ARLINGTON, Va. -- Putting on the Utah Hockey Club's full home uniform for the first time at the 2024 NHLPA Rookie Showcase on Wednesday gave Josh Doan another reason to get excited about the upcoming season.
"It looks good," the 22-year-old forward said of the predominantly black kit with white and light blue striping and white lettering and numbers. "It's definitely something we were all excited to see for the first time, so it's pretty cool."
There will be a lot of firsts for Doan and his teammates in Utah's inaugural season after the team officially joined the NHL on June 13 and purchased the contracts of Arizona Coyotes executives, coaches and players. The move is a little bittersweet for Doan, though.
He grew up in Arizona, where his father, Shane Doan, played for the Coyotes for 20 seasons (1996-2017) and is the Coyotes/Winnipeg Jets franchise's leader in games (1,540), goals (402), assists (570) and points (972).
"It's weird," Josh Doan said. "Obviously, it's hard seeing a hometown team leave, but being on the other end of it and being part of a team, it's something I think that's only going to benefit the NHL and the team right now with what the circumstances were in Arizona at the time. So, I'm excited for Utah and to kind of experience a new city and see what it's like."
The move also represents an opportunity for Doan to establish his own legacy in a new city separate from what his father accomplished with the Coyotes. Shane Doan went through a similar change when the Jets moved to Phoenix to become the Coyotes following his rookie season of 1995-96.
"I've talked to him a lot about that, about how he had to move when he was a rookie and join a new city and a new organization with Winnipeg moving to Arizona," Josh Doan said. "He told me to embrace it and welcome everybody. It's pretty easy to watch hockey now on TV, so people are getting used to the game there. But to finally have your own team to cheer for and a local team to cheer for is something that a lot of the people in Utah have been looking forward to for a long time.
"So, it's something that we're excited for them, and hopefully, we win some hockey games for them."
A second-round pick (No. 37) by Arizona in the 2021 NHL Draft, Doan debuted in the League near the end of last season, finishing with nine points (five goals, four assists) in 11 games. That included two goals in a 6-2 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets in his first game on March 26.
He hopes to build on that this season but knows he still has work to do to establish himself and earn a full-time job with Utah.
"The main focus point for me is to prove that I can be someone they can trust all over the ice and play as much as I can," said Doan, who had 46 points (26 goals, 20 assists) in 62 games with Tucson of the American Hockey League last season before he was called up. "Obviously, the goal-scoring will come with playing and getting comfortable, but it's one of those things where you've got to earn trust to play to begin with.
"So, that's my main goal out of camp is to prove that I can continue to play at that level throughout the year."
Doan is part of a collection of young players who represent a promising future for Utah as it nears the payoff of a rebuild that enters its fourth season. That group also includes forwards Logan Cooley, 20, Dylan Guenther, 21, Matias Maccelli, 23, and Jack McBain, 24, and defenseman Michael Kesselring, 24, who each has played in the NHL already, and prospects such as forwards Tij Iginla, 18, and Cole Beaudoin, 18, and defenseman Maveric Lamoureux, 20.
"We're kind of growing together as a group and living together and being around each other as much as you can," Doan said. "It's something that we're excited to see what we can do. We also have the right guys above that are a little bit older. It's crazy to say they're older because they're still so young, but guys like (Clayton) Keller and (Nick) Schmaltz, they've been around now, and they've seen the rebuild and they want to win hockey games.
"They make sure we know that there's a mindset of we need to win, and we need to do it quickly because it's been a long, long time losing, which isn't very fun."
After Arizona missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs the past four seasons, younger veterans such as forwards Keller, 26, Schmaltz, 28, and Lawson Crouse, 27, are eager for Utah to take the next step and compete for a postseason spot. To help, Utah was aggressive in the offseason by acquiring defenseman Mikhail Sergachev in a trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning and defenseman John Marino in a trade with the New Jersey Devils before signing defenseman Ian Cole (one-year contract) and forward Kevin Stenlund (two years).
Sergachev won the Stanley Cup twice with Tampa Bay (2020, 2021), Cole won it twice with the Pittsburgh Penguins (2016, 2017) and Stenlund won it last season with the Florida Panthers.
"Obviously, that was the main goal, to go get guys that know how to win and have been in winning locker rooms," Doan said. "So, as a group, we're all excited to see guys like that come in and know that this is a team that is looking to win and make the playoffs, and we're going to have fun doing it."
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