intangible variety, considering his leadership experience as Arizona's longtime captain and his 21 NHL seasons, all of which were spent with the Coyotes organization.
The club has decided not to offer a new contract to longtime leader Shane Doan, opening the door for the franchise defenseman to don the "C" moving forward.
Doan was thanked for his service and time, the source said, explaining that the organization is "getting rid of everything old and going in a different direction." Defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson will be named captain, the source said
Ekman-Larsson was drafted sixth overall by the Coyotes in 2009. In 494 career games, he's registered 88 goals and 160 assists.
Shane Doan has spent the last 20 seasons in a Coyotes uniform. But that number won't hit 21, as the club announced Monday that it will be parting ways with its longtime captain.
Despite coming off a season in which he registered his lowest point output in four years (six goals and 21 assists), Doan still played a key leadership role on a Coyotes squad filled with youth and inexperience.
However, leadership and loyalty is apparently not enough to keep the former seventh overall pick in the desert for one more season.
Doan has been the cornerstone of the franchise since being drafted by the then-Winnipeg Jets in 1995, and despite showing his interest in returning for another year, he will be moving on to a new franchise for the first time in his 22-year career.
The 40-year-old finishes his career in Arizona as the Coyotes' all-time leader in games played (1540), goals (402), assists (570), and points (972).
If Marc-Andre Fleury's days with the Penguins are indeed coming to a close, he won't soon be forgotten in Pittsburgh.
Sure, the goaltender will be remembered as a first overall draft pick, a three-time Stanley Cup champion and, by all accounts, a model teammate. But with the possibility of being selected by the Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft a very real one, Fleury is leaving a more tangible legacy behind.
Case in point: Fleury financed construction of a new, state-of-the-art playground at a Boys & Girls club in the Pittsburgh area, and attended the grand opening Monday morning.
— Penguins Foundation (@pensfoundation) June 19, 2017
"It's been something we've been thinking about for a little while, and we were just thinking about something to give back," Fleury said on behalf of him and his wife, Veronique, via the Penguins website.
"The people of Pittsburgh have been so good to me, so to build something fun, something for the kids, I'm glad it all came out and the kids seem to like it."
It will be a heavily used structure, and a great way to keep Fleury tied to the city.
"From the onset of this project, it was obvious that Marc-Andre and Veronique shared our passion to make the growing-up years count for the children of the community and that this gift is being presented for all the right reasons," stated Boys & Girls Club CEO and president Mike Hepler. "Once the ribbon is cut, we are going to have a lot of smiling faces - compliments of the Fleury family."
Fleury has been with the Penguins since being drafted back in 2003, but was left exposed in the expansion draft. Vegas will make its official roster announcement at the NHL Awards on Wednesday.
Time is running out for the other 30 general managers to get their way in the expansion draft process.
Speaking to reporters Monday, Vegas Golden Knights general manager George McPhee indicated he has put a deadline on discussions with his colleagues as they pertain to making deals to ensure exposed players are or are not selected, depending on the situation.
"Today will be the last day that we are going to have those discussions," he said. "We are going to pick our team (Tuesday)."
The Golden Knights must select one player from each team, including at least 14 forwards, nine defensemen, and three goaltenders. A minimum of 20 of those players must be under contract for 2017-18, and McPhee is free to speak to unprotected free agents to gauge their interest in joining the team.
McPhee must submit his selections by 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday, while the roster will be announced that night at the NHL Awards.
Although he's known more for his love of basketball, Drake is also a big hockey fan and played the sport growing up.
In the clip above, the Toronto rapper, who was 10 years old at the time, shows off his table hockey skills in a satirical commercial based around goaltenders Martin Brodeur and Ron Hextall that aired at the 1997 NHL Awards.
The NHL and NHLPA have agreed on a salary cap for 2017-18, leaving the Chicago Blackhawks as the lone team with some shedding to do.
The cap ceiling for the upcoming season has officially been set at $75 million, and the Blackhawks are the only team currently above that mark with an overage projected at $2.52M, per Cap Friendly.
In fact, no other team comes within $4 million of the new limit:
Team
Projected Cap Space
Blackhawks
-$2.52M
Blue Jackets
$4.04M
Islanders
$4.04M
Ducks
$5.45M
Blues
$6.46M
Part of that extra salary could be gone as early as Wednesday, though, courtesy of the Vegas Golden Knights.
