Vancouver Canucks Goalie Thatcher Demko Opens Up to the Media for the First Time in Months with Huge Update

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Maverick Mitchell
November 20, 2024 (3:22 PM)

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After what seems to be like forever, Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko has finally opened up to the Vancouver media today after participating fully in practice.

The Vancouver Canucks are now 5 and 5 in their last 10 games, but losing to some of the worst teams in the league.

Goaltending, for what was a major strength all season long, has been quite the opposite in the last stretch of games.

Kevin Lankinen has been the Canucks team MVP up until his recent slide, and now fans are wondering when Thatcher Demko will return.

Darren Dreger of TSN reported that Thatcher Demo is set to return to the Canucks lineup sooner rather than later

Although there has been no specific timeline on when he will play in his first game, according to Dreger, who intentionally left out a specific timeline on the return, stated that a return is imminent, and could be inside a matter of days.

The Vancouver Canucks are set to get star goaltender Thatcher Demko back «inside days» according to NHL insider Darren Dreger.

Thatcher Demko Speaks to the first time in months

As Demko spotting's have gotten more common and the netminder taking part in full practices, he finally opened up to the media today to discuss his injury and when fans can expect him back.

His comments were very encouraging as he feels he is getting closer and closer everyday.

«It's still a lot of work to do, I think, but I feel really good. That's that's the best I've felt in seven, eight months,» explained Demko.

«Finally have a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel and have a lot of direction in what we're trying to accomplish.»

It has been a long road back for the 28-year-old netminder who went down with a knee injury in the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The injury is so rare that Demko has revealed there was no real structure to his rehab.

Because he knew no one to base his recovery on, it has been a trial and error for him and the Canucks medical staff.

Addressed the media at training camp back in August and explained it was such a rare injury that they'd never found another hockey player with the same thing. Since then, it appears lots of progress has been made.

«Shortly after Penticton, we really nailed down what the issue was specifically,» continued Demko. «Was nice to finally understand what was going on. That gave us a clear picture of different options that we had moving forward.»

«It was just trial and error at that point, and we ended up finding something that worked really well for me.»

Even though there is no target just yet, the most encouraging update is that Demko will be joining the Canucks on their upcoming 6-game road trip.

«I don't know when he's going to play, the timeline, but obviously it's a lot closer than it was two months ago, let's put it that way,» said head coach Rick Tocchet today.