Tyler Palmer gives the Bears four years of goal-tending talent

After a career high season with the Everett Silvertips in the Western Hockey League (WHL), goalie Tyler Palmer joined the Golden Bears hockey team to start their explosive season.

Palmer’s currently averaging 2.01 goals against average (GAA) and a 0.922 save percentage. However, Palmer’s GAA went from 1.36 to 2.01 after an unfortunate loss on November 23. Since starting with the Bears, Palmer’s been moving between a 1.36 to 2.01 average, consistently keeping him in the top three goaltenders for Canada West.

As you can imagine, it was an easy decision for head coach Ian Herbers to decide that Palmer was the right choice.

“Palmer’s a young goal-tender, he’s come in, and he’s been very good. He’s proven he can play in this league,” Herbers said.

“There’s some really good guys in the room, and they made me feel welcome right away,” Palmer says

Going from one league to the next can be a challenge, but the Bears have certainly helped.

“The [overall] depth of players is definitely a step up, right from the first to fourth line. There’s less of a difference in our league now than there was in the WHL,” Palmer said.

“Practicing with these players every day has definitely helped me improve a lot already over the course of this year. Everybody’s a great shooter, so facing those shots every day in practice helps a lot.”

During games, Palmer says there’s “a great [defensive] core. They can be really physical [which] helps me. They block shots, clear the front of the net, and allow me to see shots. Just defensively, it makes my life a lot easier.”

Overall, the team as a whole has helped contribute to Palmers recent success.

“There’s some really good guys in the room, and they made me feel welcome right away,” Palmer said.

Can Palmer and the Bears keep it up?

With such a great goalie, you might be wondering, “how did the Bears get him?”

“I’ve known about the Bears for a long time, and this was the university that I’ve been looking at going to for a while,” Palmer said.

With quite a reputation behind the program, including 16 national champions, this almost feels like continuing the legacy.

“The Bears have a history of being very successful, and so far this year we’ve been continuing that. I hope we can keep it up, but I really believe we can, we have a really good team,” Palmer said.

What really helps keep the momentum going is the goalie tandem between Palmer and Ethan Kruger. Palmer says they “push [each other] in practice, games, and everyday to get better.”

Moving forward, Palmer says the Bears just have “to play it simple and try not to overcomplicate things.”

“That goes for me as well. If we can do the basic things as best as we can, that’ll set us up for success,” Palmer added.

Off ice, Palmer enjoys giving back to the community

In his final season with the Silvertips, Palmer started the Tyler Palmer Save Drive. For every goal he saved between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Palmer would donate two dollars to the Everett Faith Food Bank. Forney Financial matched his contributions, and together they donated $900.

“I just felt like giving back, especially in Everett. That community really supports the team. So doing anything to give back just felt like I should,” Palmer said.

This ultimately won him the WHL’s United States division Humanitarian of the Year award.

Bears fans need to start a palm leaf fan section

Hockey fans have been known to do some pretty odd things to support their team, but Everett took it to the next level.

Silvertip fans started bringing palm leaves to games to cheer on Palmer, and overall, he said it actually helped.

“I like the energy it brought. I just thought it was really cool. There was this one fan in particular, he would sit behind the net, and he had an inflatable palm tree.”

The only reasonable conclusion is that Bears fans need to start bringing palm leaves to home games to keep that momentum going.