VANCOUVER — Vancouver Canucks forward Conor Garland has a routine in the warmup skate with Tyler Myers’ son, Tristan Myers.

Tristan had a traumatic birth, which led to him having cerebral palsy and bilateral cochlear implants. He’s also very fond of NHL referees.

So during the warmup skate, before every Canucks game that Myers’ family attends, Garland waves at Tristan and then demonstrates a penalty for Tristan’s enjoyment.

“I just go up to Tyler and cross-check him, and he loves it,” Garland said Wednesday, a smile on his face. “He’s a sweet kid, and it’ll be tough if a trade goes through.”

On Wednesday night, ahead of Vancouver’s first post-Olympic break game against the Winnipeg Jets, a 3-2 overtime loss, Garland got one last opportunity to foul his teammate and friend and make Tristan laugh.

Myers was scratched from Wednesday night’s Canucks game due to “roster management” reasons, which is an NHL euphemism for being on the trade block and being close to being traded.

In an unusual turn of events, however, Myers led his teammates out to the ice — as he’s done every game that he’s dressed for since Alex Edler’s departure — and took one more twirl around the ice sheet in full Canucks uniform, engaging at length with his wife and children, for the warmup skate.

“I watched him go up to his kids, because I don’t know what the situation will be when he goes somewhere else,” said Canucks winger Brock Boeser, noting that he’d clocked his teammate soaking it all in. “Will they stay? Will they go? I don’t know, but that could be the last time they see him on the ice for a while. I saw that and thought it was a cool moment. It’s one of those little things you see and think ‘That’s really meaningful.’”

Officially, Myers took the ice for warmups for precautionary reasons. Vancouver only has seven defenders on the 23-man roster at the moment, including Myers, and wanted some insurance in case one of their six other defencemen was injured in warmups.

“I talked to Tyler after the morning skate, and we had a big conversation,” Canucks coach Adam Foote said. “He was awesome about it. Obviously, I was transparent about it, said, ‘This is the way it is,’ and he understood. I told him I needed him for warmup, needed him to prepare just with where we were at with our roster. He’s a good human, and he’s a pro to the end. We’ll see what happens.

“You always need to put your seventh defender in, in case there’s a groin pull or a puck to the face.”

Of course, that risk also applied to Myers, who’s on the block and, because he has a full no-movement clause through the end of this league year, is currently considering his options. When this risk was pointed out to Foote postgame Wednesday, he said, “I guess when you look at it that way, there’s always a percentage chance, but it had to happen.”

Whether the Canucks actually made an organizational decision to take an unprecedented (if marginal) risk by insisting that Myers take warmups for precautionary reasons, or whether Myers himself requested and was granted an opportunity to say goodbye to the franchise for whom he’s played 488 games across the past seven years, we’ll leave up to the reader.

The scene, however, of Myers skating around for warmups and enjoying some time with his family underscored the harsh realities of trade deadline season for the players — and the families — directly involved.

As it stood Wednesday night, Vancouver is at the 1-yard line on a trade that would include Myers. However, Myers is on a contract that includes a full no-move clause. He’s a committed family man who is deeply rooted in the city of Vancouver and in the province of British Columbia. All things being equal, Myers would prefer not to be dealt.

His contract, however, is structured so that at the end of this league year, his full no-move clause converts to a 12-team no-trade clause. That’s a significant complication. Given his unique family considerations, the question is, are you better off calling your shot now, while you have the power to hit “send” on any trade you’re involved in? Or are you better off waiting, at the risk of having an expanded pool of teams that could trade for you at any moment beyond July 1?

The club went to Myers and his camp earlier this week to present a potential trade scenario to the veteran right-handed blueliner, and there appears to be one offer in particular that the Canucks strongly prefer. His teammates found out that Myers was on the verge of potentially being dealt — if he agrees to waive his no-move clause — on Tuesday evening.

“He’s a great guy, a close friend,” said Garland. “I’m really close with his family and his kids, so it’s tough. If that goes through and there’s a trade, it’s a big loss for us. He’s a big part of our room and our leadership group. That’s part of the business, though, when you lose as much as we do.”

“This time of year is the worst,” said Boeser. “When you think about our team and think ‘What are some guys you could get good value for,’ you immediately think about the big, veteran, right-handed defencemen, right? His cap hit is cheap. You look at it, and it’s obviously (a move) that makes sense.

“For me, I looked at it and thought, ‘Of course, teams are going to be calling left and right on this guy.’ It’s a crappy part of the business; he’s such a good leader in this room, and he’s the oldest guy here. When we lose him, we get very young. That’ll be a big adjustment.”

That adjustment was evident in spades Wednesday night, as the club played the Jets without Myers. Forced to elevate rookie defender Tom Willander into a top-four role, Willander played nearly half of his five-on-five ice time through the first 40 minutes head-to-head against a lethal Winnipeg top line featuring Mark Scheifele, Kyle Conner and Gabe Vilardi.

The results weren’t pretty. In just over eight minutes of head-to-head ice time for Willander against the Scheifele line, the Jets out-attempted Vancouver 9-2, outshot the Canucks 4-1 and outscored them 1-0.

“Obviously, as a coach, you want all of the veteran defenders, you want all of the best players in the world, but this is a different situation,” Foote said of adjusting his blue-line usage in Myers’ absence Wednesday. “There’s development. This was discussed in mid-January, where this organization wants to go, and it’ll get a guy like Tom Willander more reps to prepare for those situations faster.

“He has to play in a place (in the lineup) where he might not be ready to play in right now, but you look at our league, guys are asked to (do this) all the time. This is pro hockey, it’s pro sports, and this is what comes with it.”

If we zoom out to examine the big picture, Vancouver’s decision to explore trading Myers and the club’s willingness to play hardball to do so, hints at an aggressive trade-deadline posture. The Athletic heard that the Canucks may try to trade Myers back in November, at roughly the same time that management sent a now-infamous “for sale” memo out to other 31 NHL clubs. However, given his no-move protection and preference to remain in Vancouver, Wednesday’s developments still came as something of a shock.

Given Myers’ age, it may be an overreaction to conclude that this still-developing situation represents the first domino in a fire sale. For a Canucks team that’s stuck in 32nd place, plays in a division with juggernaut teams like the Vegas Golden Knights and the Edmonton Oilers and has been evidently surpassed by younger Pacific Division teams headlined by young superstar-level talents like Macklin Celebrini and Leo Carlsson, this is the sort of maneuver that really has to be on the table.

As difficult as it is for the individuals involved and their families, a potential Myers trade probably should be the start for the Canucks.

For the long-term interests of this team, there are a large handful of veterans with term and at least some form of no-move or no-trade protection beyond Myers — players like Garland, Jake DeBrusk, Filip Hronek and Elias Pettersson — whose market price should also be tested in advance of the trade deadline.

It might not be a lot of fun, but for a franchise that’s spent the last 15 years always looking to make the playoffs next season (and generally failing to), this dose of reality is probably necessary.

“This is the worst time of the year when you’re on a bad team,” Garland said. “And when you’re on a good team, it’s the best.

“I remember being in Florida when we acquired Elias Lindholm (in 2024), and I was just celebrating with my wife and our friends. So it’s different now, with guys going, but that’s the result of us not performing well.

“It’s not fun, but you can’t avoid it, you just have to try and stay in the moment … I feel for some guys that will be in rumours. And let’s be honest, I could be one of them.”