NHL Dominoes: Shane Doan to Vancouver? Jarome Iginla to follow?

Shane Doan is going to listen to outside offers as he's apparently determined, the Coyotes' chances of staying in Phoenix are still on shaky ground. According to Doan's agent, Terry Bross, Shane's criterion include: 


1. location
2. management
3. players
4. Cup chances

Thus, though there maybe a dozen teams willing to make an offer, only 2-3 teams will warrant serious consideration, again according to Bross. 


Assuming all the offers are relatively the same then, here is how I see Shane Doan's shortlist stacking up:

1. Vancouver
2. San Jose
3. Los Angeles

Lets start with #3 and work our way up. The Kings are a young team, and though they may have some cup hangover, they will be contenders for years to come. LA is also a short flight to Phoenix in case Doan intends on keeping his ranch and horses intact. A spot would need to be opened up for Doan among the top six though, as currently the Kings are all full up with Kopita, Brown, Williams, Richards, Carter and Penner on the roster. Penner could be shifted to the third line though, LA is still a very strong candidate.

Doan, Thornton and Kris Draper

Next is San Jose, another California contender with a strong nucleus. They may not be as close to cup contenders as LA, but Doan has a tailor made center in Joe Thornton, who he had success playing with while on Team Canada during the World Cup -- but that was over a decade ago. San Jose is also a quick flight to Phoenix, and maybe a little easier to get around in traffic when trying to get to the airport and back.

Then we have Vancouver. Another Pacific coast city, but this time much further north. Despite Doan's love for flight (yes he's got a pilot's license), a plane ride from Vancouver to Phoenix is not nearly as convenient then from either California cities. Despite that though, Vancouver has perhaps is the strongest candidate when it comes to Doan's teenage roots.

Doan me his wife Andrea while playing junior for the Kamloops Blazers. He and his family still spend parts of the off-season in Kamloops. Doan is a part owner of the Blazers, along with Jarome Iginla (who he played with in Kamloops) and new Dallas Stars owner, and Vancouver resident, Tom Galiardi.

Gillis and Gilman

In his recent blog post:, Province writer, Jason Botchford provided this additional nugget with regard to the Canucks chances of landing Doan: 

The Canucks may have an ace up their sleeve. At least, they have a pretty good in. Laurence Gilman, the Canucks assistant general manager, has a personal relationship with Doan established during his 13 years with the Phoenix Coyotes/Winnipeg Jets organization.

"I've known Shane since he was 19 years old and I have a lot of respect for him," Gilman said. "We've definitely stayed in touch over the years."

Andrea and Shane Doan

As much as the relationship with Gilman will play a factor, I think Doan's wife being from Kamloops will be the component that seals the deal with regard to signing with the Canucks. This situation eerily similar to the Ryan Suter's, where his Minneapolis raised wife, Becky, played a large role in his decision to move to the Wild, along with Minnesota native Zach Parise and his Minnesota soon to be wife Alisha.


Andrea Doan by the way, is a professional photographer by trade. She has her own company and website. Her passion is her family including taking plenty of pictures of her four kids and their father, Shane.


Some of the repercussions of Shane Doan signing a 3 to 5 year deal with the Canucks could include, Doan recruiting his old buddy Jarome Iginla to the Canucks. Iginla himself is an BC interior resident during the off-season, residing in close by Kelowna.

Shane Doan and Jarome Iginla

Thus, its not inconceivable that he and Doan could re-unite with the Canucks, next off-season, when Iginla is a unrestricted free agent. This could also play a role in Doan's decision on a NHL destination, likely to be determined in the next few days.

EDIT:
With the Brenden Morrow trade rumors appearing to be legitimate, I do wonder if Dallas Stars new owner Tom Gaglardi is making room for Shae Doan. They are of course business partners with regard to their ownership of the Kamloops Blazers (along with Jarome Iginla).

Either way, you would think Doan signing with Francesco Aquilini's Canucks, would be a tough pill to swallow for Aquilini's scorned former partner, Gaglardi. Doan may not want to create those negative vibes between himself and Gaglardi (and maybe even Iginla) by going to the Canucks.

The Canucks and Stars have tried to do business since Galardi's purchase of the Stars. Thus, it could a non-factor in the end, especially if it becomes a matter of Doan having to pick between his wife and his business partner's happiness. 

Calgary Flames Now With Cap Space: Who To Target?

Update: 9/2/11:
From the Flames Town-hall Fan Forum, here's Feaster's response to a fan's question about which No. 1 centers the Flames are currently targeting: 

“I’m not going to sit here and say that we have a legitimate No. 1 centreman. We don’t. We have players who can slot in there. But we’re still obviously searching and we’re in the market for a No. 1 centre.”

