Leafs "kicking tires" on trade for Canucks defenceman Tyler Myers: report
Is Tyler Myers on the market, and if so, are the Toronto Maple Leafs interested in the 6-foot-8 Vancouver Canucks defenceman?
That’s what Ottawa Sun writer Bruce Garrioch indicated in his column today.
“There’s also been talk the Vancouver Canucks are willing to move defenceman Tyler Myers and the Leafs have been among the teams kicking tires there,” Ottawa Sun writer Bruce Garrioch wrote in a column today.
Vancouver Canucks fans have always had plenty of opinions about veteran defenceman Tyler Myers during his time with the club.
Signed as a free agent on a five-year, $30 million deal by former general manager Jim Benning, Myers was brought into Vancouver in 2019 with hopes to help solidify the team’s defensive corps.
He’s been a staple of the team’s top-four defenders most nights since signing the deal. The Canucks, as you know, haven’t exactly been a beacon of success while Myers has been on the roster, missing the playoffs twice in three seasons and projecting to be out of the postseason mix once again after a horrendous start to the year.
But while nobody could fault Myers for taking the best offer out there on the free agent market, that probably is also part of the problem — he’s been thrown into a role and a contract that never really made sense at this point of his career, and his deal signed by a now-fired GM is at least a bit of an anchor for a team stuck in mediocrity year in and year out.
For portions of the fanbase, they’d likely want to see the Canucks move on from Myers and his $6 million cap hit.
Across four seasons in Vancouver, Myers has 13 goals, 51 assists and a plus-minus of +1 in 219 games for the Canucks in his career. He’s averaged 21:48 of ice time over his Vancouver career while putting up four assists in 14 games averaging 20:59 this season.
With Myers’ contract expiring after next season, it’s a little more movable than it was earlier in his contract, as he had a full no-trade clause in the first three years of the deal.
Myers now can submit a 10-team no-trade list, but can still get sent to any of the other 21 organizations in the NHL, as per CapFriendly.
Another detail in Myers’ contract worth mentioning is the fact that $5 million of the $6 million he’s owed in 2023-24 will be paid out in the form of a signing bonus. That means that once the puck drops on next season, he’ll only have $1 million left to be paid in real dollars.
Time will tell if this latest rumour is just that — a rumour — but there’s at least some indication Myers could be one of the Canucks’ veteran pieces on the move in the near future.
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