Add Shane Doan’s name to the list of potential candidates to join the Vancouver Canucks‘ front office.

On Wednesday morning, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that, according to several sources, the Canucks have asked the Toronto Maple Leafs for permission to speak to Shane Doan, who currently serves as a special advisor to the GM with the Leafs. Friedman did specify however, that this isn’t necessarily the Canucks looking to hire Doan as their next GM, and that they might be looking to add him elsewhere in the front office.

As Friedman notes, Doan had a long and successful career as an NHL player, amassing 972 points through 1,540 NHL games. The Arizona Coyotes, the franchise Doan spent his entire career with (they were still the old Winnipeg Jets for one season of Doan’s career), retired his number 19 in 2019, but the banner was returned to Doan in 2024 when the Coyotes moved to Utah.

Doan, 49, became a WHL franchise owner in 2007, when he bought a minority stake in his old junior club, the Kamloops Blazers, alongside majority owner Tom Gaglardi — who also owns the NHL’s Dallas Stars — Jarome Iginla, Mark Recchi, and Darryl Sydor. On the management side, Doan has worn a number of hats for Hockey Canada on the International stage. Doan first served as a team consultant for the 2019 World Championship team, and was Canada’s assistant GM for the Spengler Cup a year later. Since then, Doan has kept very busy:

The Canucks’ search for a GM began this week after the club fired Patrik Allvin on Friday morning. There will be plenty of names linked to the job over the next couple of weeks as the Canucks conduct interviews over Zoom, and Shane Doan is now one of those names.