Ross County defender Marcus Fraser has agreed a new one-year contract to remain at Dingwall until 2018.
Former Scotland under-21 international Fraser has made 82 appearances since joining from Celtic in January 2015.
The 22-year-old’s contract was due to expire in the summer and although McIntyre reckons Fraser is capable of moving to a higher level, the Staggies manager believes he can develop further at Victoria Park.
McIntyre said: “Marcus has done fantastically well and he deserves it. He’s a good defender and he will get better the more games he plays.
“We’ve got to remember that’s him just going into his third year of playing regular football. He’s doing great and we’re delighted he sees his future here.
“We took him from Celtic’s under-20s, where he had a bad injury, but he had been their captain at youth level for a while and he’s represented Scotland at most levels.
“He’s a good player who is making steady progress in his career and he knows the best thing for him is to stay at least another year and play more games.
“He’s got ambitions of playing at the highest level possible, which I love. I don’t want players signing just to be here for the rest of their career, we want them to have ambition to play at a higher level and Marcus certainly has that.”
County are three points above Motherwell, who occupy the relegation play-off position, with the Highlanders hosting champions Celtic in their next game on Sunday.
McIntyre wants his side to approach the match against Brendan Rodgers’ men without fear, with County looking to become the first team to inflict a Premiership defeat on the Hoops this season. He added: “We’ve had a couple of really difficult games against teams around us and we’ve managed to pick up four points out of six.
“Everybody will have marked that one down as us losing. That’s the motivation for us.”