Apparently Shane Doan, the highly sought after unrestricted free-agent (and mythical beast) met with the Canucks on Tuesday evening. Or, at least that’s the word out of Vancouver, via the @News1130Sports Twitter feed:

BREAKING – Shane Doan sighting in Vancouver. Sources tell CKWX he had meeting with the Canucks this evening. — News1130 Sports (@News1130Sports) August 1, 2012

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Read past the jump.

Late last week, Shane Doan’s agent Terry Bross said that his client would "get aggressive" in seeking a new team, should Greg Jamison’s attempts to acquire ownership of the Phoenix Coyotes continue to languish. At the time of this writing, Jamison remains 20 million short of the asking price (in real terms he’s short about double that figure, since, you know, you need a fair bit of liquidity to run a professional sports franchise). While Jamison’s group has been granted an extension by the city of Glendale, it’s fair to describe the ownership situation in Phoenix as remaining very murky.

Nonetheless, if Doan actually met with the Canucks this evening (it has been independently reported by two reasonably reliable sources) that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Coyotes captain and his agent are getting "close" to picking a new team. Nor does it mean that the Canucks suddenly have the inside track in the Doan derby. This is just part of the process and as Bross told Dave Pratt last week, "There are several teams Shane is going to sit down with."

In the depths of summer, when hockey fans turn into parched druids desperate for any hockey news to quench their mighty thirst, it’s tough to keep a report like this one in perspective. We’ve known for weeks that the Canucks have a serious interest in Shane Doan, but we also know that Doan has a lot of options at this point in the offseason. More importantly, several teams in the running will quite likely be willing to offer Shane Doan significantly more than the Canucks will be.

It has been reported by the Globe and Mail, for example, that Shane Doan wants somewhere in the realm of a four year, 30 million dollar deal. That’s an obscenely rich and risky contract, one that would make Doan easily the highest paid player on the Canucks. If, as Tony Gallagher suggested on the Team 1040 today, the Canucks aren’t willing to sign Shane Doan to a contract worth more than they currently pay Ryan Kesler (5 million per season) – then don’t expect them to win this particular derby.

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