VANCOUVER – When their season of drama, discord and disappointment ended in April, Vancouver Canuck players were expected to bolt from each other to heal at home over the summer.
Instead, golfers in the group gathered around senior defenceman Tyler Myers for a quick two-day trip to celebrate their teammate’s 1,000th National Hockey League game, played way back in October. The eightsome, including members of the Canucks’ leadership group, flew to rural Central Washington State to play a couple of rounds at Gamble Sands. There were a few drinks, a lot of laughs and a midnight putting contest.
“I think it's easy to jump to conclusions about what's happening when you're not on the inside,” Myers said Tuesday when asked about the Canucks’ dressing room. “During my entire time in Vancouver, I have never once thought our room is broken. Certainly, there was tension. But I've been in situations on other teams where there's tension between, you know, two teammates, a teammate and a coach, staff and player. But it doesn't mean that the room is broken.
“If anything, I feel like we have a really tight room. And the fact that you have all these guys re-signing and coming back, we all feel the same way.”
Myers was speaking on Canada Day, invited by Canucks management to travel from his summer home in Kelowna to speak to draft picks and invitees attending the organization’s annual development camp in Vancouver.
He was also speaking about two hours after the longest-tenured Canuck, Brock Boeser, and the team announced their reconciliation and a stunning new contract.
After staring into the abyss of separation, Boeser followed his heart back to the Canucks. Vancouver general manager Patrik Allvin was guided by common sense, with growing appreciation about how difficult it would be within the NHL’s new economic landscape to replace a winger who has averaged 25 goals and 55 points over his eight full seasons in Vancouver.
On the opening day of free agency, the Canucks decided that the best available player was their own and re-signed the 28-year-old from Minnesota to a seven-year, $50.75-million-US contract.
On Monday, the Canucks came up in term and Boeser down in salary. Sportsnet reporter Dan Murphy broke the news.
It put a boldface exclamation point on the Canucks’ Canada Day theme that started with proactive contract extensions for play-driving winger Conor Garland (six years at $6 million per season) and goalie Thatcher Demko (three years at $8.5 million) 12 months ahead of their eligibility for free agency.
Following a season in which the team appeared to be pulled apart by friction between teammates Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller, who was traded in January to the New York Rangers, the re-signing of three key veterans on Tuesday was powerful proof that the Canucks still believe in themselves and their chance to win together.
As a lobbyist, Garland joked in his Zoom call with reporters that he spent more time talking to Boeser over the last week than he did speaking with his wife. Myers was also part of the peer pressure that helped their popular teammate decide to make an apparent U-turn after reaching free agency.
“I'm sure he's happy he's done getting my phone calls,” Garland said.
Boeser is expected to address the media on Wednesday.
“He's just the best guy,” Garland continued. “He's the ultimate teammate, a fantastic player. I was very excited when I saw that news. I was away from my phone for about a half hour, but I had five texts from Mysie and five texts from (Brock), so I knew it was good news. He's just such. . . a culture guy. For him to be playing on the same team his whole career, not many people do that. So what an opportunity. I'm just very excited he's back.”
Garland, 29, was traded to the Canucks from the Arizona Coyotes four years ago in the intensely-unpopular Oliver Ekman-Larsson blockbuster orchestrated by former Vancouver GM Jim Benning. While Allvin and Canucks president Jim Rutherford bought out Ekman-Larsson for $19.3 million two summers ago — freeing the defenceman to win a Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers — Garland has evolved into a consistent two-way play driver.
The five-foot-nine winger from Boston has missed only seven games in four seasons while averaging 19 goals and 49 points despite frequently being deployed on the third line.
Garland has also become part of Vancouver’s leadership group.
“Last year, I think, carries a lot of noise that isn't warranted,” he said. “You know, we dealt with injuries right from the start of the season. We had a lot of top players hurt. I mean, we just couldn't get healthy. And then obviously we had a little bit of a distraction as a group. What were we, four points out with all those injuries?
“I think we're a pretty good hockey club. I think we've got a really good coaching staff. We're in a great place to play. We have some really good pieces coming back. You know, I think the noise is a lot louder than what we feel in the room.”
The Canucks actually missed the playoffs by six points, eliminated with a week remaining in the regular season and about three weeks after top centres Pettersson and Filip Chytil suffered season-ending injuries.
Garland said he re-signed for two reasons: the winning pedigree of management and new head coach Adam Foote, and the group of players the Canucks have assembled.
“Just being on that trip with a group of guys. . . it's a really tight-knit group that wants to win and enjoys being around each other,” he said. “That's kind of how I talked about it with Brock. He signed for seven years. We're with that group for a long time. We're going to have a lot of fun and we're going to try to win with that group. That's something special to be on the same team and with the same guys for an extended period of time. You know, we're really excited about sticking with each other.”
“We can build off the group that we have,” Myers insisted. “With everything that went on last year, there's still a lot of positives you can take from it. And it shows with guys coming back. You know, we're building to try and become a contending team. And I think the last few days, we got closer to that.”
• With a roster of 20 players, the return of Boeser leaves the Canucks with $2.3 million of cap space — not enough to re-sign the Canucks’ other UFA, centre Pius Suter, who was still available at the end of Day 1. Allvin said he will be patient and see whose price might drop in free agency as the summer progresses. He also wants to leave room for Canuck prospects to compete for roster spots next fall after they won the American Hockey League championship last week.
