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A brief five days after Shane Doan became a prized free agent, the longtime Phoenix Coyotes captain contemplated leaving the game.
I'm done, he told himself.
I'm never playing again.
As soon as the Coyotes weren't able to renegotiate a contract and subsequently lost Doan's rights on July 1, other teams expressed interest.
Phone calls, pitches and visits ensued. Once the frenzy quieted, more than half of the league -- 16 teams -- reached out to Doan's camp. Six drew up formal offers.
Doan was wanted, and he had options of superstar money, stability and Stanley Cup potential.
But he considered discarding all those possibilities and ending his career for what matters more than hockey -- his family.
First-timer
Before this summer, Doan had never reached free agency.
The last time he was eligible, in 2007, the Coyotes offered up an extension in February and Doan accepted.
When this season finished, he thought there was a chance he could bypass the NHL's annual summer circus once again because he was told potential buyer Greg Jamison's bid to purchase the team would be completed by June 20 or 21.
"I talked to him in Edmonton at the start of the summer," defenseman David Schlemko recalled, "and he said, 'I'm just waiting for the deal to go through. I'll be signed in a couple weeks.'"
Ultimately, the sale wasn't finished by then and the saga continued.
"They've said to us, 'Everything is done. Everything is in place,'" Doan's wife, Andrea, said. "'We're gonna make the announcement on Tuesday or Wednesday.
'And then something continues to end up happening."
Once Doan became a free agent, he made it clear Phoenix was still his top destination and he wasn't going to make a decision before July 9.
"We're trying to give Phoenix as much chance as we could to get everything settled," Doan said.
But before he could even reach that deadline, the process came to an abrupt halt.
Awful news
At the beginning of July, Doan and Andrea were in Edmonton watching their eldest son, Josh, play in a hockey tournament.
On July 6, a Friday, the couple received a phone call while at the tournament.
Their youngest daughter, 7-year-old Karys, suffered a dog bite to her face while at her grandparents' farm about three hours south of Edmonton.
It was serious. They needed to come.
"I would never in a million years want any dad to have to go through that," Doan said.
He and Andrea made the drive through Alberta. Once paramedics were able to stabilize Karys, they rushed her by ambulance to a hospital in Edmonton.
Andrea sat beside Karys during the drive. Doan trailed behind them in the family car.
"You're in that shock moment," Andrea said.
Karys required three hours of surgery. Doctors performed bone and cartilage reconstruction. Afterward, approximately 150 stitches zig-zagged across her petite face.
"It was my little girl, and that made it tough for my wife and I," Doan said.
Karys remained in the hospital for six days, hooked up to an antibiotic IV to stave off infection. The Coyotes and Oilers reached out to the family, offering the help of their medical staffs.
In the quiet moments after the accident, Doan felt the urge to become a full-time dad to his four children and forget about hockey.
I'm not leaving my kids and I'm not going away and I'm not doing anything, he thought.
We're going to protect them and not let them do anything.
"This changed everything for me, and I wasn't interested in thinking about making any decisions for the next little while," Doan said.
Seclusion, recovery
After a week in Edmonton, Karys was cleared to travel, and the family headed to its cabin in Kamloops, British Columbia, at Shuswap Lake.
And they healed. All of them.
"We couldn't have been in a more perfect spot under the circumstances," Andrea said. "We don't have a TV out there. We don't have phones and computers."
The hockey world continued to wait for Doan's decision on where he would sign, but the inactivity was a sign of a man putting his family first.
On July 23, they celebrated Karys' eighth birthday. A few days later, she was able to join her siblings in the water and start swimming.
"Once we crossed that step, my wife and myself (said), 'OK, we gotta try to resume what's normal,'" Doan said.
That meant thinking about hockey and picking a team, despite Doan's previous oaths to walk away.
"The pendulum kind of swings back, and you get back to balance," he said.
On Aug. 15, the family returned to Arizona still without a resolution.
To add to the Doans' concerns, their Valley home had suffered water damage while they were away. The family lived at a hotel for 19 days before moving back in, but repairs are still needed.
"Just dealing with the things of life, the inconveniences that happen," Doan said.
Earlier in the summer, Doan had met with the New York Rangers, Phiadelphia Flyers and Vancouver Canucks. He eventually had a deal in principle worked out with the Coyotes and had named the Canucks his No. 2 option. Andrea told him the family was OK with either team.
The reassurance Doan needed to stay with the Coyotes came the morning of Sept.14 when he received a phone call from Jamison.
"Jamison had said, 'Look, I really believe this is getting done,'" Andrea recalled. "'We're still moving forward, and we're working on it. We're not that far apart. This is going to happen. (Commissioner Gary) Bettman wants it to happen. Everybody wants it happen.'
"So we went with it."
Later that afternoon, Doan agreed to a four-year deal worth $21.2 million to remain with the only NHL franchise he's ever known and to avoid uprooting his family.
"It's 100 percent true about him being a family guy first," Andrea said. "That's why we can always trust his decision and know whatever decision he makes, he's thinking about us first."
It's been three weeks since Doan signed, and Jamison still hasn't purchased the team. But the Doans remain optimistic.
"It will be nice when all is said and done and we really do know that the team is staying," Andrea said. "I have said to Shane, 'No matter what if you don't feel you can leave the franchise no matter where it is, then feel good about that because it still is the franchise and if it ends up going, then it does.'"
In the proper light
With the NHL lockout, Doan has more time to be around his family. And when he reflects on his family's journey this summer, he's in awe of its strength — especially that of Karys.
"Her strength -- period -- is something that I'm impressed with on a daily basis," Doan said.
As soon as she reached the six-week mark, Karys, a cheerleader, started to tumble on the trampoline again. Her scars are fading, and everyone is hopeful they will vanish completely.
"Every single person is blown away by the pictures of before and the pictures of after," Doan said.
Even without the physical reminders, it's unlikely this family will forget the hardship and the pain — or the unity and the courage that defined it this offseason.
"It puts things in perspective," Andrea said. "You think about things you didn't want to think about or you can't think about until you go through them, or you have that extra bit of compassion and you look at things a little bit different. You realize how thankful and blessed you are for what you have in your life and just carry on."
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