Coyotes' Doan glad dispute with Coderre over

Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan is "incredibly happy" his dispute with former federal sports minister Denis Coderre was settled out of court, he said on his first visit to Montreal since the Aug. 27 agreement was reached.

In the agreement, Doan agreed to drop his $250,000 defamation suit against Coderre if Coderre dropped his own $45,000 defamation countersuit.

The dispute centres on allegations the Coyotes veteran used an ethnic slur against francophone officials during a Dec. 13, 2005, hockey game against the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre.

The case was to have been heard in Quebec Superior Court in September.

Doan was given a gross misconduct penalty by referee Stéphane Auger for abuse of officials at the end of the game, a one-sided win by Montreal.

Reports said he had referred to the officials as "[expletive] Frenchmen."

In the Dec. 13 game, the NHL had, for the first time, assigned four francophone officials — two referees and two linesmen — to work together and not only chose to do it in Montreal but publicized the fact.

"The fact is that I never said that," said Doan on Monday. "I don't know how it ever became what it became, but I'm happy it's over with. Incredibly happy.

"I couldn't fathom how I ended up in the middle of that mess."

A statement from Coderre's office said that in the settlement, Doan admitted he did make a derogatory comment about the officials but that it was not the one later quoted.

Coderre had own agenda: Doan

Doan filed the suit after Coderre wrote to Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson to say that Doan was unfit to represent Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.

Coderre had asked for a league investigation, but the NHL took no action against the player.

Doan said that during the game he was trying to calm down goaltender Curtis Joseph, who was upset that a goal had been scored with a high stick.

He said he might have suggested the referees were "homers," i.e. favouring the home team, but denied using either an expletive or an ethnic slur.

He also felt Coderre used the incident to make headlines.

"You feel you're dealing with people with a different agenda who aren't concerned with what it does to you but only what it does for them," he said.

Doan was to sit out the Coyotes' game Monday night against Montreal to serve the last of a three-game suspension he incurred last week for a blindside hit on Anaheim's Dan Sexton. He is to return to action Tuesday night in Ottawa.