Vancouver is home and Canucks players like it — a lot

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Vancouver is home and Canucks players like it — a lot

"I think Vancouver is awesome. It gets a bad rap for how much it rains but it's really not that bad." — Tyler Myers

Author of the article:

Patrick Johnston

Published Apr 07, 2023  •  Last updated 2 days ago  •  4 minute read

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Vancouver Canucks defenceman Tyler Myers and his wife Michela read to their son Tristan. The couple, who recently welcomed daughter Skylar to the fold, are loving life in Vancouver. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /PNG

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A drive over the Burrard Bridge revealed to Jack Studnicka everything he’s been looking for.

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Not long ago, on what was finally a beautiful West Coast spring day, the Vancouver Canucks forward ventured over to Kitsilano.

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What he found was a revelation.

 

Since being traded to the Canucks last fall from the Boston Bruins, the 24 year old has been living “near Yaletown.”

 

“But maybe next year, Kits. There’s a lot going on there. I drove around there for the first time last week.”

 

Between the famous beach and the hustle-and-bustle of West Fourth and Broadway, plus the chance to have a yard, he was intrigued.

 

“I really like the look of it,” Studnicka said. “I like a big yard.”

 

Jack Studnicka of the Vancouver Canucks walks to the Canucks dressing room before their NHL game against the Seattle Kraken at Rogers Arena on April 4, 2023. Photo by Jeff Vinnick /NHLI via Getty Images

Studnicka grew up in Windsor, Ont., and went to high school for a spell across the river in Michigan. Vancouver reminds him of his first NHL home in Boston.

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“They’re kinda similar,” he said of the two port cities.

 

Very much his vibe.

 

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Saturday

 

Calgary Flames vs. Vancouver Canucks

 

7 p.m., Rogers Arena. TV: CBC, Sportsnet. Radio: AM 650

 

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Every NHL city has its pros and cons. But Vancouver, off the ice anyway, clearly is a place to be.

 

Studnicka isn’t alone in his admiration for the pace of life away from the rink in Vancouver. Every Canuck interviewed for this story raved about life here.

 

Elias Pettersson, now in his fifth year, couldn’t be happier. He’s made a nice life for himself here.

 

“It’s good. A good pace of life. Feels a lot like home in Sweden,” Pettersson said. “It’s just easy to hang out.”

 

Brock Boeser is in year six. He and his girlfriend Bella love taking their dogs to places like Lighthouse Park.

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“You’ve got the beaches. You’ve got the mountains every day. You don’t get that in Minnesota,” he said with a laugh.

 

And being out and about town is easy. People might say hello, but no one ever pesters you, Boeser said.

 

“I love it. Everyone is polite.”

 

And of course you’re never hungry.

 

“The food’s amazing. The seafood is so good,” Boeser added.

 

Vitali Kravtsov, who has visited Vancouver many times in the past, including for the 2019 World Juniors, is also a big fan of the food.

 

“It reminds me of home,” the Vladivostok native says. “Lots of Korean food. Asian food.”

 

In the Soviet era, Vladivostok was a closed city. But over the last two decades, its regional connections have slowly been re-establishing, drawing plenty of tourists from China and Korea.

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“There’s a lot of Asian influence now,” Kravtsov said.

 

If Studnicka does move to Kits, he could end up with Tyler Myers as his neighbour. The veteran defenceman has lived on the west side since signing as a free agent with the Canucks in 2019.

 

Myers played junior in Kelowna and still owns a summer home there, so he had a decent familiarity with West Coast life.

 

Before signing with the Canucks, he played for the Buffalo Sabres and Winnipeg Jets.

 

Vancouver was always a highlight to visit for him and his teammates.

 

“A big part of the road is going out with the guys,” Myers explained. “There’s just so many different restaurants to choose from. To get a good meal together and get that team bonding. You hear a lot about how the road team have their team dinners here when they come in.”

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Myers and his wife Michela, who recently gave birth to their second child, are very happy to have settled in Vancouver.

 

“I think Vancouver is awesome,” he said. “It gets a bad rap for how much it rains but it’s really not that bad.

 

“I maybe have a different perspective coming from Winnipeg weather. I think I would take the rain,” he said with a chuckle. “My family and I, we say it all the time, when it’s a sunny day in Vancouver, I think it’s one of the nicest cities in the world. It just has so much to offer in all aspects of life.

 

“We noticed the first year living here just about every area of the city has something to offer in some way. It’s just a great place for any living situation. For the single guys. Guys who have three kids.”

