Never say never, but Doan remains married to Coyotes

Shane Doan was on Arizona’s 98.7 on Wednesday afternoon.

On if he’ll be okay with another rebuild project with the Coyotes:

“Yeah, I mean that’s one of those things that I don’t think anybody as an older player is happy about that. There’s no way you’re happy about that. But at the same time, you’ve kind of made your bed when I signed on here and no one anticipated this year being the way it was and going the way it has gone up to this point. It’s amazing what can turn around in a season in the NHL, and how quickly things can go in the other direction. We obviously got ourselves in a hole here and we’ve got to find a way to get better and make the organization better.”

On if this is, in some ways, like a marriage to him; In that for better or worse he’s a Coyote:

“I mean, that’s probably oversimplifying it, but I think that there’s an element of that. That’s one of things that you never ever say never to anything, but yeah, that’s something that I will always look at it that way.”

On if he wants to leave to win a Stanley Cup, or if he wants to stay in Arizona:

“I want to win a Stanley Cup here. I’ve said that over and over. I do. I want to win a Stanley Cup here, and anyone who plays with me knows that. That’s my goal. That’s my plan. Obviously it’s frustrating and disappointing when you’re not achieving that, and you look around the league and you see the teams that win the Stanley Cup. It’s a small group. There’s only one team that’s happy at the end of every year, and there’s a lot of teams that are disappointed. Right now, obviously, we’re not in the position we want to be in, but we got to keep going. Again, I’m a player and I’m just going to try to do my best.”

On the perceived reality this team is not ready to win a Stanley Cup yet, and how difficult that makes it when he goes to sleep at night in terms of what he wants his future to be:

“Yeah, that’s obviously a situation that not anybody wants to be in that. Especially if you’re a 38-year-old hockey player. And at the same time, you never know what happens the following year. I’m not saying that this year by any means that you’re saying, ‘Oh, there’s no chance.’ I’ve seen crazier things happen. I remember Minnesota  in I think 1990 was the worst team in the league and they ended up playing Pittsburgh for the Cup Final.

“There’s history behind our game where a goalie gets hot, something changes, something goes the right direction, all of the sudden you can win. So that’s the thing I’m going to hold on to for my whole career. I’m always going to remain optimistic and  I understand that things don’t look the way you want them to look to right now. You’ve got to just try to figure out a way to get better and win the next game.”

Source: Arizona 98.7/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey