Josh Doan Is Confident He’ll Be Back With Utah Hockey Club After AHL Assignment

Nov 14, 2024 , 6:17 PM

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COLE BAGLEY


Utah Hockey Club Insider

SALT LAKE CITY – Over a month into the Utah Hockey Club’s inaugural season, there has been a plethora of adversity through the first 16 games. While the team has been navigating the ups and downs of an NHL season and seeking a more solidified identity, forward Josh Doan has been enduring his own personal adversity after being sent down to the AHL a few weeks ago.

However, despite somewhat of an unexpected move, Doan is focused on controlling what he can and doing everything in his power to return to the Utah Hockey Club as soon as possible.

Utah Hockey Club wants Josh Doan to regain confidence in AHL

Just three weeks into the season, Josh Doan received unexpected news from management. After only nine games with the Utah Hockey Club, Doan was assigned back to the Tucson Roadrunners.

“Obviously, you’re always going to be disappointed to get that news. You want to be up with the NHL club and helping them win every night and when you don’t get the opportunity to do that, it’s a little bit hard. But at the same time, I’ve got a group of guys down here that I trust a lot and really enjoy playing with” Doan explained.

According to both head coach Andre Tourigny and Doan himself, the staff wants to see him regain his confidence and produce more offensively. During his nine appearances, Doan had just one goal, an assist and only 10 shots on net.

Clearly, not enough in the eyes of the coaches.

“You could see he didn’t have the same confidence that he did during training camp…it was the opportunity for us to give him the chance to go play in the AHL, get his confidence back, his game back, his swagger back,” Tourigny said.

“It was pretty straight forward that they wanted to see me go get confidence is what I was told…I wasn’t producing at a level that I hold myself to and when you’re not doing that, there’s an opportunity to send you down and hopefully regain some of that confidence,” Doan added.

Josh Doan is remaining positive after being assigned to the Tucson Roadrunners

This was not how this season was supposed to start for Doan. After proving himself worthy of an opening day roster spot and having an excellent training camp, it seemed like the young forward had finally demonstrated that he was ready for a full 82-game slate.

However, the coaching staff thought otherwise and decided he needed more time in the AHL.

Now in Tucson, Doan has scored twice in five games and is working tirelessly to show that he is fully capable of playing in every situation and finding consistent success in the NHL.

“I feel like I’ve got confidence still and it’s just more of a production kind of thing,” Doan said. “Come down here and show how capable I am to carry the pace of play with the puck, play in all situations and reinstate that into my game. That I can go out and do that, have success on the power play, have success on the penalty kill, in five on five, and just play game my game. The rest is for them to decide.”

Like Doan said, his return is up to the coaches and there’s no set timeline for when he’ll be back in a Utah sweater. All he can do is play his best, control what he can control and put the puck in the back of the net as much as possible.

Not that he’s the same type of player as Dylan Guenther, but last season, Guenther experienced a similar situation. After being left off of the opening day roster, Guenther forced management to call him up to the NHL after recording 28 points in 29 games for the Roadrunners.

Again, not the same skillset but putting the puck in the net at high rate will get you back to the NHL in a hurry which is exactly what Doan wants.

“I want to win. I want to help the guys win and be a part of the team when things are going right. It’s hard to sit back and not being able to help out…getting back to be with the guys and helping the team win is my main focal point. And proving once I get back up there that the offense will come and get back into the same kind of space that I was last year at the end of the year,” Doan said.

“Given time I’ll be back and looking to help the team win again…part of the reason for wanting to get back up is to play in front of the fans there and feel the energy they’ve given us. It’ll be a good time when I get back up,” Doan added.

Should Josh Doan have been sent down?

Now, speaking personally, assigning Doan to the AHL after only nine games was definitely an interesting move.

Sure, he only had two points and was struggling at times to finish scoring chances, but there’s more to Josh’s game than that. He’s a high-energy player who attacks aggressively on the forecheck, battles in the dirty areas, creates turnovers and can finish.

Was he struggling a bit to light the lamp? Yes. But he was still impactful and sending him down so quickly after all the work he did seemed slightly premature, especially when you consider that in 16 games Lawson Crouse only has four points, Alexander Kerfoot has four and Kevin Stenlund has two while Liam O’Brien has zero points in only three appearances.

Not that I am measuring Doan to those players and each of those guys have different skillsets, but Doan’s reassignment just happened really fast when his lack of production wasn’t severe.

Are they hoping to light a fire within him? Absolutely. But you also run the risk of hurting a player’s confidence more than helping them. Hopefully for Josh he’s able to seize the moment and force management to bring him back soon.

For now, Josh is remaining positive, understands the purpose behind the reassignment and is working hard to earn a spot back on Utah’s roster.

Utah Hockey Schedule

The Utah Hockey Club will continue their three-game homestand against the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday. The game can be viewed on SEG+. Fans can also tune in on air on the KSL Sports APP or on 97.5 and 1280 The Zone. Click here for the full schedule. 

Cole Bagley is the Utah Hockey Club insider for KSL Sports. Keep up with him on X here. You can hear Cole break down the team on KSL Sports Zone and KSL 5 TV.

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