Latest update on star goaltender is bad news for Canuks
The injury situation for Thatcher Demko has been a topic of some intrigue in recent days following the report that the team was looking into external goalie depth options with Demko’s knee injury recovering at a rate that was slower than anticipated.
Now, it sounds like his availability for the start of the regular season is now in some question. Rick Dhaliwal and Thomas Drance of The Athletic report that Demko won’t be ready to participate in training camp next month or play in any exhibition games. Vancouver remains hopeful that the 28-year-old will be ready for the start of the regular season, but with how things have gone to this point, they can’t necessarily count on that happening.
Demko suffered the injury early in Vancouver’s first-round series against Nashville with Casey DeSmith and eventually Arturs Silovs taking over between the pipes as the postseason progressed.
The injury then kicked off plenty of speculation at the time when it came to his recovery. Early on, there were reports suggesting he’d only miss one round, some for multiple rounds and others saying the full playoffs were in jeopardy had the Canucks made it that far. Officially, he was only ever listed as out week-to-week.
When free agency came around, Vancouver elected not to look for a veteran second-string option or even some goaltending insurance. Instead, their plan was to have Silovs serve as Demko’s backup with Jiri Patera being brought in to serve as his replacement with AHL Abbotsford. That decision implied that management expected Demko would be fully recovered to start the season.