Nevertheless, Feaster seems to be taking a passive approach until the start of the season with regard to any new deals at this point, as he explained during an interview regarding the Langkow trade:

"Well you know what, obviously we never say never, but its not as though there's something we're actively going out there and saying...lets sign this particular free agent, or there's a deal that's pending for anybody. Having that in our pocket, having that space -- I've said this all along -- I still think there are going to be opportunities come training camp, whether its via trade or the waiver wire. I think once the season starts, you start to see things shake out in that first month or so, i think there will deals that can be done. And if you don't have the space, you're not even a participant, you're not even a player. For us now to have the space, we have more options, more felxibility." [see 3:35 mark of below video]

Even with the Langkow deal, he stated PHX came to him not the other way around.

Daymond Langkow

Update 8/29/11:
@kausatoday Kevin Allen Twitter: The hold-up in the Langkow trade: the player going to Calgary has not been notified.

Considering Calgary's need at RW, the player coming back for Daymond Langkow is likely either Lee Stempniak or Taylor Pyatt.


@DarrenDreger Darren Dreger Twitter: Langkow to Phx...Stempniak to Calgary. Trade pending Langkow passing physical

Lee Stempniak

The PHX deal does indeed involve RW Lee Stempniak. He'll fill a hole on that side of the forward corps. Stempniak is mostly an even-strength minutes player, meaning he should take away time from any of the existing PP and PK forwards.

He can be used either on the second or third line and comes with a cap hit of $1.9M. That still leaves CGY with $4M in cap space to go after other improvements. Teams that remain over the cap include BUF. Players available there have to include forward Brad Boyes and defenseman Shaone Morrisonn.

At the same time, with so much cap space now, CGY doesn't necessarily need to get rid of its overpaid thirdliners including Niklas Hagman. They can wait for him to regain some value (if possible) before trying to force any trade. CGY GM Jay Feaster said about Hagman during a TV interview just today:

Niklas Hagman

"I was talking to our strength coach, he's been telling me he's been seaking with the trainer that Nik Hagman has been using this summer. The trainer commented that he can't believe the progress that Nik has made."

And with so many UFAs among the forwards next summer, Feaster is likely counting on even Matt Stajan to have a bounce back season. Feaster will probably only deal Stajan if he fails again to live up to his multi-year contract.

					Calgary Flames
Left Wing	Cap	GP	P	TOI	Center	Cap	GP	P	TOI	Right Wing	Cap	GP	P	TOI
Jarome Iginla	$7.0	82	86	20:56	Olli Jokinen	$3.0	79	54	17:46	Alex Tanguay	$3.5	79	69	19:45
Curtis Glencross	$2.6	79	43	16:14	Brend. Morrison	$1.3	66	43	16:41	Rene Bourque	$3.3	80	50	17:45
Niklas Hagman	$3.0	71	27	13:38	Matthew Stajan	$3.5	76	31	14:13	Lee Stempniak	$1.9	82	38	15:15
T. Kostopoulos	$0.9	76	18	12:20	Mikael Backlund	$1.3	73	25	12:04	David Moss	$1.3	58	30	13:41
Tim Jackman	$0.6	82	23	9:49						P.L. Leblond	$0.5	2	0	3:27
Left Defense	Cap	GP	P	TOI	Right Defense	Cap	GP	P	TOI	Goal	Cap	GP	W	SV%
J. Bouwmeester	$6.7	82	24	25:59	Scott Hannan	$1.0	78	11	19:47	Miikka Kiprusoff	$5.8
Mark Giordano	$4.0	82	43	23:08	Cory Sarich	$3.6	76	17	17:52	Henrik Karlsson	$0.9
Chris Butler	$1.3	49	9	18:10	Anton Babchuk	$2.5	82	35	16:20
					Brett Carson	$0.6	19	0	11:26
				Pos	Not Included	Cap	GP	P	TOI
				F	Lance Bouma	$0.7	16	1	5:52
				F	Greg Nemisz	$1.0	6	1	5:05
				F	Sven Baertschi	$1.5		WHL
				D	T.J. Brodie	$0.7	3	0	16:00
				D	B. Mikkelson	$0.7	24	2	14:13
	Salary Cap				$64,300,000				LTIR	Raitis Ivanans	$0.6	1	0	8:20
	Cap Payroll				$60,069,208					Nigel Dawes	$0.1	Buyout
	Cap Space				$4,230,792	23 players				Carry-Ovr Bns	10K	Pnlty
	Floor Clearance				$11,769,208	$48.3M				Roster Bonuses	$0.8	Total

Original article continued:

Now that the Calgary Flames have dealt center Daymond Langkow back to the Phoenix, assuming no other roster players are involved, Calgary has some $6M in cap space. Not a team to avoid spending to the cap limit, I would guess the Jay Feaster is in the market for some players. With their abundance of centers now paired down to a manageable level, the Flames could use an upgrade on the wing. 

