Arizona Coyotes defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson (23) warms up before the NHL game between the Arizona Coyotes and the Philadelphia Flyers played at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA. 27 Jan 2015 (Gavin Baker/Icon Sportswire)

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — We felt the need to preface our first question to Shane Doan. It was a respect thing.

We wanted to make it clear we were not trying to push the best captain the Coyotes franchise has ever known out to pasture prematurely. Doan has made it clear he wants to keep playing beyond this season — and he hopes it is with the only team for which he has ever played.

But there will soon come a day when Doan calls it a career. On that note, we wanted to know: Is defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson ready to assume the captaincy?

“Absolutely,” Doan said after an informal skate on Thursday at the Ice Den. “Every leader is different. I’m different from the leaders before me and they’re different from each other. Oliver is different from me, but he has more than enough leadership qualities.”

Ekman-Larsson is not a rah-rah guy in the locker room. He’s not even a vocal presence in the room. That matters to some; not to Doan.

“He’s your classic Swede — a guy that everybody likes and everyone wants to be around,” Doan said. “That’s half the battle. People will follow him — I’ll follow him — because of his personality and that’s really all a leader is. You can have all the so-called leadership qualities but if no one wants to follow you it doesn’t really matter.”

At the airport in PHX, about to head out to Toronto for NHL Media Days. Happy to have our uber social PR guy Chris with me. A photo posted by Oliver Ekman-Larsson (@oel23) on Sep 7, 2015 at 11:38am PDT

Ekman-Larsson is clearly uncomfortable broaching the idea of wearing the ‘C’. With Doan still a huge presence in the locker room and on the ice — and an oft-mentioned mentor — the Coyotes’ budding star is content to define his leadership by show rather than tell.

“I’m not going to change the way I am,” he said. “I’m going to try to be that leader on the ice instead of in the locker room. If I have to speak up I’m going to do that, but I have to focus on being a good player and good leader on the ice.”

Ekman-Larsson took huge strides in that direction last season. After a rough start defined by a team-worst minus-14 in early December, his game rounded into shape. He finished the season with 23 goals and 43 points, tying Phil Housley’s Jets/Coyotes franchise record for goals by a defenseman and topping all NHL defenseman in that category. He also made his first NHL All-Star Game appearance.

Had the Coyotes been able to muster a more goals, Ekman-Larsson might have notched more assists and been among the top Norris Trophy vote getters, but that’s a concern for another day.

“It’s always a goal for me to be one of those top guys; to be compared to the top D-men in this league,” he said. “Last year, I thought I had a really good season but the team has to win first. That’s the most important thing. When that happens, all the other stuff comes with it.”

Regardless of Norris votes, Doan hopes Ekman-Larsson understands he’s already among the elite players in the game.

“He should because we all think he is and anybody you talk to in the league thinks he is,” Doan said. “You always want to prove it and that’s part of being elite, but anybody who understands anything about this game knows what kind of player he is.”

Follow Craig Morgan on Twitter