Thatcher Demko: Made of Glass

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It wouldn’t be a shock to anyone if you said that Demko, when healthy, is one of the best goalies in the league. There is one problem. He is never healthy.

Demko was drafted 36th overall by the Canucks in 2014, after which he would continue to play at Boston College. During the off season in April 2015 Demko would have surgery on both his hips. This was the start of a long history of being injured.

He would go most of the next few years healthy and would play a good amount of games.

In the last season he played with Boston Demko would go 27-8-4 with a .935 save percentage. This helped him win the  Mike Richter Award, which is given to the most outstanding goaltender in the NCAA. Despite all the accolades of that season he would fall sick in the semi finals of the Frozen Four and would miss out playing. The Eagles would eventually lose out to Quinnipiac.

Demko decided not to play out his senior year of college and signed an entry level deal with the Canucks in 2016. He would then move to playing for the American Hockey League (AHL) team Utica Comets. The Comets were the Vancouver affiliate team at the time.  He would play out 2 seasons in the AHL averaging 46 games before coming up to the NHL.

In January of 2019 Demko had found himself in the back up position when the Canucks dealt away the back up at the time Anders Nilsson. He was just coming off of a concussion at the time. Demko would find himself in the driver seat near the end of the 2019-20 season when Jacob Markstrom got injured and would be out for the next month.

Demko would make his first playoff appearance in the COVID-19 playoffs in 2020. He would be watching most of the games until Markstrom would go out again with an injury. In his debut the Canucks were already facing elimination down 3-1 in the series vs the Vegas Golden Knights. He would put up an amazing effort stopping 42 of 43 shots in a 2-1 win. The Canucks would swing the momentum with Demko at their back and would win the series.

That would be the last time the Canucks would make the playoffs until the 2023-24 season where Demko would again be one of the MVPs. He had such a good season with a .918 save percentage in 51 games. However, the playoffs would be a devastating turn in Demko’s health.

In a playoff game against the Nashville Predators, Demko would injure his popliteus muscle and that would be the end of his time in the net that season. Actually it wouldn’t be until half way through the 2024-25 season that the Canucks would finally see the goaltender play a few games and then go off with another injury.

Everything seemed great in the 2025 off season, but after playing 20 games in January 2026 the Canucks announced Demko would be out for the rest of the season with hip surgery.

I think Demko is one of the best goalies in the league and hope this last surgery will be the cure to all his problems. I would love to have him back in net helping the canucks with his flashy saves.