John-Michael Liles may not have been around long, but the taste of last season’s ending was just as bitter for the 35-year-old defenseman as it was for any of his relatively new Bruins teammates.

Rinsing that taste out of his mouth was part of Liles’ motivation for re-upping for a year with the B’s. Liles — obtained at the trade deadline for a 2016 third-round draft pick, a 2017 fifth-rounder and minor league winger Anthony Camara — signed for $2 million on July 1.

The experienced puck mover, one of the first arrivals for captain’s practices nearly two weeks ago, began talking about a contract extension with general manager Don Sweeney almost immediately after the season.

“I had talked to Sweens at the year-end meeting and felt that for me coming in late in the year, we were so close to making the playoffs and personally I felt like there was some unfinished business,” Liles said. “Given the opportunity, and I told him this at the year-end meeting, I would be really excited to come back and play if there was room and we were able to work something out.”

Since the end of the season, Sweeney has consistently said he was looking to upgrade the defense but, thanks in part to the high prices for a top-four defenseman, that did not happen. But regardless of whatever deal that didn’t come to fruition for Sweeney, Liles said his negotiations with the club nonetheless went more or less in a straight line.

Liles did see what else was out there, though.

“I’m not going to tell you it was a really long list of teams, but there were some other teams and some comparable offers,” he said. “I just really enjoyed playing here for those 17 games and just really enjoyed playing in this city. I thought the fans were fantastic, I thought the group in the room was great. . . . My family absolutely loved being here in the city, so that was a big part of it.”

Liles has done well for himself over the years. His last two contracts have netted $32.1 million over eight seasons. When he found a reasonably good fit with the Bruins, he had little reason to look elsewhere.

“Free agency’s gotten strange over the last couple of seasons,” Liles said. “You have the big guys that really fly off the shelves and then there’s this lull for a month, month and half. You’re kind of still looking at it right now. I’ve got friends who are still hoping for something and waiting for something and you feel for them. It’s not an easy situation. For myself, I was fortunate to have a couple of options right there on July 1. I felt like for me and my family, knowing where we were going to be right away was the right thing. I was happy I got something done here.”

Deadline deals for defensemen have not always worked out well for the Bruins, as some have had a hard time picking up the team’s zone system in a short time. But while Liles said he didn’t exactly have a commanding grasp of the system, he was able to work well within it without changing his identity as a player.

“For me, I’m never going to be a guy that runs people over. I’m almost 36, so I’m a skater, I’m a puck mover and that’s what I try and focus on,” he said. “When I was younger and I signed a deal, you think you should be doing more. But there are reasons you last in the league as long as you do. With Torey Krug, there’s a reason why he gets a deal like that (four years, $21 million), it’s because he’s a puck mover, because he’s a skater. You focus on your strengths. You always try and work on your weaknesses, but the biggest thing is focusing on your strength and for me that’s moving the puck and getting it up to the forwards. We have a really talented group of the forwards here that I try to get the puck up to them as quick as possible.”

And that’s a skill that teams can’t live without in today’s NHL.