TORONTO – Philippe Myers doesn’t have an answer to the question everybody’s asking about him these days.
“I’m not sure,” the 6-foot-5 defenceman said, with a small shrug, following Canada’s IIHF World Junior Championship tournament-opening win over Russia on Monday. “I really couldn’t answer that.”
That, being why a kid who was Canada’s best blueliner for large periods of Monday’s game—he’s fast, agile, has a booming shot, is offensive minded, and also helped neutralize Russia’s top line—has been overlooked for so long.
Says Jason Fortier, who worked with Myers a lot last season as an assistant coach with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies: “I keep asking guys: How did Myers not get drafted?”
Yes, Myers was passed over in his NHL draft year. The Huskies defenceman remained a free agent until the Philadelphia Flyers signed him at age 18. And it wasn’t until Monday night at the Air Canada Centre, that the kid from Moncton got a chance to play for his country in a game that mattered (exhibition games excluded).
Yes, it took 19 years before Myers was selected to play for Canada. But it took just 3 minutes and 11 seconds for him to register a point in his national team debut.
On Monday night in front of a packed crowd at the ACC, Myers picked up a loose puck near the Canadian blueline. He carried it over the Russian blueline, bobbled the puck a bit before turning his back to the Russian defender, waited a couple beats, then threaded a perfect pass across the ice and through traffic to a streaking Tyson Jost, who backhanded one top-shelf over the glove of Russian goalie Ilya Samsonov. That made it 1-0, Canada.
If you didn’t know who Myers is (he’s ‘Phil’ and ‘Philly,’ to teammates), chances are you do, now.
“I’m really happy with the role that I have on this team,” Myers said, grinning, wearing flip flops, shorts, and a red Team Canada hoody. “I couldn’t have asked for better, and my parents came down to watch me and spend Christmas with me, so I’m pretty excited about that, too. It’s pretty special to represent your country in your country…But I’m sticking to the plan and playing my game.”
Myers’ game is noticeable. He uses his body to take guys out of plays. He uses his reach to cut off passes and to get himself back into a play quickly if he gets into trouble. He uses his speed to lead rushes up the ice for Canada.
He and D-partner Thomas Chabot (Chabs) were paired against the top Russian line, and Myers finished the game plus-1, with 20:04 of ice time, second only to Chabot.
The two are happy to play the shut-down role. When they found out at a recent practice, as Myers put it, “Me and Chabs had a big smile.”
“Obviously you welcome that with open arms and you stick your mind to it,” he said. “You want to be that guy, to have the opportunity to do that. I think tonight we succeeded.”
Every member of this Canadian team looks happy to be here, Myers maybe a little more than most. With little more than 2 seconds remaining in Monday’s game, he pre-maturely hopped over the bench onto the ice to celebrate, before hopping back onto the bench quickly and waiting for the buzzer before he skated toward his goalie, arms in the air.
No. 5 said getting the start was pretty special, too.
“Obviously you have goosebumps and the crowd is so loud and got a lot of emotions going through my head,” Myers said. “I’m just really happy to be there and to be part of the team and on the ice.”
There are reasons that we haven’t seen Myers on a big stage like this until now. In his draft year, he dealt with a back injury. He also didn’t have a lot of ice time, playing on the Huskies’ third line. It jarred his confidence.
“I had a tough season at 17,” he said. “I was on the third pairing, I was battling through injuries the whole year, [it] didn’t really allow me to play at my full potential, and that’s about it.”
When Fortier joined the Huskies coaching staff at the start of the 2016-17 season (he’s now with the Kitchener Rangers) he saw a dominant defender in camp who was basically making offensive plays at will. “I know nobody was expecting him to do all these things,” the coach says.
“I saw a 6-foot-5 D who was lean, who could skate, who had a bomb from the point. I was quite impressed. I was basically saying Phil and Jeremy Lauzon [who also plays for Team Canada], this is the one-two.
“I had heard from the organization and other people that Phil isn’t really an offensive D,” Fortier said. “For what they were saying and what I was seeing, it wasn’t jiving. I didn’t see anything to lead me to believe this kid couldn’t be an offensive player.”
In his draft year, in 60 games, Myers had just 2 goals and 6 assists (along with 55 penalty minutes).
“Basically we looked at each other and said, the draft is over,” Fortier said. “Just worry about your play, your character, your attitude, your workouts in the gym, and everything else will take care of itself.”
It did, too. At 18, Myers was invited to Flyers camp, and signed. (“It felt awesome, to prove everybody wrong,” he said.) He exploded with 45 points (17g, 28a) in 63 games with the Huskies, despite a rash of injuries, including a sprained knee and a torn labrum. He won a championship with the Huskies. They advanced to the Memorial Cup final.
This season with the Huskies, Myers is on a nearly point-per-game pace, with 8 goals and 10 assists in 19 games.
Here, with Team Canada, he’s on a point-per-game pace so far, through one game. And no Canadian had more ice time than Myers did in the third period on Monday. Yes, he enjoyed his debut.
“It was awesome,” Myers said. “No words can describe how it felt to be on that ice. It was so loud, the fans are great. We couldn’t ask for better.”
There’s a lot of hockey still to be played, and he’ll no doubt be asked throughout this tournament why he was undrafted, whether he expected to be drafted, and how he possibly could have been overlooked. They’re natural questions when you see him play.
Myers will shrug and tell you he doesn’t know the answer. And, as he pointed out Monday: “I don’t really think about that.”