Coyotes: Franchise Player? Where?!

Gotta have a franchise before you can have a franchise player.... or maybe its like the chicken and the egg theory. In Phoenix, we'll definitely know which came first... it ain't the franchise.

Seriously, can we even call the Coyotes a franchise until lately? Its more like a motley collection of fairly good players who battle their hearts out every single night and get no love, no recognition and close, but no cigar for postseason aspirations.

Now Tracey may attempt to beat up on me for saying this... Shane Doan is not a franchise player. Not in the old school definition of the phrase. He's a great captain w/ the heart of a lion and a really decent skill set. But he really doesn't qualify as a 'franchise player'. Sure he's the last of the Jets and the oldest current Coyotes but is that ALL it takes to be a franchise player? A core player? sure. A skill player? sure. But not the guy you build a team around. The dumbasses running the team into the ground in the past brought in players like...Hull, Amonte, Handzus and a host of others were brought in to form a nucleus around Donor... didn't really work to make a viable franchise.

To me, the franchise player was that guy who you could throw on line w/ a pile of rocks and a blind iguana and he could lead your team to victory. A guy like Super Mario or Gretzky.

But maybe the definition is changing. Iginla and Ovie and Crosby and Malkin and Lecavalier, no matter how talented, can't do it all by themselves but they are the faces and fortunes of their franchises. But they are the guys that give their team an identity. Whether that ID is speedy and score hungry, defense and stamina or just plain old hard hat wearin, blue collar, 100% effort kinda team *Coyotes!* cough, cough*

hmmm maybe Shane Doan IS our franchise player. Just a new school definition of the word. The player that sets the tone and direction of the team. Sometimes the franchise player of today doesn't even wear a letter on his chest (Datsyuk comes to mind here). The guy that lays it all on the line night in and night out, making it impossible for anyone else to shirk or loaf and still call themselves a hockey player.

Fortunately for Phoenix, we have a couple of franchise contenders hitting the ice soon in Kyle Turris and Peter Mueller. Either one may earn that old school honoriffic in the near future. Our franchise is coming. *you think I kid?* Its coming in on the back of our interpid captain by example and by way of mentorship of the young, talented gunners. I guess our franchise is being built with oldschool ways (build it and earn it) but with a newschool flavor.