By Mike Harrington
Copyright buffalonews
New Sabres forward Josh Doan has been busy at training camp, quickly making an impression and establishing himself as a regular while given a good role on a line with Jiri Kulich and Jack Quinn.
Back home in Arizona, his mother is making plenty of news, too.
Andrea Doan was introduced last week as the chairperson of an advisory community of political, business and community leaders dedicated to bringing the NHL back to the Phoenix area.
“It’s exciting to see. As a family, it’s very cool for us and we fully support her in whatever she’s doing,” Josh Doan said during a break in camp. “If there’s one person who wants hockey back in Arizona, it’s her.
“She’s raised four kids there and she had to kind of learn the ropes of what the city was like. She’s from Western Canada originally (Kamloops, British Columbia), but now Arizona is home for her, and she knows just about everything and anything you can know about it. It’s good for them to have someone that knows the area, the people, knows where things are going to work, knows what areas are popular and then also has the passion for the game that she does.”
It should be noted that iconic former Arizona Coyotes star Shane Doan, Josh’s father and Andrea’s husband, will not be part of the committee. He is under contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs as their special advisor to general manager Brad Treliving.
Shane Doan has been living in Arizona since 1997, when the Coyotes moved from Winnipeg. Andrea Doan is an Arizona State grad who raised their four children in the state. Josh Doan, 23, was drafted by the Coyotes in 2021, was a captain at Arizona State and played 11 games for the Coyotes in 2024 before joining them in their move to Utah last season.
With Shane playing his NHL schedule, it was Andrea Doan who was the central figure in Josh’s youth hockey life.
“She took me on every road trip as a kid to travel and I’m sure there are a lot of games that she didn’t really want to go to that I dragged her into,” he said. “She made sure that I had the full hockey experience. She is the ultimate hockey mom, so it’s cool to see her doing this now.”
Doan said he played on some teams that had 8 to 12 road trips a year, featuring extensive travel to places like Michigan, New York and even Canada.
“You could even have multiple-city trips where you double down on some of those places,” he said. “We had talented groups in Arizona but we had to travel quite a bit just to stay competitive.”
Andrea Doan said last week her commitment to Arizona spurred her to serve the committee and the community.
“It was so sad that the team left. The Coyotes are the whole reason why we were ever even in Arizona,” she told longtime Arizona beat writer Craig Morgan in a Q&A on Morgan’s Substack. “It was a part of our family’s livelihood. And it’s still hard to actually think about the fact that they’re not here. There’s always been this underlying instability, which is one of the things we want to change the most right away by showing what’s really going on in this hockey community.
“There’s this tethered understanding of the culture of hockey in Arizona, and how to grow that. … We have been given all these opportunities because of hockey and so you want to help by giving back and doing whatever you can. It’s just not going to feel complete until the team is back here.”
The problem with Arizona as an NHL market really had nothing to do with the area’s commitment from fans. It was, as they say in the business world, about nothing more than location, location, location.
The Coyotes’ former home, now known as Desert Diamond Arena, was a more-than-fine NHL arena and visiting reporters always enjoyed staying across the street at an adjacent Renaissance hotel. Frankly, it was one of the easiest trips to make in the league. Just walk to and from the game in about two minutes. And if it was the right time of year, there were multiple MLB spring training sites within 30 minutes from which to choose.
But it was far from easy for area fans. The arena’s location in Glendale on the west side of the Phoenix metro area made it a traffic nightmare for locals. Many just stopped trying to make the quest, especially on weeknights. The location of the arena, as well as the constant squabbling between the Coyotes and Glendale government, doomed the franchise.
An arena in downtown Phoenix or toward the east in Tempe, Scottsdale or Mesa would be the panacea to set up a return by the NHL. It seems like Atlanta is the leader in any expansion and Arizona quickly could leapfrog Houston by getting an ownership group and new arena.
“It is a hockey area. Look at the guys now that are in the league that were born in that area, and how many guys that go back and train there and want to spend time there,” Josh Doan said. “It was a growing city at the time when they decided to put the arena out there (Glendale) and that ended up not being the right place and ended up costing them.
“With the right location, it could do really well. You look at how well ASU has done, they sell out pretty much every night. There’s definitely a place for it. It’s just a matter of where. And I think if you put any venue in Scottsdale, it’s going to sell out, no matter what’s going on.”
Barkov injury changes Atlantic
Stunning news out of Florida on Friday that captain Aleksander Barkov had surgery to repair a torn ACL and MCL after a practice injury on Thursday. The team said it’s a recovery window of seven to nine months and most observers feel Barkov’s season is done before it started. It also means he will be out of the Olympics, where he was expected to be the captain for Finland.
The Panthers will be without Barkov for the entire season and will spend several months without the injured Matthew Tkachuk and Tomas Nosek. Merely making the playoffs could be a chore now for the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.
“There’s no hiding it, that’s a hole,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said Friday. “That’s the big man, right? Barky has such an important place in that locker room. I think what we’re going to get to experience now is you’ll get to know some of the other leaders that we have in our room. We’ll get to see other players. At the end of the day, I know there’s the idea, ‘next man up.’ I get all that, but there’s not a next man for Barky’s skates. So, we’ve just got to share it.”
Lots of applause to be given out in multiple directions in the last few days:
Rochester: Legendary Amerks radio play-by-play man Don Stevens announced that the club’s 70th anniversary season will be his last behind the microphone. It will be his 40th year in a career that started in 1986. Stevens has called more than 3,300 games and will continue to work a limited road schedule this year while calling all 36 home games.
”I am truly humbled and blessed by the immense support I have had and still receive in my career,” Stevens said. “I plan on spending the upcoming season honoring and thanking all of you for what has been an incredible journey over the years.”
Nashville: Original Predators play-by-play man Pete Weber, who spent many years in Buffalo calling Bisons and Sabres games, will join his longtime analyst Terry Crisp in getting inducted into the “Preds Golden Hall” during the team’s Nov. 1 game against Calgary. They will join original Hall members David Poile, Pekka Rinne and Shea Weber.
Rinne gave Crisp and Weber the surprise news while they were filming a social media campaign for “Pete and Terry’s,” the Bridgestone Arena tavern that bears their names.
Weber has called the Preds games on radio and TV since their inception in 1998. Crisp, who retired in 2022, spent the first 16 years of his career on radio alongside Weber.
Long Island: Pat LaFontaine will become the 17th member of the Islanders Hall of Fame when he gets inducted prior to the Dec. 13 game against Tampa Bay. Initial reaction: He wasn’t already in their Hall?
LaFontaine had 566 points in 530 games with the team after being drafted third overall in 1983. Traded to the Sabres in 1991, LaFontaine’s No. 16 was retired here in 2006 but his relationship with the organization has remained frayed after he resigned in March 2014 from a four-month tenure as president of hockey operations.
