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I suspect a terrific 2024-2025 season for Demko. Most great goaltenders have sustained numerous injuries of varying degrees and come back well and Thatcher

will be the same. With our staff, I think they'll know what to look for quickly and take the precautions needed. With Siovs establishing himself as an excellent 

back-up, I see a dandy season for Canuck goalkeepers..

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On 8/11/2024 at 12:41 PM, Rip The Mesh said:

I suspect a terrific 2024-2025 season for Demko. Most great goaltenders have sustained numerous injuries of varying degrees and come back well and Thatcher

will be the same. With our staff, I think they'll know what to look for quickly and take the precautions needed. With Siovs establishing himself as an excellent 

back-up, I see a dandy season for Canuck goalkeepers..

Yup. Demko is our most important player and the key to us winning the Cup in 2025. 

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8 minutes ago, Rip The Mesh said:

There's not much yet really. Rick hasn't heard about any set-backs. Guess there'll be more info by training camp.


He was trying to connect the dots earlier in the offseason when the Canucks were apparently shopping around for a goalie. They ultimately settled on Patera.

 

Good to have insurance whether Demko is ready or not. Silovs is still very unproven at the NHL level. And if he can’t handle 25-30 games then they need a backup plan.

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It’s been four months since Thatcher Demko suffered his most recent knee injury, and the Vancouver Canucks goalie still isn’t fully healthy.

CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal shared that concerning update during a Tuesday morning conversation with Jason Brough and Josh Elliott-Wolfe on Sportsnet 650.

Dhaliwal characterized Demko’s rehab as “not as fast as some want” but said there haven’t been any setbacks.

 

Still, it’s a big revelation, given that Demko said he was “really close” to returning to the lineup when the Canucks lost to the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 on May 20.

“What I am hearing on Demko is that he is progressing, but no timetable as to when he’s going to be 100% healthy,” Dhaliwal said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the Canucks continue to poke around the goalie market again, mostly just to protect themselves. The Canucks may need insurance, just in case.”

 

“Canucks, I’ve been told, have been worried about Demko’s rehab going back to the NHL Draft,” Dhaliwal added. “That’s when they started talks again with Casey DeSmith, is when they were kind of worried about Demko’s rehab. He hadn’t skated.”

Training camp begins in less than one month, on September 19. The puck drops on the regular season on October 9.

Will the Canucks find another goalie before then? And how will Demko perform when he finally does return to the crease?

 

This underscores the importance of Arturs Silovs taking the next step in his career. The 23-year-old Latvian has just 19 NHL games, 10 of which came in last year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Nikita Tolopilo and Jiri Patera follow Silovs on the Canucks’ goaltending depth chart.

 

A 24-year-old native of Belarus, Tolopilo had a strong first season with the Abbotsford Canucks last season, posting a .905 save percentage in 35 games. The 6-foot-6 netminder was a free agent signing by the Canucks last year, following an outstanding season in the second division of Swedish pro hockey.

Patera, a 6-foot-3 goalie the Canucks signed on July 1, has eight games of NHL experience with the Vegas Golden Knights. The 25-year-old Czech goaltender posted a .903 save percentage in 25 AHL games last season.

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If Demko is not ready for real games when the season starts; I would have no problem with putting in Silovs. Forget DeSmith, he's not that good.

I have to be honest...

 

 

 

 

 

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If Demko isn't 100% don't play him. We've already made this mistake and we don't need to make it again. Thankfully it does sound like management is being more careful this time though.

 

Demko is an elite goalie and hugely important to this team. But, if he is rushed back and re-injures or aggravates something again we will be in a much darker hole than just missing him the first month or so of the season.

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We've been here before.

 

Last season start, the story was Demko is completely healed, we can play him as much as we want.

 

Tocchet over-played him... back to back to back to back was the norm.

 

Result was he got injured again.

 

This team needs to be ultra-cautious with Demko... if there is even the slightest problem, then he should sit out until he is 100%.

 

And during the season, he should be regularly spelled by Silovs.  No more stretch of 7 games straight... limit him to 3 games and then a rest.

