Canucks goalie Demko reveals new information about his injury troubles
The 2025-26 season started with such promise for Thatcher Demko.
As the Vancouver Canucks netminder started the campaign, he looked to put 18 months of injury disappointments behind him.
Then, like it has many times in the past, it all unravelled.
Demko exited the Canucks game on Nov. 11 with an injury. Although he returned a couple of weeks later, his presence in the lineup was short-lived.
“It’s been a challenging year for sure,” Demko said on Friday as the Canucks conducted their end-of-season media availability. “Mental warfare and just disappointment.”
The Canucks announced in January that Demko would undergo season-ending hip surgery. Canucks president Jim Rutherford later revealed that they believed they’d found the root of Demko’s underlying issues for years.
While it’d be fair to take Dr. Rutherford with a grain of salt, Demko finally shed some light on his situation.
“We had glimpses coming into this season that there might be some underlying problems that were causing some of the issues that I was having,” he admitted.
“It is such a major surgery that it was our last resort,” Demko said. “You’re trying to play through things where we didn’t have to take the drastic measures that we ended up taking.
“But I think at a certain point, we just realized that I wasn’t really able to, one, stay healthy, and two, I wasn’t able to play at the standard that I’m used to playing at.”
Demko got off to a hot start before injuries derailed his season. (Bob Frid/USA TODAY Sports)
Demko came out of the gates firing, posting a .926 save percentage in seven October games. That was the peak of his season, as he battled injuries and inconsistent play before being shut down in January.
“It’s brutal, quite frankly,” Demko said. “You have to have a sense of positivity going through those situations and keep telling yourself that this time it will be different, you have this hope that you build up, even when you don’t feel like it, just to have that letdown every time, time and time again, it’s tough.”
Demko also shed some light on exactly why he’s been so injured over the past couple of seasons.
“The last two years, I was playing with zero degrees of internal rotation in my hip,” he revealed. “So, everything above and below is going to take the hit. It’s the back, it’s the knees, the groin, everything is trying to do too much work.”
Sure enough, Demko did suffer injuries to all three of those body parts in the last two seasons, something he hopes will now be a thing of the past.
“I’ve already seen incredible strides in my movement and my ability. This will be a unique summer. I still have a ton of work to do. I’m excited for that work, I’m excited to build it up from the ground up and build it back up to where I was the year of the playoffs.”
“I’m going to stay here in Vancouver the entire summer to make sure we’re going about this the right way.”
Throughout all of these struggles, Demko admitted he did contemplate his future in the NHL.
“I was flirting with, what does the rest of this look like for me? Talking to different professionals… I mean, I don’t feel that way now, I’m ready to go now.”
“I’m gonna be in a great spot in a couple of months here. But I’ve had a struggle on the mental side of things. Watching the guys go through what they go through and not feeling like I could contribute.”
Demko gave lots of love to his Canucks teammates for how they navigated this season’s challenges. (Bob Frid/Imagn Images)
Lost in all of Demko’s health struggles is the fact that his new three-year deal, worth $8.5 million per season, doesn’t kick in until July 1.
But, as long as he’s healthy, the veteran netminder sees himself as part of the solution in Vancouver.
“I’ve said that I want to be here since the day I got drafted, regardless of what that looks like,” he said.
“This year wasn’t good enough from our perspective. A lot of things happened. I do think that we have a better team than what we showed this year. I think we have a lot of really good pieces. We have a lot of young energy in the room, and I think that’s really exciting.”
He also showered his Canucks teammates with praise for how they grew amidst a historically bad season.
“I’m probably on the back half of my career here… but I’m so proud of how the guys have stepped up here with the departures of other guys. It’s super inspiring for me to see other guys do it.”
“It makes you want to become better in those areas, become a better leader, become a better man.”
“My fire and my passion has been growing and growing the last few weeks and few months here.”