This father-son legacy will follow the Arizona Coyotes to Utah

Three weeks ago, Josh Doan made his NHL debut for the Arizona Coyotes.

It was the beginning of a fairytale for him. He was playing for his hometown team — the one his dad used to be the face of.

Josh Doan’s father, Shane Doan, is an Arizona Coyotes legend. Shane Doan played his rookie season with the Winnipeg Jets before the team moved to Phoenix. He then spent the rest of his 21-year career with the team.

He never led the team to the Stanley Cup, but he served as the team’s captain from 2003 to his retirement in 2017. Two years later, he became the only Coyote to have his number retired, according to Sporting News .

Shane Doan then returned to the team in a front office role four years after retirement before accepting his current role as the special assistant to the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

On March 26, he was sitting in the crowd to watch his son make his debut and score two goals wearing the same team logo he once wore.

Josh Doan’s career only lasted 11 games in Arizona with the Coyotes. On Thursday, it was officially announced the team had been sold and would move to Utah, as the Deseret News previously reported.

What did Shane Doan say about his son and the Arizona Coyotes moving to Utah?

On Wednesday, Shane Doan was a guest on Arizona Sports’ “Bickley & Marotta” and said he was feeling a lot of emotions in regards to the news.

“I think whenever you have something that you really love and care about, and it’s gone, you kind of grieve, and I think you go through a whole bunch of emotions,” he said.

History is repeating itself for the Doans. Like Shane Doan did, Josh Doan will relocate with his team to a new market after just his first season in the NHL.

“I got to experience what it’s like to go to a new city in a new place,” he said. “I never thought of living in Arizona and never thought of living in Phoenix, and I got here and the excitement and the joy that I got to experience of kind of creating my own story here. I’m excited for him to go to Salt Lake City.”

Shane Doan recognizes the team’s move as a way for his son to make his own mark on hockey, separate from his own.

“I‘m excited for my son to get an opportunity to go to a new city and develop his own kind of story,” he said.

He also had high praise for new owner Ryan Smith and is optimistic for the team’s future in Utah.

“I just read and hear that Ryan Smith is an incredible person, and that guy has an opportunity to really create something that’s unique and special there,” he said. “You look at a guy like Danny Ainge — (Smith’s) brought in people on the basketball side that are really smart and capable — and so I think that he’s shown the success that they can have there.”