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J.T. Miller of the Vancouver Canucks waves to his daughters before their NHL game against the Minnesota Wild at Rogers Arena. Photo by Jeff Vinnick /NHLI via Getty Images

Then he cited J.T. Miller’s experience moving to Vancouver. The forward was picked up in a trade by the Canucks shortly before Myers signed here.

 

“You talk to Millsy, he comes from East Coast USA and he talks about how he thinks it’s (Vancouver) one of the nicest places in the world,” Myers said.

 

Miller, his wife Natalie and their three kids, are truly enthralled with life in Vancouver.

 

Originally from the Pittsburgh area, Miller played in New York and Tampa before Vancouver.

 

He’s had no qualms about moving to Canada.

 

“This is all about Miller family living. We love being at home. And we’ve found a great one here.”

 

With his contract situation up in the air last summer, he admitted life was in a bit of turmoil. But the chance to choose Vancouver long-term became a big factor in the end.

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Since moving to the West Coast four years ago, the Millers have made West Vancouver home.

 

“I don’t like having neighbours,” Miller said, noting that he and Natalie were able to find a nice big property.

 

And while some might get frustrated having to commute over the Lions Gate Bridge, Miller insisted he really doesn’t mind it.

 

“I drive at a different time from everyone else. Some days if I time it right, I’m home in 20 minutes.”

 

pjohnston@postmedia.com

 

twitter.com/risingaction

 

Yes, My home also and wouldn't change it.

[Odd.]

So Miller lives in Vancouver. Hmmmm

[Bounce000]

If I had an NHLer’s salary, I’m sure I’d love it too.

[McBackup]

People really overblow how much it rains here. Does it rain a lot? Sure. But it’s not a 24/7 deluge all year like they make it out to be.

[Alflives]

24 minutes ago, Odd. said:

So Miller lives in Vancouver. Hmmmm

Alf’s empties were way wrong on Miller’s not wanting to live here. He signed a hometown discount to stay and raise his kids here. Clearly he loves our city. Stupid empties. 

[Citizen Erased]

18 minutes ago, Alflives said:

Alf’s empties were way wrong on Miller’s not wanting to live here. He signed a hometown discount to stay and raise his kids here. Clearly he loves our city. Stupid empties. 

Nobody’s perfectaroo.

[Canuck Surfer]

No more monkey's, jumping on the bed? One to fall off, cuz he 'does in' everyone's head?   

 

 

 

[Canuck You]

53 minutes ago, Bounce000 said:

If I had an NHLer’s salary, I’m sure I’d love it too.

Maybe if you stayed off CDC and got a second job you'd do OK? #stepyogameup!

[Canuck Surfer]

28 minutes ago, McBackup said:

People really overblow how much it rains here. Does it rain a lot? Sure. But it’s not a 24/7 deluge all year like they make it out to be.

The rain is definitely overrated. It rains a lot in winter.  A trade off for snow & minus twenty, minus thirty, minus...

 

Almost anyplace on the Eastern Seaboard has substantially more rain the rest of the year. About the same as a whole.

 

Look at the flood events now Oregon & Northern California. Not as big as the Fraser Valley flood, but more common. Any coastal area without an island mountain range like Vancouver Island, to take off the excess water coming off the ocean.  Has more rain than 'us.' 

 

I live in Australia now after Vancouver. It's hot, right???  Melbourne gets 4 & 1/2 times the annual rainfall of Vancouver. Its cold and rainy today, 13 degrees C, and it ain't winter. Sydney & Byron Bay, Brisbane TEN times the annual rainfall. Check the info program for one of its famous festivals.  Rubber Boots...

 

 

[BarnBurner]

56 minutes ago, McBackup said:

People really overblow how much it rains here. Does it rain a lot? Sure. But it’s not a 24/7 deluge all year like they make it out to be.

True, and I've lived in Calgary and Toronto during the winter, and I'll take Vancouver weather any day. 

 

I've experienced winters from late October till late May. Never again! 

[McBackup]

4 minutes ago, Canuck Surfer said:

The rain is definitely overrated. It rains a lot in winter.  A trade off for snow & minus twenty, minus thirty, minus...

 

Almost anyplace on the Eastern Seaboard has substantially more rain the rest of the year. About the same as a whole.

 

Look at the flood events now Oregon & Northern California. Not as big as the Fraser Valley flood, but more common. Any coastal area without an island mountain range like Vancouver Island, to take off the excess water coming off the ocean.  Has more rain than 'us.' 

 

I live in Australia now after Vancouver. It's hot, right???  Melbourne gets 4 & 1/2 times the annual rainfall of Vancouver. Its cold and rainy today, 13 degrees C, and it ain't winter. Sydney & Byron Bay, Brisbane TEN times the annual rainfall. Check the info program for one of its famous festivals.  Rubber Boots...

