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The veteran defenceman signed a three-year contract extension on Thursday, ahead of Monday’s opening of free agency, and says that team progress last year was a major reason why
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Published Jun 28, 2024 • Last updated 16 hours ago • 3 minute read
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Tyler Myers talked Friday about both how the Vancouver Canucks have progressed and how there is still much more work to be done.
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“I think it’s important to realize that because we are able to build and take ourselves to a place we did last year that it’s not going to be any easier doing that again,” the veteran defenceman said in a Zoom call with the media centred around his three-year contract extension — with a cap hit of $3 million per season — that was announced Thursday by the Canucks.
“I think we have to come in with the same mindset and realize it takes more hard work to get to the next level. I don’t think we can come in and say, ‘OK, we’re ready.’ We have to keep that dialogue and make sure we keep working as a group to continually look to improve.”
Myers, 34, was one of the bright spots in a 2023-24 season filled with them for the Canucks, who had their first 50-win regular season since 2011-12 and won their first playoff series — excluding the COVID pandemic years — since they went to the Stanley Cup Final in 2011. Myers was in the final season of a five-year deal — with a cap hit of $6 million per season. He signed as a free agent ahead of 2019-20 and it was his best campaign in Vancouver. He was someone Canucks coaches called on to help protect leads in the last minute. He was steady and poised. Stats wise, he had his best regular season point total (29) and plus-minus (plus-16) in his Canucks’ tenure.
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“Communication was the biggest thing,” Myers said when asked about his own progress this past season. “It felt like we were talking every day. It was all the defencemen, everyone on the team. The communication was constant.
“The feeling of never being satisfied … everyone was trying to get better. That, in itself, created that much more talk within the room and communication from the coaches and players. For me, that provided a lot less guessing going out on the ice.
“I’ve been pretty vocal about how I feel about (the coaching staff) and they were a pretty big part of why I wanted to stay so badly.”
Free agency opens Monday. Myers had made it clear when he spoke to the media after the season-ending second-round playoff loss to the Edmonton Oilers that he wanted to return. He maintained Friday that he wasn’t worried that it took this long to get his deal completed. General manager Patrik Allvin has had various situations to work out, most notably trading winger Ilya Mikheyev to create some cap space.
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“I think any player who wants to be in a certain spot would love to get it done as fast as possible. I’ve been around long enough to know that it doesn’t always work like that,” Myers said. “Even though it happened later, that didn’t matter much to me. I’m just really happy we were able to get it done.
“I think what we were able to do last year as an organization, where we able to do take ourselves and having that feeling of how it should feel and the approach the room is now taking onto the ice were the thoughts I was having. Obviously, there’s a family factor, being close to home. We live in B.C. There were so many things that made me want to come back. Where we were able to take ourselves as a group was a big part of it.”
Myers will be 37 in the final year of his contract. Mark Giordano, who got into 46 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs last year, was the oldest defencemen in the league this past season at 40. Ryan Suter, who played the full 82-game campaign with the Minnesota Wild, and Brent Burns, who did the same with the Carolina Hurricanes, both turned 39. Myers was the 23rd oldest rearguard in the NHL last year.
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sewen@postmedia.com
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Courtesy : https://theprovince.com/sports/hockey/nhl/vancouver-canucks/canucks-tyler-myers-lauds-strides-made-but-more-to-do