PHOENIX – Assists run in the Doan family.

Nobody had more in an Arizona Coyotes uniform than Shane Doan. Doan’s son Josh collected 47 assists in his two years at Arizona State University and debuted with the Coyotes in 2024.

But now it’s Andrea Doan’s turn to provide a significant assist to the Arizona hockey world.

A year and a half after the Coyotes departure to Utah, Maricopa County Chairman Thomas Galvin announced Monday that Andrea Doan, wife of Shane Doan, is the chair of the Advisory Panel on Pro Hockey to Arizona. Back in January, Galvin expressed his interest in creating an advisory committee to bring the NHL back to the state, and now he’s got his leader.

“Hockey has played an important role in my life, with my husband, Shane, playing in the NHL for decades and my kids growing up immersed in the Arizona hockey community, including my son Josh, who now plays in the NHL, formally for the Coyotes and now with the Buffalo Sabres,” Andrea Doan said.

The committee isn’t filled out yet, but it will consist of political, business, community and sports leaders to work with Arizona leaders and the NHL to formulate a plan to bring the NHL back to the desert.

Because Shane Doan is the special assistant to the general manager for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the long-time Coyotes captain will not be involved in this committee.

Also on the committee is Matt Shott Arizona Hockey Legacy Foundation co-founder Lyndsey Fry, who will be in control of community outreach and the continuation of growth of youth hockey in Arizona.

“Once the committee is finalized, we will be focused on finding a suitor owner who is passionate about NHL hockey and a location for an arena,” Andrea said. “Both of those items will take time, but we are committed to making sure this is a successful endeavor.”

In creating a plan to build an arena, the preferred location is either in downtown Phoenix or just east of downtown.

Finding an arena has been an issue for the Coyotes in the past.

In April 2023, voters denied the Coyotes the opportunity to build a new arena and entertainment district in Tempe. In April 2024, the Coyotes looked into and in north Scottsdale, but Scottsdale Mayor David Ortega made it clear that the Coyotes were not welcome in his city.

The arena troubles are why it is imperative that the committee finds a stable ownership group, unlike the ownership group that plagued the Coyotes and ultimately led to their demise.

There is no timeline yet on when an owner or arena plan will be set in stone, but Arizona is now in an arms race for assets. Multiple cities have put their hats in the ring for possible NHL expansion, but the two biggest threats to Arizona are Houston and Atlanta.

Atlanta can be labeled as a favorite because it has arena plans and multiple candidates for an ownership group. Houston has ownership interest but is still lacking an arena plan.

One thing that Arizona has going for itself is that the NHL has an interest to come back to the state. In his Chairman’s Speech in January, Galvin said  he already had multiple meetings with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman where Bettman said he looked forward to working with the committee to find an owner and arena to bring the NHL back to Arizona.

It may not be a traditional hockey market, but that doesn’t discredit how much Arizona’s hockey scene has grown since the Coyotes first came to Phoenix in 1996.

When the Winnipeg Jets relocated to become the Phoenix Coyotes, Arizona only had three ice rinks and a little over 2,100 hockey players in the state. Now, there are 10 ice rinks and 9,534 youth players that enrolled in the 2024-25 season.

Since the birth of the Coyotes, the state has produced nine Arizona-born NHL players, not counting superstar Auston Matthews, who moved to Arizona when he was an infant.

Arizona had built up a strong hockey community over the last 28 years, but it needs an NHL team back to continue making bigger strides.

“My family and I have been dedicated to growing and advancing the sport in Arizona and we are committed to bringing the NHL back to the desert,” Andrea Doan said. “I look forward to helping make that a reality.”