 

Silovs is more than capable of filling the net... if he is not available, then someone else should fill in.

 

There is no excuse for him not being healthy and ready for the Playoffs.

 

He should not be overplayed in meaningless games or just so the team can win the League title or Western title... even placing first in the Division is not worth him being injured and out of the playoffs again.

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On 8/31/2024 at 3:43 PM, -Buzzsaw- said:

We've been here before.

 

Last season start, the story was Demko is completely healed, we can play him as much as we want.

 

Tocchet over-played him... back to back to back to back was the norm.

 

Result was he got injured again.

 

This team needs to be ultra-cautious with Demko... if there is even the slightest problem, then he should sit out until he is 100%.

 

And during the season, he should be regularly spelled by Silovs.  No more stretch of 7 games straight... limit him to 3 games and then a rest.

 

Silovs is more than capable of filling the net... if he is not available, then someone else should fill in.

 

There is no excuse for him not being healthy and ready for the Playoffs.

 

He should not be overplayed in meaningless games or just so the team can win the League title or Western title... even placing first in the Division is not worth him being injured and out of the playoffs again.

 

At the beginning of the season, nobody thought the Canucks would make the playoffs.  Everything

changed when the Nucks started playing consistently solid hockey and were racing to make the

playoffs.  Suddenly the team is racing to win the division and secure a decent spot in the playoffs

and maybe win the 1st round.  Bringing in Zad and Lindy made it clear that the Canucks were all

in for the boys to go as far as they could.

 

Demko only played 51 regular season games and succumbed to injury after 1 playoff game.

I don't know if you can fault Toccett in Demko's demise; I don't think it's his job to determine

which goalie is ready to play.  Of course, he will play Demko if it is confirmed that he's ready

to go.  It's the freakin' playoffs!!!! 

 

And then Smith gets injured.  If that's not Canuck luck, I don't know what is.  Luckily

Silovs could step up and they almost made it to the Conference Final.

 

At any rate, it looks like the media created excessive drama, much of which has been rescinded.

 

https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/news/canucks-thatcher-demko-expected-to-be-ready-for-training-camp

 

I do hope that the team management, coaches and players have learned something from all of this.

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Vancouver Canucks star goalie Thatcher Demko’s health status continues to be shrouded in mystery.

The Vezina-caliber netminder still has yet to fully recover from an injury suffered in last year’s playoffs. The extended rehabilitation time has been far longer than most expected, and it now seems like Demko’s recovery will stretch into this upcoming season.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman shed some light on the goalie’s health status on today’s episode of 32 Thoughts. 

 

“He’s going to have to learn to play with this,” said Friedman about Demko’s ailment. “It’s not something that can be fixed with surgery, but it’s something he’s going to have to learn to play through. And he can play through to a high level.”

That doesn’t sound encouraging for Demko, who has struggled with injuries over the past two seasons. This latest one is reportedly an extremely rare issue related to the back of his knee.

It’s now been two consecutive campaigns where the American-born goalie has been shut down early because of health issues. It’s a concerning trend, as the Canucks need to be able to count on their starter when the games matter most.

This latest issue could’ve been related to overuse. When Demko was fighting to return from his first injury, which he suffered during the regular season last year, the organization reportedly told him he needed to play two regular-season games before the playoffs to show he was healthy and able to perform.

 

He did so but, in the process, may have rushed back before fully recovering, according to Friedman.

“I’m just not ever convinced he was 100% healthy,” said the Sportsnet reporter about last spring on 32 Thoughts.

The goalie subsequently hurt himself again in the first game of the postseason. He would not return for the remainder of the playoffs and is still recovering from that incident, which has jeopardized his status for training camp, preseason, and opening night.

 

“I don’t know that he’s going to be ready for the start of the season, but what I don’t get the sense is that the Canucks are worried he’s going to be out for half the year,” explained Friedman.

The Canucks have been rumoured to be interested in free agents Kevin Lankinen and Antti Raanta as insurance options. The organization is also taking a closer look at their starter’s practice schedule to lower the workload Demko takes on.

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