Analyzing Tyler Myers' surprising defensive bounce-back for Canucks

Apr 21 2022, 4:54 pm

If there was an award for the NHL’s most polarizing player, Tyler Myers would be in the running.

The hulking defenceman is a complicated player. His massive frame makes him hard to miss, which both helps and hurts his reputation.

One thing is certain though.

Despite Myers’s uneven play, this has easily been his best season as a Vancouver Canuck.

When he signed a five-year, $30 million contract in free agency back in 2019, there were no shortage of critics. Heck, recent analysis from The Athletic pegged Myers’s true value at $1.6 million.

Although he’s overpaid, Myers has done well to boost his value this season with a defensive performance above his recent norm.

There is an argument that his “bounce-back” is overblown, but let’s start by taking a look at where Myers has improved this season.

What Myers has done well this season

Coming into this season, Myers had set the bar pretty low for himself defensively.

He went from fine in 2019-20 to brutal last season. Even though last year was bad for almost every Canuck player, Myers’ 3.02 goals against per 60 minutes was the worst mark of his career.

The low bar was part of the reason why it’s been semi-surprising to see him turn it around this season.

Travis Green paired Myers and Oliver Ekman-Larsson together at the start of the season, and the duo formed an unlikely shutdown pair.

That’s important to remember when analyzing Myers’ defensive bounce-back because that wasn’t a role he was thrust into earlier in his tenure with the Canucks.

During his first two seasons in Vancouver, it was typically any pair featuring Alex Edler that took on the tough matchups.

With the longest-tenured Canuck gone from the roster, Myers and Ekman-Larsson became the de facto shutdown duo.

Taking that into consideration, it’s been a pleasant surprise to see Myers post the lowest Corsi-against, shots-against, and expected goals-against totals during his time with the Canucks.

Let’s not sugarcoat it. Myers went from one of the worst defensive defenders in the NHL over the last few seasons, to a respectable shutdown defenceman this season.

We can measure Myers against himself by using Hockey Reference’s Defensive Point Shares (DPS) metric. While the stat has its flaws (such as relying on plus/minus, more on that below), it does give a gauge of where Myers’ defensive performance ranks against his career norm.

So far this season, Myers has contributed 5.3 defensive point shares to the Canucks. That’s the highest DPS he’s posted since his rookie season, when he had 5.8 DPS as a 19-year-old in Buffalo. It’s also only the second time he’s contributed more than 4.0 DPS during his 13 NHL seasons.

Why the Myers bounce-back is deceiving

Plus/minus is an old-school hockey statistic that doesn’t get a lot of love nowadays.

But don’t go telling that to Myers.

Currently, Myers’ leads all Canucks skaters at +21 on the season. That total is also a career-high for him.

The stat isn’t a complete lie. Myers has been better defensively this season and that’s reflected in his team-leading plus/minus.

However, there’s a reason why this statistic is deceiving.

Plus/minus is a straight measure of whether a player is on the ice when his team scores or gets scored on. It excludes power play goals but does count even-strength, shorthanded, and empty-net goals.

Myers currently leads all Canucks, having been on the ice for 10 empty-net goals scored this season.

When the Canucks goalie has been in net, he’s typically making Myers look stronger than he actually is.

Myers has been on the ice for 29.6 scoring chances against per-60 at even-strength. That’s the third-highest mark among regular Canuck defenders, trailing only Brad Hunt and Travis Hamonic.

Although his scoring chances against mark is on the higher end, Myers has been bailed out by goaltending.

His on-ice save percentage of .940 is third-highest among all regular Canucks, trailing only Vasily Podkolzin and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

By now, it’s no secret as to what kind of player Myers is. He has the tools to be a sturdy NHL defenceman, and he’s seemingly embraced the role of being a strong shutdown blueliner, even if that’s meant he’s on pace for career-low offensive totals.

Myers is also prone to the big mistake. One example was against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday, where he made a short-sighted, risky pinch at the blue line, which led to Alex Formenton getting a glorious chance off of a two-on-one rush.

While Myers’s bounce-back has aided the Canucks during their strongest defensive season in recent memory, he’s still a player that this team would be wise to move on from this offseason, if at all possible.

Trevor BeggsTrevor Beggs

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