The night of October 19, 2024, will always stand out for Tyler Myers. It was the night the veteran defenceman skated in his 1,000th National Hockey League game. It came in a 3-0 Vancouver Canucks victory over the Flyers in Philadelphia and was surely a personal highlight in an otherwise frustrating season for Myers and the Canucks.
For a short while, however, it looked like the thousand-game milestone might have to wait as Myers was injured on his first shift a week earlier in a home game against the Flyers. Fortunately, Myers missed just the remainder of the club’s second game of the season and was ready for action the next time out.
Individually, Myers finished the season with six goals and 24 points in 71 games. But as it was for so many of his teammates, it was an up-and-down season for Myers, too.
He and defence partner Carson Soucy hoped to pick up where they left off as a legitimate shutdown duo that rose to the challenge in the 2024 playoffs. But somewhere along the line, they lost their mojo – more Soucy than Myers – and struggled out of the gate to start the 2024-25 campaign.
And when Filip Hronek suffered a serious injury in late November, more was asked of the healthy defencemen remaining on the roster. That’s when the coaching staff was forced to split the Soucy-Myers pairing in an attempt to fill the Hronek gap on the blueline.
Myers actually performed well alongside Quinn Hughes, allowing the captain to dazzle in the prolonged absence of his usual partner. That turned out to be the second most-used defensive duo for the Canucks all season. In 382 minutes together at 5-on-5, the Canucks controlled 54.7% of all shot attempts, 58.3% of expected goals and outscored opponents 21-10 with Hughes and Myers on the ice together.
It’s easy to suggest that Hughes was responsible for the gaudy totals, but Myers more than held his own alongside the Canucks most valuable player.
In the first season of a three-year/$9M extension signed last summer, Myers averaged 20:48 of ice time per game and led all Canucks defencemen logging 157:25 while shorthanded and was a key part of a penalty kill that finished third in the league at 82.6%. His 6’8” frame remains his greatest tool in defending, using his uncanny size to be a disruptive force. That won’t change.
However, that size can be a double-edged sword as a player of that stature sticks out in a crowd, and at times, it seems Myers is penalized for being taller than his opponents. Still, he has a penchant for penalties and led the Canucks with 26 minors. That was down from the 30 he took the season before, but it was still nine more than any of his teammates and tied for 10th among all NHL defencemen.
Myers’ season was cut short due to a neck injury that sidelined him for the team’s final seven games. He also missed one other game due to injury in mid-March. On top of that, he was suspended for three games for cross-checking Edmonton’s Evan Bouchard in the face at the end of a heated January game that also saw Connor McDavid draw a three-game ban for a cross-check to the head of Conor Garland.
Reflecting on the season as a whole, Myers was a steadying presence on the Canucks blueline that underwent an overhaul. At one point just after Christmas, with both Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek out with injuries, Myers was forced to log 25:47 in a game in Seattle. At this stage of his career, Myers shouldn’t be pressed into duty like that.
But a team-first guy, Myers took the challenge head-on and did what he could to help the hockey club.
That much is known about Tyler Myers. He is a valued veteran who gives the Canucks everything he can every night out. He did that admirably in 2024-25. But he’s at a point in his career now where opportunities to compete for the Stanley Cup are running thin. That’s what made missing the playoffs so disappointing one year after getting to Game 7 of the second round.
Reaching the thousand-game mark is an occasion every NHL player will cherish. So it’s impossible to call this a totally forgettable season for Tyler Myers. But it’s a shame the highlight came so early in the schedule because it really was downhill from there for Myers and his hockey club.
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