After a close look at the roster, the place where they could use some additional help would be at right wing. Currently due to the depth at left wing, I have Curtis Glencross swapping sides in order to give him the minutes he's accustomed to. A more ideal scenario would be getting a natural right winger on the second line. The fellow I have in mind is none other than Brad Boyes.

Brad Boyes

Boyes has been supplanted on the Buffalo Sabres roster by Drew Stafford. And considering the Sabres are over the cap space limit (because of an earlier trade with Calgary this off-season that involved Alex Kotalik and Robyn Regehr). 

Boyes is accustomed to playing 17 minutes a game on average. He is a right shooting forward who could have been the one going to PHX in a trade, had he been able to play center as well he does the right wing. Instead, he could very well be headed to Calgary in what would essentially amount to a three-way trade. 

He would give the Flames the ability to deploy two solid scoring lines, and because of the depth, would allow them to squeeze more goals out of the third line as well.

					Calgary Flames
Left Wing	Cap	GP	P	TOI	Center	Cap	GP	P	TOI	Right Wing	Cap	GP	P	TOI
Jarome Iginla	$7.0	82	86	20:56	Olli Jokinen	$3.0	79	54	17:46	Alex Tanguay	$3.5	79	69	19:45
Rene Bourque	$3.3	80	50	17:45	Brend. Morrison	$1.3	66	43	16:41	Curtis Glencross	$2.6	79	43	16:14
Niklas Hagman	$3.0	71	27	13:38	Matthew Stajan	$3.5	76	31	14:13	David Moss	$1.3	58	30	13:41
Tim Jackman	$0.6	82	23	9:49	Mikael Backlund	$1.3	73	25	12:04	T. Kostopoulos	$0.9	76	18	12:20
P.L. Leblond	$0.5	2	0	3:27
Left Defense	Cap	GP	P	TOI	Right Defense	Cap	GP	P	TOI	Goal	Cap	GP	W	SV%
J. Bouwmeester	$6.7	82	24	25:59	Scott Hannan	$1.0	78	11	19:47	Miikka Kiprusoff	$5.8
Mark Giordano	$4.0	82	43	23:08	Cory Sarich	$3.6	76	17	17:52	Henrik Karlsson	$0.9
Chris Butler	$1.3	49	9	18:10	Anton Babchuk	$2.5	82	35	16:20
B. Mikkelson	$0.7	24	2	14:13	Brett Carson	$0.6	19	0	11:26
				Pos	Not Included	Cap	GP	P	TOI
				F	Lance Bouma	$0.7	16	1	5:52
				F	Greg Nemisz	$1.0	6	1	5:05
				F	Sven Baertschi	$1.5		WHL
				D	T.J. Brodie	$0.7	3	0	16:00
	Salary Cap				$64,300,000				LTIR	Raitis Ivanans	$0.6	1	0	8:20
	Cap Payroll				$58,890,208					Nigel Dawes	$0.1	Buyout
	Cap Space				$5,409,792	23 players				Carry-Ovr Bns	10K	Pnlty
	Floor Clearance				$10,590,208	$48.3M				Roster Bonuses	$0.8	Total

The defense was already bolstered some weeks ago by the addition of Scott Hannan and looks set satisfactorily deep (though not necessarily very fast overall). Regarding the burly blueliner, I tweeted previously...

Iginla vs Hannan

@JawandaPuck JawandaPuck: @mirtle "Flames sign Scott Hannan. One year, $1-million" | JP: closer to home is saving grace -- likely missed out on better earlier offers (in July)

...GM Jay Feaster seemed to confirm this theory during a TV interview (see below) that Hannan seemed to take a discount to play closer to home, which for him is Kelowna BC (less than an hour away from Calgary by air):

"He was willing to sign, you know, for us a cap friendly deal. And candidly, he and his agent had indicated that there were a number of different directions that they could have gone in terms of signing. And so we're just pleased to have him under contract and part of the organization."

Brendan Morrison was in the same boat last season. Cut loose by WSH, Morrison signed with CGY at a discount to play closer to home (VAN). Also living in Kelowna during the off-season is Hannan's new teammate Jarome Iginla, who may have played a part in any recruiting efforts by CGY. In fact, here's Feaster possibly confirming the referral:

"We talked to someone recently who sees (Hannan) every summer, who commented to Brent (Sutter) that he's never seen him in better shape than he is in right now -- and he's excited about coming to Calgary." 

Either way, CGY GM Jay Feaster has certainly put his own stamp on this new edition of the Calgary Flames.