Kruger is set to carry a cap hit of $3,083,333 for the next two seasons, while Van Riemsdyk's deal is valued at $825,000 against the cap. The savings there amount to $3,908,333, enough to get the Blackhawks under the ceiling.
On the flip side, there are now two roster spots that need to be filled, leaving almost $1.4 million (and zero flexibility) to work with.
The expansion draft, then, is just the beginning of general manager Stan Bowman's efforts to become cap compliant without sacrificing too much talent.
Spin the trade wheel
The next (and bigger) step likely involves trading a more core piece of the roster. Assuming Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith and Corey Crawford are safe, here are a few other candidates to be moved:
Player
Position
2017-18 Cap Hit
Brent Seabrook
D
$6.875M (NMC)
Artemi Panarin
F
$6M
Marian Hossa
F
$5.275M (NMC)
Artem Anisimov
F
$4.55M (NMC)
Niklas Hjalmarsson
D
$4.1M (M-NTC NMC)
As we can see, the challenge here lies in the fact almost all these players can't be moved without giving consent, which is why Panarin cracks the list, as unfathomable as that may seem.
We all know Bowman has proven to have a knack for filling roster holes with veteran players on the cheap, or with talented young prospects on entry-level deals. That challenge is greater than ever, with an aging core still stinging from the embarrassment of scoring three goals in a four-game sweep at the hands of the Nashville Predators.
Chicago, then, will be a team to watch closely this summer, and the Blackhawks could be active hosts of this weekend's NHL Entry Draft by giving commissioner Gary Bettman a trade or two to announce.
While the Vegas Golden Knights are set to put together their inaugural roster in just a few days, it has been 25 years since the Tampa Bay Lightning conducted their expansion draft prior to the 1992-93 season.
The Lightning and Ottawa Senators, who joined the league the same year, each chose 21 players - two goaltenders, seven defensemen, and 12 forwards. The pickings were slim, as teams were allowed to protect two netminders and 14 skaters each (the second-year San Jose Sharks were exempt from the expansion draft).
The Lightning made out considerably better than their Canadian brethren, winning 23 games while compiling 53 points in their inaugural season. Brian Bradley was the offensive catalyst, scoring an incredible 42 goals while finishing with 86 points en route to a spot in the NHL All-Star Game - his first of two consecutive All-Star appearances.
Here are the 21 players the Lightning selected in the expansion draft:
Goaltenders
Wendell Young (selected from Pittsburgh)
GP
W
L
T
GAA
SV%
31
7
19
2
3.66
.872
Young went from backup duty in Pittsburgh to a similar role with the expansion Lighting, playing behind Pat Jablonski. He actually posted slightly better numbers, but it wasn't enough to earn him more playing time the following season. He was dealt back to the Penguins in 1995, and played his final seven years with Chicago of the International Hockey League.
Frederic Chabot (selected from Montreal)
GP*
W
L
T
GAA
SV%
45
22
17
4
3.33
.901
*Played with AHL's Fredericton Canadiens
Montreal wasn't thrilled with losing Chabot, so it made a deal with Tampa the day after the expansion draft and sent fellow netminder Jean-Claude Bergeron to the Lightning. Bergeron actually asserted himself well in Tampa - recording a 3.65 goals-against average in 53 career games - while Chabot appeared in just two more games with Montreal and 32 for his NHL career.
Defensemen
Joe Reekie (selected from N.Y. Islanders)
GP
G
A
PTS
+/-
42
2
11
13
+2
Reekie was a dependable defense-first blue-liner that had one of the best seasons of any Lightning player in their inaugural season. He was so good, in fact, that Tampa Bay was able to deal him to Washington for bruiser Enrico Ciccone and a pair of draft picks in a March 1994 trade. Reekie went on to play parts of nine seasons with the Capitals.
Shawn Chambers (selected from Washington)
GP
G
A
P
+/-
55
10
29
39
-21
Chambers was a revelation for Tampa Bay - at least on the offensive end. Despite finishing with the fourth-worst plus-minus on the team, he established career bests in goals and assists while leading the team in scoring among defensemen. He played parts of three seasons with the Lightning before being traded to New Jersey in March 1995.
Peter Taglianetti (selected from Pittsburgh)
GP
G
A
P
+/-
61
1
8
9
+8
Taglianetti's bruising style complemented the Lightning's skill players well. He not only led the team in plus-minus, but was also second in penalty minutes. But Tampa Bay decided against holding onto him, swapping him back to the Penguins in exchange for a third-round pick. Taglianetti would remain with the Pens until 1995 before wrapping up his career with Providence of the AHL.
Bob McGill (selected from Detroit)
GP*
G
A
P
+/-
19
1
0
1
+5
*Played with Toronto Maple Leafs
McGill didn't even appear in a game with the Lightning, who placed him on waivers in early September. He was subsequently claimed by the Maple Leafs, reuniting him with the team that selected him 26th overall in the 1980 draft. McGill retired as a player in 1996 with an odd statistical anomaly to his credit: He played in 49 NHL playoff games without registering a single point.
Jeff Bloemberg (selected from N.Y. Rangers)
GP*
G
A
P
+/-
76
6
45
51
-6
*Played with AHL's Cape Breton Oilers
Bloemberg was another player selected by the Lightning in the expansion draft and subsequently moved without playing a game with the team. He was sent to Edmonton for future considerations, and had a solid season with the Oilers' AHL affiliate. But despite stints with the Hartford and Detroit organizations, Bloemberg never played in the NHL again.
Doug Crossman (selected from Quebec)
GP
G
A
P
+/-
40
8
21
29
-4
Crossman brought a veteran pedigree to Tampa, and was the team's top blue-line point producer on a per-game basis. In January 1993, the Lightning made him the centerpiece of a deal with St. Louis that landed them promising forward Jason Ruff. But Ruff did nothing with the Lightning, while Crossman's offense fell off a cliff in 1993-94 (nine points in 50 games played).
Rob Ramage (selected from Minnesota)
GP
G
A
P
+/-
66
5
12
17
-21
Ramage in his prime was one of the top dual-threat defensemen in hockey, capable of racking up points and rearranging opponents' dental work. But as a 34-year-old whose best days were clearly behind him, he didn't offer much of anything on the offensive end. Tampa dealt him to Montreal for Eric Charron, Alain Cote, and Donald Dufresne in March.
Forwards
Michel Mongeau (selected from St. Louis)
GP
G
A
P
+/-
4
1
1
2
-2
Mongeau has an interesting HockeyDB page, even without much NHL content on there. He played just four games with the Lightning, spending the majority of that season in the IHL (65 points in 45 games with Peoria). That was his last NHL action, as he closed out his playing career with stints in the AHL, the Italian League, and the Quebec Senior Professional Hockey League.
Anatoli Semenov (selected from Edmonton)
GP
G
A
P
+/-
13
2
3
5
-5
Semenov came to the Lightning with plenty of promise after racking up 73 points over two seasons with the Oilers following a 10-year run with Moscow Dynamo. But he played in just 13 games with Tampa before being traded to Vancouver, and was claimed by Anaheim in its 1993 expansion draft - just over one year after being nabbed by the Lightning.
Mike Hartman (selected from Winnipeg)
GP
G
A
P
+/-
58
4
4
8
-7
Hartman provided a big part of the muscle for the expansion Lightning, collecting 154 penalty minutes over just 58 games with the team. After Tampa Bay traded him to the New York Rangers for Randy Gilhen, Hartman finished his NHL career on Broadway before spending the majority of his non-NHL time from there with the Charlotte Checkers of the ECHL.
Basil McRae (selected from Minnesota)
GP
G
A
P
+/-
14
2
3
5
-3
Coming off a five-season stint with the Minnesota North Stars in which he averaged more than 313 penalty minutes per season, McRae wasn't coming in to score 30 goals. But his time in Tampa Bay was short, as he was shipped to St. Louis as part of the transaction to acquire Ruff. Even so, he still managed 71 PIMs in just 14 games with the Lightning.
Rob DiMaio (selected from N.Y. Islanders)
GP
G
A
P
+/-
54
9
15
24
0
DiMaio provided a nice boost in Tampa Bay's first season. His point total jumped by 17 compared to his final year with the Islanders, though it wasn't enough to keep him with the Lightning, as he was traded to Philadelphia the following season for Jim Cummins and a fourth-round pick. DiMaio would play 10 more NHL seasons, including a return to Tampa for his final campaign.
