Shane Doan retiring after 21 seasons

Shane Doan has announced that he will be retiring from the NHL after 21 seasons. He spent all of his 21-season, 1,540-game career with the same organization.

Shane Doan has made his retirement official. After 21 seasons and 1,540 games in the NHL, all with the same organization, Doan has decided it is time to hang up the skates.

Doan made the announcement official in an open letter to the fans in the Arizona Republic:

"“I could not fathom at the time that I would end up playing in Arizona for the next 21 years, raise a family and call this place home,” Doan wrote while reminiscing about his first game in Phoenix, which came at the start of his second NHL season. “But that’s exactly what happened. And that’s why this has been one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make. I’m retiring from the NHL.”"

Doan, 40, was drafted by the then-Winnipeg Jets with the seventh overall pick of the 1995 NHL Entry Draft. He would play in 74 games in his lone season in Winnipeg, scoring seven goals and adding 10 assists to go along with his whopping 101 penalty minutes.

Doan would then move on with the Jets to become the Phoenix Coyotes during the 1996-97 season.

Doan would play in 63 games in his first season with the newly-named Coyotes organization, scoring four goals and adding eight assists. In 1997-98 he would split time between the NHL and the AHL, playing in 33 NHL games and 39 AHL games.

That would be the one and only time he was sent down, and he never looked back. Doan had 22 points in 79 games in 1998-99 and would then go on to post 10 consecutive seasons with 49-or-more points in them. This includes two seasons where he broke the 70-point mark, in 2007-08 and 2008-09.

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Doan would also make the playoffs nine times with the Jets/Coyotes, but made no playoff appearances in the last five seasons. He played in 55 playoff games, scoring 15 goals to add to his 13 assists and 85 penalty minutes.

Doan is retiring as the Jets/Coyotes all-time leader in games played (1,540), goals (402), assists (570), total points (972) powerplay goals (128), game-winning goals (69), even strength goals (268), shots (3,945) and many other things.