Thatcher Demko missed the first day of training camp for the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday and is unsure if he’ll be ready for the start of the 2024-25 season because of a lower-body injury sustained during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“I can't really give you an answer, to be honest,” Demko said. “Had you asked me a month ago, I really wouldn't have been able to tell you. I will say we're on a great trajectory right now.”
The 28-year-old goalie skated on his own in Penticton, British Columbia, before he spoke to the media for the first time since the end of last season. He tried to explain how he went from almost being recovered enough to return during the playoffs in late May to not being ready for training camp.
Demko was on the ice with new Canucks goaltending coach Marko Torenius before the first group took the ice, doing skating drills in his crease, facing shots and moving side to side from his knees in the butterfly.
Vancouver opens the regular season Oct. 9 against the Calgary Flames.
“This is the most confident I've been in the rehab process up to date and as I continue to progress and work with Marko and our medical staff, hopefully just keep progressing week to week,” Demko said. “I'm not going to sit here and give you a timeline that creates some problems for me potentially, but I feel really confident where we're headed and hopefully be 100 percent sooner than later.”
Demko did have an operation during the offseason but said it “had nothing to do with the injury” that continues to keep him out indefinitely.
“It was very minor,” Demko said. “It took me about two weeks to recover from that, and I continued with the rehab that I'm currently dealing with.”
Demko was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy as the League’s best goalie last season, finishing second in voting to Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets after setting NHL career bests in wins (35), shutouts (five) and save percentage (.918) despite being limited to 51 games after sustaining a left knee injury in a game against the Jets on March 9. He returned April 16 to play the final two games of the regular season and started the playoffs before injuring the same leg late in Game 1 of the Western Conference First Round against the Nashville Predators.
Demko, who said Thursday the second injury was a “muscle,” was close to returning when the Canucks were eliminated in Game 7 of the second round by the Edmonton Oilers and would have played in the conference final.
“Looking back, as a competitor you kind of lie to yourself in a playoff situation and I thought maybe I was a little bit farther ahead than I was, in hindsight,” Demko said. “I do think I would have been in a situation where I probably would have been able to kind of grit through it and maybe get out there and play in the conference final. I did hit a bit of a wall in the summer as far as the recovery went and we did see a little bit of a lack of progress there for a couple months, and obviously that's why I'm in the situation that I'm in right now.
“But I would say, the last probably two or three weeks, we've seen a ton of progress and we're very confident in where I am right now and happy with that.”
It was the third straight season since becoming a starter that Demko missed time with a lower-body injury; he missed the final three games in 2021-22 after trying to play through a right knee injury that required surgery that offseason and was still compensating for that injury in 2022-23 when he sustained a groin injury Dec. 1 that forced him to miss almost three months.
“When I first injured myself in the playoffs, it was such a rare case, such a unique injury, that we didn't really have a lot of readily available research or case studies or really any information to have a concrete timeline, and we were told this might be a situation we might find ourselves in, the one that we're in right now,” Demko said. “I've been able to rehab a ton this summer, and sure, it's taken a little bit longer than obviously I would have liked. But especially the last couple weeks on the ice, I've been feeling a lot better and there's definitely some light at the end of the tunnel for me now and full confidence that I'll be back out there.”
Demko wasn’t the only Canucks player to miss the first day of training camp; general manager Patrik Allvin announced Wednesday that forward Teddy Blueger and defenseman Cole McWard each had “minor lower-body surgery.” The team announced Tuesday that forward Dakota Joshua is still recovering from surgery for testicular cancer.
Blueger, a center who had 28 points (six goals, 22 assists) in 68 games with the Canucks last season, is expected to miss one week. McWard, who played one game with Vancouver last season, is week to week.
There is no timeline for Joshua, who had an NHL career-high 18 goals and 32 points in 63 games last season.
NHL.com independent correspondent Kevin Woodley contributed to this report
