Thatcher Demko's injury finally revealed: It's as rare as it gets

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Cooper Godin
September 23, 2024 (10:15)

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An NHL.com writer has shared what injury Vancouver Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko may be dealing with.

The Vancouver Canucks will open up their preseason schedule tomorrow and will be without the services of Thatcher Demko for an indefinite amount of time as even he is unsure of his timeline for return.

There has been plenty of speculation on what Thatcher Demko's injury may actually be and it appears we may have a bit of information thanks to NHL.com Kevin Woodley.

Woodley was a guest on Halford and Brough on Monday and shared that Thatcher Demko's injury is relating to his Popliteus, a triangle-shaped muscle behind the back of the knee that's attached to the femur and tibia. However Woodley added it's unclear if it's a tear and what degree it could be.

"There's a lot of uncertainty around this, around this injury, and as much as he believes he can get to 100% and seems to be in a really good place the past couple of weeks, after, as he said, a month off there remains a lot of uncertainty about the injury. The one thing I can clear up, one thing in terms of the uncertainty, there's no longer uncertainty about what it is. So you guys can get your Web MD out and look up Popliteus." Woodley said.

He added, "It is a thin triangle-shaped muscle behind the back of the knee. And that, evidently, is where the injury has occurred. Whether it's a tear, to what degree, we don't know, but this is basically a muscle deep behind under several layers of other muscles deep on the back of your knee. It doesn't do much. It sort of attaches to the top inside of the femur and then back to the tibia on the top of the other side. For runners, it's what unlocks the knee joint from straight, it's actually a pretty negligible effect on the flexion of the knee, but it pulls the lateral meniscus back and out of the way of flexion. It is a small but somewhat significant ligament, and I'm not sure the degree of the damage or whether he's pulled it off the bone at the ligament, or what, but it is super rare. I've talked to a couple of people that have been doing this at the NHL level for 30 years. They've never seen it. So everything they're telling us tracks, and despite it being small and somewhat insignificant, there's obviously uncertainty that comes when there's no sort of prescribed way to either improve it. Like, literally when you first look it up, one of the first things you'll see is the sort of healing time is anywhere from three to 16 weeks. So, nothing like nailing it down, right?"

Injuries to a Popliteus appear to be quite rare, as X user Chris Nelson, who says he's a physiotherapist. Nelson said he's never heard of an actual Popliteus injury and that it's usually a misdiagnosed meniscus tear.

The good news is that Thatcher Demko has been on the ice in Abbotsford since training camp started last week and is taking shots. While it's unclear when he'll be able to play, it's great to see that he's at the point where he's able to skate and be on the ice. The next step in his recovery will likely be practices with the team and then game action from there, but that might not be for a little while.

In the meantime, the Canucks are in good hands with Arturs Silovs and Kevin Lankinen between the pipes to start the season and the team is confident that both can provide them with quality starts.