Fleury and Myers Holding it Down on Defense

The Tampa Bay Lightning faced some significant questions on the back end to start the season. Departures of Ryan McDonagh and Jan Rutta, along with Zach Bogosian being injured meant that there were some holes in the rotation.

With Ian Cole being suspended to start the season, Haydn Fleury and Phil Myers have been trusted with holding down the Lightning’s third pairing on defense.

With both players landing in Tampa Bay as reclamation projects, expectations were not really known for these two. It was likely expected that they would be the seventh and eighth defenseman on the team at full health, but they have been thrown right into the fire from the jump.

Myers was a promising, undrafted prospect in Philadelphia whose career got off to a solid start with the Flyers then went downhill and was traded to Nashville. He never really got himself established with the Predators and came to Tampa in the Ryan McDonagh trade with the hopes of getting his career back on track.

One thing that is clearly evident with Myers in the early going is that his size is significant, and he can really shoot the puck. His heavy shot could see him landing on the scoresheet sooner than later.

Fleury was a top ten draft pick in Carolina and became a casualty of the expansion draft after being picked up by Seattle. Fleury has never been able to establish himself as an NHL regular but has been solid playing with Myers in the early going.

On the second Lightning goal Friday night, Fleury even recorded the secondary assist for his first point in Tampa Bay.

The combination of Myers and Fleury combined for a +1 rating and six shots on goal between them in Columbus.

With the way they have started the season, they have proven that they can hold things down until Bogosian comes back or Cole returns from suspension. Regardless, the Lightning are in decent shape with these two rounding out the depth on defense.