Doan Wows in Debut, 'Continues to Prove Doubters Wrong'

Josh Doan was born to play for the Arizona Coyotes.

The born-and-raised-in-Arizona product proved on Tuesday that hockey in the desert has never been stronger.

Doan, the son of former Coyotes legendary captain Shane Doan, made his NHL debut against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday, scoring two goals in one of the most memorable debut performances in franchise history. The 22-year-old became the first player in Coyotes/Jets history to score multiple goals in his first NHL game, though none of that should come as a surprise to anyone that’s followed his career.

Current Arizona State Sun Devils men’s hockey coach Greg Powers, in fact, saw so much in the young prospect that he named him captain of the Division I program as a sophomore prior to the 2022-23 season – one in which he logged 16 goals and 22 assists in 39 games before deciding to turn pro.

So no, his performance on Tuesday shouldn’t surprise anyone.

“If you know Josh, this doesn’t surprise you. His success doesn’t surprise you,” Power said. “He made a huge impact on our program. So much so, that as a sophomore I was comfortable naming him our captain just because of the kind of human being that he is. He’s the kind of person that, if you’re around him, you just become better.”

Doan has grown up around Arizona hockey. Pictures of him with his family – including father Shane – can be found almost everywhere, and there were constant reminders of that during Tuesday’s game, both in-arena and on the TV broadcast.

Even so, Josh has carved his own path – from the decision to play with the USHL’s Chicago Steel in 2019-20 and 2020-21, to the decision to remain in the desert and play Division I college hockey, as opposed to potentially play in the Canadian major junior leagues.

Those moments led him to the Roadrunners at the tail end of last season, and after a strong offseason of work, he returned for his first full year of professional hockey more ready than ever.

The result? An AHL All-Star, the team’s goals and points leader, and a history-maker with the Arizona Coyotes.

“He took the decision last year to jump pro, and he could have stayed in college,” Coyotes head coach André Tourigny said. “He wanted to challenge himself. He went to Tucson, had a good end of the season, learned a lot, went through some frustration, and this year he went out there, worked really hard, had a good camp with us, and he earned the right to be here. 

“He deserves it. He can feel really good about himself knowing full well he earned everything he got.”

Those results are even more meaningful for Doan, who said he was considered “undersized” as a 16-year-old player.

He used that, among other things, as motivation for the future, and in what seems like the blink of an eye the teenage boy who would stream Coyotes Rookie Development Camp at home on his computer is now in the NHL, scoring in his very first game.

“You just control what you can control and let everything else take care of itself, which is hard to do,” Doan said prior to Tuesday’s game. “At the end of the day you take a deep breath, focus on that, that’s all you need to do.”

If you wrote a movie script about what happened after he said that, it almost wouldn’t be believable.

“It’s a little bit of a fairy tale,” Tourigny said. “That’s the way life should be. That’s beautiful.”

Coyotes General Manager Bill Armstrong and his staff were always excited about the possibility of drafting Doan, which they did with the 37th overall pick at the 2021 NHL Draft. He has impressed at every level of hockey, and continues to reinforce that decision made to select him in the second round.

The work ethic, dedication, and attention to detail is something Armstrong said reminded him of Colton Parayko during his time in St. Louis – a defenseman who moved on from college in 2014-15 to join the AHL’s Chicago Wolves in their playoff hunt.

The Stanley Cup-winning blueliner has gone on to record 257 points in 649 games – all with the Blues.

“From rookie camp, to training camp, to exhibition season, to him going down to Tucson, every time he's taken the right step and he's progressed,” Armstrong said. “He's being rewarded, to be honest with you, for what he's accomplished down there in a small period of time.”

Doan said after Tuesday’s win that he’s not sure the version of himself that was called undersized would ever believe what he accomplished in his first NHL game.

Nothing was given, and he used hard work, dedication, and and determination to continually progress. It culminated with Doan becoming the seventh player in franchise history to score the game-winning goal in his first-ever game, and the first since Christian Fischer did it on Jan. 21, 2017 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“It’s been a long journey with off-ice training, and the Coyotes put faith in me and gave me a script to go to work,” Doan said. “That’s something that I’ll always thank them for. It’s nice that it’s finally paid off.”

The Arizona product is playing for the team he grew up cheering for, and it’s not a moment he’ll ever take for granted.

“I’ve always been a Coyotes fan from day one,” Doan said. “I’ve watched everything and followed all the prospects, and to finally be doing this is definitely something cool and something that back then I didn’t think would be a possibility.”

If that possibility has surprised anyone, it certainly shouldn’t, and it won’t be long before it doesn’t.

“He’s bet on himself every step of the way, and he continues to prove any doubters wrong,” Powers said. “I think it’s going to get to the point where nobody ever doubts him again.”