After suffering an injury in the Vancouver Canucks’ very first game of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, it appears that star goaltender Thatcher Demko will not be ready for the start of training camp or the preseason in September as he continues to recover from back-to-back knee injuries.
The Athletic Canucks writers Rick Dhaliwal and Thomas Drance reported Friday afternoon that Demko is not expected to be able to take part in any on-ice activities next month as the Canucks gear up to attempt to defend their Pacific Division title next season.
Dhaliwal and Drance did indicate that the Canucks remain hopeful that the 28-year-old goaltender will be able to play in their 2024-25 season opener against the Calgary Flames on October 9, but it certainly isn’t a sure thing at this point.
Here’s a brief excerpt from the Dhaliwal/Drance report from Friday afternoon, which can be accessed in full here with a subscription to The Athletic:
There’s a bit of a cone of silence around exactly what’s occurring here. To this point, no one close to the situation will confirm whether or not Demko underwent a surgical procedure this summer.
We do know that Demko pushed extraordinarily hard to get back in time for the playoffs, only to sustain an injury late in Game 1 of Vancouver’s first-round series against the Nashville Predators. It was a devastating setback for the supremely talented, extraordinarily competitive goaltender, but Demko continued to travel with the team and support his teammates, and resumed working to try and get back into the lineup as Vancouver’s playoff run continued.
In recent days, Dhaliwal has connected the Canucks publicly with unrestricted free agent goaltender Kevin Lankinen, who appeared in 24 games with the Predators as Juuse Saros’ backup last season.
Lankinen, 29, posted an 11-6-0 record, one shutout, and a .908 save percentage over 1,191 minutes of play in 2023-24, but the 6’2″ Finn is relatively untested as anything more than a 1B goaltender at the NHL level. In 112 games over four seasons with the Predators and Chicago Blackhawks, Lankinen has put together a 45-43-12 record and a .905 save percentage.
The Canucks would obviously prefer to have their All-Star goaltender at their disposal from Day 1 of the 2024-25 season, but if that’s not in the cards, they may have to make do with a combination of Lankinen, Arturs Silovs, and Jiri Patera. The 23-year-old Silovs earned rave notices for his gutsy performance in Demko’s absence last playoffs, going 5-5 with an .898 save percentage in 10 games.
Demko, Silovs, and Patera are all under contract through the end of the 2025-26 season, while Lankinen would likely command a slightly lower figure than the $2 million he earned last year on his next deal.
The Canucks finished the 2023-24 regular season with a 50-23-9 record and 109 points in 82 games, enough to capture their first division title since 2013. They defeated the Predators in the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs before falling to the Edmonton Oilers in seven games in the Western Conference semifinals.
