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Every sports team’s fan base has its share of franchise favorites – though these may not necessarily be the best players in the team’s history (they can be), they have usually been around with the team through thick and thin and are both leaders and class acts. For the Arizona Coyotes and the Edmonton Oilers in the NHL, perhaps the most popular players in (recent) franchise history are Shane Doan and Ryan Smyth, respectively – outstanding hockey players in their own right, they each led their respective teams through rather bleak periods with class and dignity, thus forever earning a place in the hearts of the fans; given their relatively parallel careers, it is only natural to compare the pair and ask:
Who was better – Shane Doan or Ryan Smyth?
The Beginning
Both natives of the Canadian province of Alberta, Doan and Smyth had stellar junior hockey careers and were each top-10 NHL draft picks; however, each would get off to a relatively slow start in the NHL.
Doan starred in the junior hockey ranks with the Kamloops Blazers of the Western Hockey League (WHL) in the early to mid-1990s, guiding the team to consecutive Memorial Cups and winning the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy as Memorial Cup MVP the second time around. As a result of his stellar junior career, he was drafted seventh overall in the first round of the 1995 NHL Entry Draft by the then-Winnipeg Jets; Doan would be the last Jets first-round pick to play in the NHL prior to the team’s location to Phoenix the next year – as a rookie, he posted a quiet 7 goals and 10 assists for 17 points with a -9 +/- rating.
Likewise, Smyth played in the WHL for the Moose Jaw Warriors, slowly developing into a top-tier NHL prospect. Upon being drafted sixth overall in the 1994 NHL Entry Draft by Edmonton, he returned for a final season with Moose Jaw in 1994-1995, though did make his NHL debut with three games played; the next year, Smyth played in 48 goals and tallied 2 goals and 9 assists for 11 points with a -10 +/- rating.
Career Comparison
During NHL careers that spanned roughly two decades apiece, Doan and Smyth established themselves not only as consistent and highly productive forwards, but just as importantly, as veteran leaders and fan favorites who will go down in history as legends for the Coyotes and Oilers, respectively.
Ahead of the 1996-1997 season, the Jets moved to Arizona and became the Phoenix Coyotes; for Doan personally, he continued to struggle (10-20 points per season) until the 1999-2000 season, when he broke out with then-career bests of 26 goals and 25 assists for 51 points with a +6 +/- rating. This would mark the first of nine consecutive 20-goal seasons and would be followed by a string of seasons in the 50 to 60-point range (63 points in 2000-2001, 49 points in 2001-2002, and 58 points in 2002-2003). With the departure of veteran defenseman Teppo Numminen, Doan also assumed the captaincy for the 2003-2004 season, a title he would hold for the rest of his career with the Coyotes, and responded with 27 goals and 41 assists for 68 points with a -11 +/- rating.
As the heart and soul of the Coyotes franchise, Doan would post some of his best statistical seasons in the mid to late-2000s, with nine straight 50+ point seasons starting in 2002-2003. In his second year as captain, he reached the 30-goal mark for the first time with 30 goals and 36 assists for 66 points and a -9 +/- rating; though he dropped to 55 points the following year, Doan bounced back with the two highest-scoring seasons of his career:
- 2007-2008: 28 goals and a career-high 50 assists for a career-best 78 points and a +4 +/- rating
- 2008-2009: career-high 31 goals with 42 assists for 73 points and a +5 +/- rating
Entering the later phases of his NHL career, Doan started to receive more recognition for his leadership – in a 2009-2010 season that saw him score 55 points, he won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy given annually to the player “who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and who has made a significant humanitarian contribution to his community”. Following a 60-point season in 2010-2011 (20 goals and 40 assists), he had his final 50-point campaign (22 goals and 28 assists) in 2011-2012 and earned the Mark Messier Leadership Award. In his final few seasons with the Coyotes, he achieved a number of franchise milestones, including most games played with the Jets/Coyotes and most career goals and points with the team (surpassing former Jets legend Dale Hawerchuk); finally, at the end of the 2016-2017 season, a 40-year-old Doan announced his NHL retirement, having spent his entire career with one team.
After his lackluster rookie season, Smyth erupted in 1996-1997 with a career-high 39 goals plus 22 assists for 61 points and a -7 +/- rating; however, he could not sustain the momentum and dropped to around the 30-point mark for the next couple of years. Then, starting in 1999-2000, he would similarly become a bedrock of consistency for the Oilers with seven straight 50-point seasons, including another 30-goal season and a career-high 70 points (31 goals and 39 assists) in 2000-2001. Over the next few years, Smyth would remain in the 50-60 point range and posted 23 goals and 36 assists for 59 points and a +11 +/- rating in the 2003-2004 season right before the lockout.
Upon returning to the NHL in 2005-2006, Smyth continued his strong performance as he again scored 30+ goals in a 36-goal, 30-assist season (66 points). As an encore, he was well on his way to another stellar season and on pace to potentially top his career-best marks – however, as long-term contract negotiations broke down, he was traded at the 2006-2007 deadline to the New York Islanders for Robert Nilsson, Ryan O’Marra, and a first-round draft pick; overall, across Edmonton and New York, he had 36 goals and 32 assists for 68 points and a +2 +/- rating. Smyth’s time with the Islanders was brief, as he signed as a free agent with the Colorado Avalanche in the offseason; after struggling through an injury-riddled first season with the team, he rebounded in 2008-2009 with 26 goals and 33 assists for 59 points, though with a -15 +/- rating.
