VANCOUVER – All they are saying, is give him a chance. All together now. All they are saying…
Even John Lennon, Yoko Ono and a tambourine wouldn’t fully quell the unrest in Vancouver over the free-agent signing of Tyler Myers by the Canucks.
But the level of hostility displayed last week towards the 29-year-old defenceman was excessive; it wasn’t the person people should hate, but the idea of a seven-year, $50-million contract for him.
When the Canucks officially announced Myers’s signing on Monday, his contract wasn’t anything close to that. Agreeing to $30 million over five years, he’s taking a discount to return close to home and be part of an emerging team with an exciting future. There isn’t a seven, in salary or term, anywhere to be seen.
And while there are some in Canucks Nation armed with spreadsheets and convinced that Myers would be a risky choice at any price, his contract makes it possible that the former Kelowna Rockets junior can be successful in Vancouver. If given the chance.
All general manager Jim Benning wants is fairness. All Myers wants is opportunity.
“I would say if this was 10 years ago when I came in the league, I wouldn’t be ready for it,” Myers said of the market he is entering. “But I feel I’ve grown up a lot. I’ve been around long enough now that it doesn’t faze me at all really. The thing that solves any negativity is winning, and that’s the ultimate goal coming into the group. Everybody is happy when we’re winning, so that’s what we’re going to try to do.”
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Benning’s signing of third-pairing defenceman Jordie Benn, a 31-year-old from Victoria who is leaving the Montreal Canadiens for a two-year, $4-million contract in Vancouver, seems universally popular on the West Coast. Almost unheard of.
The Canucks also signed depth defenceman Oscar Fantenberg to a one-year, $850,000 contract.
These moves, and especially adding Myers, make the Canucks better.
Alarmed by what he heard and read last week after Myers visited with the Canucks during the National Hockey League’s mating season, Benning signed the six-foot-eight defenceman anyway.
It should surprise no one by now that he’s not building the Canucks on popular opinion. Otherwise Benning wouldn’t have traded for Brandon Sutter and Erik Gudbranson, signed Jay Beagle and Tim Schaller or drafted Olli Juolevi. He also wouldn’t have waived Frank Corrado, traded Eddie Lack and Hunter Shinkaruk, signed Ryan Miller and Antoine Roussel, re-signed Jacob Markstrom or drafted a skinny Swedish kid named Elias Pettersson.
He cares what you think. But he won’t change what he believes because of it.
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“I have to do the things that I feel are the right things to do to make our team better,” Benning said. “I’ve watched Tyler since junior and I’ve followed his career in Buffalo and in Winnipeg. I just felt like it’s a great fit for our group. . . because he can play today’s style of game because of his skating. And he’s six-foot-eight. He makes us a better team.
“We have a strong analytics department. We have guys that do all that for us and we listen to them. But with Tyler, it’s more than the analytics.”
Despite some spotty defensive metrics, Myers is a towering veteran who can skate and pass, will help the attack and power play, eat up minutes and be an excellent role model for Quinn Hughes, Juolevi and others.
There are some things Myers isn’t, of course. But the Canucks will be better with him, and his contract is fair.
A summer resident of Kelowna, Myers will be a year younger when his contract ends than current Canucks defenceman Alex Edler is after his recent two-year extension for the same $6-million-per-season, praised by fans and reporters as prudent and reasonable, expires when Vancouver’s top blueliner is 35.
This acquisition says as much about Benning as it does Myers. This is Benning’s team, and he’s constructing it only with players he wants and believes fit the roles available to them.
Benning wanted a versatile top-six winger young enough to grow with Pettersson, Hughes and Brock Boeser and traded for J.T. Miller. He wanted a top-four, right-shot defenceman and signed Myers, who played behind Dustin Byfuglien and Jacob Trouba the last four seasons in Winnipeg.
Myers will be a key part of a Vancouver defence that looks significantly different in October than it did in April. Ben Hutton was made an unrestricted free agent by the Canucks, who were fearful that the defenceman’s salary after arbitration would exceed his role, and replaced him with the reliable Benn. Hughes will be a catalyst for the Canucks as a 20-year-old rookie, and Juolevi, the fifth-overall draft pick from 2016, will push Fantenberg at training camp and should play in the NHL at some point next season as a 21-year-old.
Benning said he is still looking for another player or two, and he has until the start of the season to find the right ones he can still afford.
The decisions will be his. And so will be the repercussions if he is wrong.
He has a lot riding on Myers, and everything else. And Benning is OK with that.