 

 

Yeah it’s funny, I actually got in an argument with someone from Halifax about Vancouver’s rainfall being “depressing”. Turns out Vancouver has both less total rainfall and fewer rainy days. Whoops. We have less rainfall than Atlanta, Miami, Melbourne as you mentioned, etc. 
 

The thing is Vancouver has a lot of “rainy days”. But what does that mean? Any day with 2 millimetres of rainfall or more counts as a “rainy day”. So it can drizzle for a bit in the morning, burn off and be sunny the rest of the day, and it still counts as a “rainy day”.

 

I know lots of people find it depressing, I don’t care. I’m 70% water. I’d rather live somewhere with mountains and ocean and greenery where it happens to sprinkle often than somewhere flat, brown and empty, but the sun happens to be out. Reminds me of Mordor. 
 

For some reason it’s been ingrained in people’s mind that it’s pouring nonstop in Vancouver. I keep getting this ad for Mark’s where they’re talking about Canadian cities and there’s a family in Calgary going “we love it here, the weather changes all the time” followed by a guy in rain gear at Spanish Banks under torrential downpour saying “here, not so much.” And I just got to think how silly that is. That’s like me saying “Oh yeah Toronto it’s always -30, never gets above freezing” or “Yeah there isn’t a single tree in Saskatchewan”.

[Devron]

I live in Northern BC. Summers are beautiful. Better than Vancouver but that’s only a couple months of the year. The rest is hell lol.

 

That said Vancouver is my favorite place to visit. I’m not a big city person but I love visiting your beautiful city 

[JamesB]

I have lived in Vancouver most of my life and I love it here. It is too bad that the cost of housing is making hard to stay in the city for a lot young people.

 

When players like Miller and Myers say how much they like it here it makes me like them better. I particularly appreciate players who make Vancouver their home base despite the high tax rates in BC. (I usually avoid politics but income taxes in BC are too high.)

 

That said, I would be a lot happier about Myers if a) he were a better player or b) he had  much lower cap hit or c) both. In the current situation the Canucks would be a lot better off if they could unload his cap hit, One possibility would be to get him to waive his partial NTC in return for an informal offer to made him a offer after next at a more reasonable cap hit so his family could stay in Vancouver. I would have no problem with Myers as 7th man at a cap hit of between 1 and 2 million for a couple of years after next year.   

[cripplereh]

We all know how great the city of Vancouver is. 

 

 

Not surprising players see it to.

[DownUndaCanuck]

Must be real hard signing an 8 year deal in say Detroit...there's lots of nice liveable cities out there but Ohio and Detroit? Teams should almost have to pay a bit more to convince a prime player to grow and raise their families there.

 

The Californian teams would be nice, Nashville and St Louis surely would be a step down, New York and Chicago and Boston would be good fun but again, not as "liveable", the Florida teams quite nice, Vegas would be really odd...

 

I wonder if players in the more rubbish cities simply just work there and live elsewhere?

[Hairy Kneel]

Having traveled for work, nothing is more beautiful than crossing the Rockies seeing our lush evergreen treelines and mountain lakes. So green. 

[OldFaithfulCap]

I became a Canucks fan as I loved the city when I visited as a kid. It's been a while since I returned but it's a beautiful part of the world. People measure quality of life differently though so younger players may want a bigger city or they may prefer financial/tax benefits elsewhere. There's also the reduced media exposure caused by time zones alas.

 

 

[HKSR]

11 hours ago, Canuck Surfer said:

No more monkey's, jumping on the bed? One to fall off, cuz he 'does in' everyone's head?   

 

 

 

Man Petey looks really small next to Myers.

[Canuck You]

1 hour ago, Hairy Kneel said:

Having traveled for work, nothing is more beautiful than crossing the Rockies seeing our lush evergreen treelines and mountain lakes. So green. 

100% No matter where I go when I overlook our city from the plane I start feeling comfortable..It's home and beautiful. I flew from flatland Toronto to YVR here recently and what a better view looking at them mountains..

[Alflives]

17 minutes ago, OldFaithfulCap said:

I became a Canucks fan as I loved the city when I visited as a kid. It's been a while since I returned but it's a beautiful part of the world. People measure quality of life differently though so younger players may want a bigger city or they may prefer financial/tax benefits elsewhere. There's also the reduced media exposure caused by time zones alas.

 

 

We used to go the States fairly often (pre-border restrictions) for farm related things. Last time down was more than 20 years ago. The feeling down there was really nasty and tense. Felt a huge sense of relief crossing the border back into BC.