Doan's camp becoming somewhat skeptical about Jamison being able to close deal with Coyotes & more rumblings

DOAN'S CAMP BECOMING SOMEWHAT SKEPTICAL ABOUT JAMISON BEING ABLE TO CLOSE DEAL

At the end of the day, the Shane Doan situation may become more annoying to Pens fans than the pursuit of Jaromir Jagr last year and Zach Parise earlier this month.

Once again, there's a lot of different information coming out with Coyotes GM Don Maloney telling the Arizona Republic today that it "may be weeks" before Doan makes a decision, while word out of Doan's camp today is that Doan is very likely to begin serious talks with teams on his shortlist by next week. While "serious negotiations" have yet to happen between Penguins and Doan, the Penguins are among the short-list of teams under strong consideration and could emerge as a favorite for Doan, if he leaves Phoenix, despite offering much less money than other interested teams.

There is very strong interest from Doan in Pittsburgh.

Meanwhile, with Doan willing to wait it out for the Coyotes, it wouldn't be a surprise if he didn't make a decision until August, but the latest development today is that Doan's camp, according to a source, is becoming skeptical of Greg Jamison's bid to own the team, more so than last week when things being relayed to Doan's camp from NHL and Jamison were positive.

"We are still waiting to see what happens here with the Coyotes, " agent Terry Bross said told Inside Pittsburgh Sports.com last Friday. "Bill Daly indicated to me they {NHL} are moving forward with sale to Jamison......We shall see, " Bross said at the time.

Despite the NHL informing Bross last week that they are moving forward with the sale, nothing has changed this week as Jamison is not close yet to a deal and Doan's camp are still under the belief that Jamison might not have enough money to close a deal.

Things are slowly moving in the direction where Doan might be forced to actually pull the plug on returning to Phoenix, but until he does, I would still consider Phoenix the favorite to sign him as this situation is still fluid and at least a week and likely longer away from a resolution. For now, things are status quo in Doan still waiting to see what happens with Coyotes as they remain his first choice.

CANADIENS EMERGING AS SURPRISING SLEEPER FOR DOAN?

One interesting dynamic in the past couple weeks is that Shane Doan has become much more open to going to the Eastern Conference than many around the league imagined prior to free agency. In the East, Pittsburgh has emerged as a team that Doan has "significant" interest" in, in addition to the New York Rangers. There are whispers that a sleeper team to emerge in recent days is the Montreal Canadiens whose rich tradition intrigues Doan. The Canadiens have made an aggressive pitch for Doan, expressing a willingness to maybe go as long as four years as Doan is seeking deals of at least three to four years, and not considering one or two year deals. If the Canadiens can sell Doan on Montreal becoming an instant playoff team, they could emerge as a serious contender for his services and join Pittsburgh and New York as teams he would strongly considering in the Eastern Conference, an NHL source tells Inside Pittsburgh Sports. However, at this point I'm not buying all the buzz in the last 24 hours surrounding Doan and Montreal.

Meanwhile, the Buffalo Sabres have made a massive four year offer to Doan but continue to be regarded as a big longshot as Doan is not believed to be too keen on going to Buffalo. In the West, Vancouver, Detroit, San Jose and possibly LA Kings have been teams that Doan is or was considering as of this past weekend.

WHY PENS ARE WILLING TO GO THREE YEARS FOR DOAN & TIDBITS ON PENS, SEMIN