Dan Vincelette (selected from Chicago)
GP*
G
A
P
+/-
36
5
5
10
0
*Played with IHL's Atlanta Knights and San Diego Gulls
Tabbed as a future power forward, Vincelette had no trouble racking up the PIMs as a pro but couldn't match his offensive production from junior hockey. He never appeared in a game with Tampa Bay, as he was dealt to the Flyers for Steve Kasper in December 1992. Vincelette finished his career with 22 points and 155 PIMs in 27 games with Acton Vale of the QSPHL in 1996-97.
Steve Maltais (selected from Quebec)
GP
G
A
P
+/-
63
7
13
20
-20
Maltais' NHL footprint is small - he had just nine goals and 18 assists in 120 games with five teams. But his lone season with the Lightning stands out, as it was his only NHL campaign with more than 26 games played. He was shipped out of Tampa Bay the following summer, sent to Detroit for Dennis Vial. He returned to the NHL seven years later with Columbus.
Tim Bergland (selected from Washington)
GP
G
A
P
+/-
27
3
3
6
-5
Bergland had bounced between the NHL and AHL with the Capitals organization since 1989-90 prior to being selected by the Lightning. That pattern continued in his Tampa Bay tenure, as he played 78 games with the Lightning and another 68 with the Atlanta Vipers of the IHL before being reacquired by Washington via waivers in March 1994. He retired in 1999.
Brian Bradley (selected from Toronto)
GP
G
A
P
+/-
80
42
44
86
-24
No one could have seen this coming - particularly not the Maple Leafs, for whom Bradley had scored just 10 goals in 85 games over parts of two season. Bradley's sensational 1992-93 campaign propelled him to the first of two All-Star berths, and he finished with 300 points over 328 games as a member of the Lightning. His 42 goals stood as the team record until 2007.
Keith Osborne (selected from Toronto)
GP
G
A
P
+/-
11
1
1
2
-1
Osborne was an elite player for North Bay and Niagara Falls of the Ontario Hockey League but couldn't match that success in the NHL, finishing with just four points in 16 games. Following several successful seasons in the IHL and UHL, he ended his playing career with the hilariously-named Macon Whoopee of the Central Hockey League in 2000-01.
Shayne Stevenson (selected from Boston)
GP
G
A
P
+/-
8
0
1
1
-5
Stevenson will go down as one of the biggest first-round busts of the 1980s. The 17th overall pick in 1989 had a promising junior career but managed just two assists in 27 career NHL games. He toiled in a variety of minor leagues until the end of his playing days in 2000-01, including a two-season stint with Port Huron and Toronto of Major League Roller Hockey.
Tim Hunter (selected from Calgary)
GP*
G
A
P
+/-
48
5
3
8
-4
*Played with Quebec Nordiques
Hunter's tenure with the expansion Lightning lasted exactly one day. He was dealt to Quebec on June 19 for future considerations that wound up being forward Martin Simard, who finished with the same number of points in a Tampa Bay uniform as Hunter did. Meanwhile, Hunter played five more NHL seasons with the Nordiques, Canucks, and Sharks.
With one year remaining on his contract with the Buffalo Sabres, winger Evander Kane hears his name mentioned in trade rumors.
He seems quite used to it, in fact.
"My name seems to create a buzz with some reporters and radio stations. I wonder if I have some thank-you cards coming," Kane said to Steve Ewen of The Province at a reunion for the Vancouver Giants' 2007 Memorial Cup champions.
The chatter isn't something he seems to be losing sleep over.
"Do I worry about the rumours? No. The funny part about rumours is that if you don't know something is going on, then nobody else does," he said. "I have an agent (Don Meehan) who is knowledgeable and tapped in. He gives me updates when I need updates. I'd like to think I'm well informed when I need to be."
The rumors aren't entirely out of place, though, seeing as Kane's deal expires next summer and he's set to command a hefty raise, especially if he can replicate his 28 goals in 70 games from this past season.
Sabres general manager Jason Botterill is new on the job and will no doubt assess the roster from top to bottom, and Kane's off-ice issues may play a role in any decision to jettison him out of Buffalo.
For his part, Kane has expressed a desire to remain a Sabre, and believes he was able to bring his all to the team in 2016-17 despite facing charges of disorderly conduct and harassment - which were eventually dismissed - stemming from an incident last summer.
"I thought I did a pretty good job of that last season," Kane said of staying focused on his game. "I'm just going to continue to let my play on the ice do all the negotiating and talking and answering for me.
"I'm getting prepared to start another NHL season," he added. "Hopefully it's in Buffalo."
