The Arizona State sophomore and son of former Arizona Coyotes captain Shane Doan scored the first goal in the Sun Devils’ brand new 5,000-seat state-of-the-art on-campus facility, a putback of his own rebound in a 2-0 win against Colgate on Oct. 14.
Perhaps as soon as next season, Doan will experience another first at the arena and become the first player to play a home game for both of its active tenants, the Sun Devils and Coyotes.
The younger Doan was selected by Arizona in the second round (No. 37) of the 2021 NHL Draft.
“That’s the hope, that one day sometime down the road that would be a cool experience, but it’s way down in the future,” Doan told NHL.com after the Sun Devils practiced here Wednesday. “We’ll see when that comes. Who knows. Patience is a virtue.”
It has to be for Doan and the Coyotes, who await the fate of a nearly $2 billion development proposal that features plans to build an arena one mile away from ASU’s campus.
Negotiations for the Tempe Entertainment District are ongoing between the Tempe City Council and Bluebird LLC, a development company formed by Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo.
But starting Thursday, when the Coyotes practice here for the first time, and for the foreseeable future, they will play their home games at ASU’s arena. They play their home opener against the Winnipeg Jets on Friday (10:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, HULU, TVAS, TSN3, SN NOW).
There are few people on campus more excited about the ability to call the Coyotes co-tenants than the players and coaches in Arizona State’s Division I men’s hockey program.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience for some guys here getting the opportunity to see guys like that skate and the opportunity maybe to pick their brains if you run into them,” Doan said. “Obviously, they’re the highest of the high. That’s where everyone wants to end up, so if you get an opportunity to visualize, see what they’re doing, it’s something we have to take advantage of.
“We talked to our team about just embracing the moment of being in this facility and being able to use all of the assets it has, and I think you’ve got to consider that one of its greatest assets is being around NHL players.”
That is not limited to the Coyotes. Players from the other 31 NHL teams will soon be making their way through Mullett Arena too.
“Right when the news broke that the Coyotes were coming to play in this rink that was our first thought, just being able to see [Connor] McDavid or [Sidney] Crosby or any of those guys come into this…
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