Cleared for takeoff: Tyler Myers quickly finds comfort zone with Jets

Ten minutes into his first game with the Winnipeg Jets, Tyler Myers noticed the difference. The Jets were structured. They supported each other.

“I think it’ll allow me to take my game that much further,” he said, “especially offensively.”

Is it any wonder Myers looks like a different defenseman these days?

He has two goals and eight points in 10 games since the Jets acquired him as part of a major trade with the Buffalo Sabres, and coach Paul Maurice has praised his defensive play. No longer has he been a possession black hole. In fact, he has been a positive possession player.

It’s early. But he’s already an important part of a team in a playoff spot, especially now that Dustin Byfuglien is injured, and it looks like he’s in a good position to get his career headed in the right direction again at age 25.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how he progresses and blossoms as a player, because obviously he’s still young,” said Drew Stafford, who also came to the Jets from the Sabres in the trade. “He had a taste of success earlier in his career. Unfortunately as a team in Buffalo things didn’t work out. But he has a great opportunity here.”

Myers won the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year in 2009-10. He was a 6-foot-8, 200-something-pound monster who could skate and pass and shoot. He had 11 goals and 48 points in 82 games.

His production fell after that, and the Sabres went from a playoff team his first two seasons to one of the worst in the league. The question was how much each had to do with the other.

The Sabres had the puck even less with Myers than they did without him this season. They controlled 34.1 percent of the even-strength shot attempts with him on the ice, worst in the league. They controlled 39 percent when he was off the ice – still awful, but better.

Did Myers make a bad team even worse? Statistically, yes. But did that make him the worst player in the NHL? No.

Myers had the same size and skill he had when he was 19 and 20 and the Sabres were good. But as expectations and responsibility went up, the team went down around him. The Sabres also changed players, coaches and systems. For all his merits as a motivator, Ted Nolan is not known for his X’s and O’s.

Far too often Myers found himself chasing the play in his own zone against top opponents for a variety of reasons, and it snowballed.

“It’s a lot to ask,” Stafford said. “For a young guy, mentally that can be challenging. It’s all about the situation, the environment he’s been in.”

Myers paused for a long time when asked about Buffalo.

“We didn’t have as much to work with in Buffalo as we do here,” he said. “I can already tell coming here that the details and systems …”

Another pause.

“They demand a lot out of their players, and I think that’s the way it has to be if you want to play the right way,” he continued. “The more you have that, I think the more you’ll get out of each individual player. It allows guys to work to their full potential.”

Asked about the mental challenge he had faced, Myers spun it positively.

“I don’t think I was ever doubting myself,” he said. “The last two seasons, I’ve been really happy where I’ve taken my game. It was obviously a very tough situation, given the position we were in. Those were tough minutes, a lot of D-zone minutes, but I’ll always be grateful for my time in Buffalo. I think even through the tough times, I really believe that in the long run it made me a better player. … It really allowed all of us to work on our defensive game.”

Now Myers has a detail-oriented coach in Maurice. He has a solid veteran partner in Tobias Enstrom, one of the most underrated defensemen in the league. And he’s on one of the better possession teams in the league.

Magically, his team is now generating more even-strength shot attempts than it allows when he’s on the ice. His team is still generating a higher percentage when he’s off the ice, but not to the same degree as in Buffalo.

Myers has made some memorable offensive plays. On Feb. 14 in Detroit, he picked up a puck in the neutral zone, raced across the blue line, cut around a defender and fired a shot in close. Blake Wheeler scored on the rebound. Two nights later against Edmonton, he took a pass off a faceoff and blasted a wicked slapshot to score his first goal as a Jet.

But Maurice wants him to be smart and fit into the larger framework, not to feel pressure to produce.

“I don’t think that Tyler’s game gets better by jumping up more, I think it gets better when he jumps up at the right times,” Maurice said. “What we really want is for him to use all those skills that he does have – when we talk about skating, moving the puck, handling the puck, defensively – and play against the other team’s best and become a really well-rounded defenseman.

“Ten more points for him will not be a deciding factor to a good season or a great season. He can just play really well. It’s all about wins. He’s at that point in his career, too. So he’s going to play a lot. We’re going to play him with a good partner. And we expect him to play well.”

Asked about the ideal situation to take advantage of his skill set, Myers didn’t pause this time.

“I think the way this team plays the game,” he said, “is exactly the way it should be played.”

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