With Colorado in rebuilding mode, Smyth was traded ahead of the 2009-2010 season to the Los Angeles Kings for Kyle Quincy, Tom Preissing, and a fifth-round draft pick, and had a solid first season with his new team: 22 goals and 31 assists for 53 points and a +8 +/- rating. Following another productive year with the Kings, he expressed a desire to finish out his career with Edmonton and was subsequently dealt back to his original team for Colin Fraser and a seventh-round pick. During his second stint with the team, he posted 46 points in his first year back (19 goals and 27 assists), but would see his scoring decline in later years, though nevertheless surpassed the 800 point career mark and became the Oilers’ all-time power-play goals leader; despite his leadership, Smyth never served as Edmonton’s captain until his final career game in the 2013-2014 season, retiring at season’s end at age 37.
All in all, Doan played 21 NHL seasons to Smyth’s 19, resulting in 270 more regular season games played; as a result, he leads his counterpart in goals, assists, and points, though both players finished with a -54 career +/- rating. In terms of their season-by-season consistency and excellence, Doan racked up more 20-goal seasons (13x vs. 11x) and 70-point campaigns (2x vs. 1x), but Smyth had more seasons with 30+ goals (4 to 2) and put up a slightly higher points-per-game average (0.66 vs 0.63). While neither player was elite enough to earn any major individual awards purely for their on-ice play, Doan had double the amount of All-Star Game appearances (2 to 1) and also won both a Clancy Trophy and Messier Award towards the end of his career. Overall, neither player was likely accomplished enough to be a serious Hall of Fame candidate, though both certainly left their marks on their respective teams (Coyotes and Oilers).
Regular Season Statistics
| Shane Doan | Player | Ryan Smyth |
| 21 (1995-2017) | Seasons | 19 (1994-2014) |
| 1,540 | Games Played | 1,270 |
| 402 | Goals | 386 |
| 570 | Assists | 456 |
| 972 | Points | 842 |
| -54 | +/- | -54 |
| 2x | All-Star Games | 1x |
| – | Hart Trophies | – |
| – | Ross Trophies | – |
| – | Stanley Cups | – |
| – | Conn Smythes | – |
| 1x Clancy, 1x Messier | Other Awards | – |
| – | Hall of Fame Induction | – |
Source: Hockey-Reference.com
In terms of the postseason, neither Doan nor Smyth saw much success playing mostly on average Phoenix/Arizona and Edmonton teams; however, both were long-time stalwarts for their country and saw much more success on that stage.
Though Doan guided the Jets/Coyotes franchise to nine playoff appearances during his career, the vast majority of them resulted in first-round losses. In fact, the only time the team advanced beyond the first round was in 2011-2012, when the Coyotes surprisingly made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals before losing in five games to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Kings; for his part, it was also Doan’s best individual showing with 5 goals and 4 assists for 9 points and a +2 +/- rating.
Similarly, Smyth made 11 career postseason trips (7x with the Oilers), with most of those leading to early exits. In addition to back-to-back Western Conference Semifinals appearances in the 1990s, Smyth was part of the surprising 2005-2006 Edmonton team led by defenseman Chris Pronger that made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals before losing in a heartbreaking seven game series to the Carolina Hurricanes; it was not surprisingly Smyth’s best statistical postseason with 16 points (7 goals and 9 assists).
Despite the lack of NHL postseason success, Doan and Smyth were both key contributors on the international stage for Team Canada in their primes and suited up together for the 2006 Olympic team that finished a disappointing seventh in Turin, Italy. Additionally, Doan won gold and silver medals at the World Championships (2x gold and 3x silver) and World Cup (1x gold); Smyth was even better, not only donning the captain’s “C” on numerous occasions, but also winning Olympic gold in Salt Lake City in 2002 plus additional medals at the World Championships (2x gold, 1x silver), the World Cup (1x gold), and the Spengler Cup (1x gold).
Playoff Statistics
| Shane Doan | Player | Ryan Smyth |
| 55 | Games Played | 93 |
| 15 | Goals | 28 |
| 13 | Assists | 31 |
| 28 | Points | 59 |
| -3 | +/- | -9 |
Source: Hockey-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; Doan had the slower start to his career, whereas Smyth bounced around a bit later on, though both were consistently productive in primes spanning well over a decade apiece. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete (this idea is embodied in a sense by the NFL’s All-Decade teams), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Shane Doan | Player | Ryan Smyth |
| 2000-2004, 2005-2011 | Decade of Dominance | 1996-1997, 1999-2004, 2005-2007, 2008-2010 |
| 789 | Games Played | 745 |
| 248 | Goals | 283 |
| 377 | Assists | 318 |
| 625 | Points | 601 |
| -3 | +/- | +14 |
Source: Hockey-Reference.com
Across a similar number of games played in their so-called decades of dominance, Doan accumulated slightly more total points, but Smyth was again a more proficient goal-scorer and had a slightly higher per-game scoring pace at 0.81 vs. 0.79 points per game.
My Thoughts
For Shane Doan and Ryan Smyth, their hockey impacts go far beyond the stat sheets, as both were great leaders and team ambassadors as well as highly productive players for both club and country; in fact, while the Oilers have had a plethora of great players throughout their history (with Smyth being among them), one can easily make the argument that Doan is THE best player in Coyotes franchise history, i.e. after the original Jets moved to Arizona. From a purely playing perspective, I think he also gets the slight edge over Smyth – while the latter was a little bit better of a goal-scorer, the Coyotes legend was consistently excellent for just a tad bit longer and in my view, had a better peak with less talent around him. Moreover, from an intangibles perspective, the fact that he spent his entire career with the Jets/Coyotes franchise and served as the longtime team captain only serves to further cement his legacy.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Shane Doan
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
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