If you're in a 10-team H2H standard league this advice probably won't be of use to you - this is for people in deeper leagues with thinner defensive options.
| Season | GP | G | A | +/- | SOG | S% | HIT | BLK | PIM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 Season | 62 | 9 | 13 | -26 | 99 | 9.1% | 107 | 81 | 58 |
| 2014 Season | 71 | 7 | 21 | -6 | 124 | 5.6% | 65 | 132 | 77 |
| **2015 Season (pace) | 40 (82) | 5 (10) | 12 (24) | +4 (+8) | 70 (143) | 7.1% | 37 (75) | 45 (92) | 36 (73)** |
Assorted 5v5 Even Strength Info * S% 9.30 (indicative of more blue-line shots on the PP) * Highest G/60, Pts/60, and Shots/60 rates in his career * Highest A/60 since his rookie year (when Buffalo wasn't bad) * Across-the-board possession improvements since escaping Buffalo
Myers was drafted in the no-man's-land 11-20, where picks seemingly become great players or disappear. Myers has been a victim of top15 draft expectations, ROTY award expectations, and being on Buffalo for nearly six years to start his career (though they won their division in 09-10). As a result, Myers is likely either snatched up too soon by the optimistic pool manager or written off altogether due to his disappointing development.
Myers is a depth option; you likely don't want him in a standard league (4th defensemen at best) or in a pool with a small number of teams. I'm in the camp that picked him up too early. He sat on my bench (6 defensemen, for context) until a starter got hurt.
Myers has scored 3 of his 5 goals and recorded 6 of his 12 assists in the last 3 weeks. His TOI has also climbed from an early ~21:30 to nearly 24:00 since the start of December. Further, his +/- is +9 since December 18th. LeftWingLock lists Winnipeg's most frequent defensive pairing in the past 10 games as Myers and Toby Enstrom. From what I've seen Myers is more often given the freedom to assist or drive the puck down low while Enstrom defends the point.
In this his first full season with Winnipeg Myers may finally be settling in with his new team. The Myers-Enstrom pairing is Winnipeg's most-used this year and he shouldn't be at risk of line-switching. Myers doesn't provide exceptional peripherals (his 2014 blocks total a result of Buffalo's awful corsi) - he's good for a few hits and blocks per game and reliably around 70 PIM per season. At the time, in my opinion, Myers has more developed playmaking skills (check out the flip he makes last night to the goal by Stafford) than goal-scoring sense. Of the smooth-skating Winnipeg defensemen, Trouba has a better shot; don't expect Myers' S% to jump greatly, his current career S% (8.1%) is standard-fare for a d-man without Barrie/Ekman-Larsson/Subban ability to seed a shot.
I wouldn't be dropping your top4 defensive player for Myers, unless they're very bad. However, if you're in a depth league and there aren't any good FA pickups, you might try to swap 1-for-1 because Myers may trend up in the back half; if you're offering a better-in-real-life-than-in-fantasy player you might even get Myers+.
Winnipeg fans jump in: Point out anything I might have wrong/overlooked. Am I right in assuming that Myers has found some more chemistry now that he's settling in with Winnipeg?