It’s the first significant hiring made by Treliving, just more than a week after he became the Leafs GM in the wake of the firing of Kyle Dubas.
Many in the hockey world figured Doan, who was Arizona’s chief hockey development officer, would be a Coyote for life in some form. As 28 years with the same organization is a long time service. The thought of seeing Shane Doan with a different organization other than the Arizona Coyotes seemed impossible. But Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving was persuasive in his pursuit of the former NHL player of 21 seasons and that was the biggest factor in Doan's decision to leave his position as chief hockey development officer and head north to become a special advisor to the general manager.
After he was a first-round pick by the Jets in 1995, Doan spent one season in Winnipeg before the team moved to Arizona. He didn’t play one game for another organization, amassing 972 points in 1,540 games before he retired after the 2016-17 season. Doan’s No. 19 was retired by the Coyotes four years ago.
The lure of his relationships with Treliving, Matthews and Knies, as well as a chance to have a greater hands-on hockey role with a club such as the Leafs, was too much for Doan to ignore.
“It’s the Toronto Maple Leafs,” Doan said on Friday. “It’s one of the premier — not just hockey franchises — sports franchises in the world. That doesn’t come along very often. You combine that with the relationships that I had with Brad and some of the other guys, it made it so it was something that I couldn’t pass up".
“I don’t care if you love the Leafs or hate the Leafs, which a lot of people do, you can’t ignore the fact that it is where hockey is so huge and … is special.”