Thatcher Demko Won’t Travel With Canucks on Road Trip, Out Week-to-Week With Lower-Body Injury
As players returned from the 4 Nations Face-Off break, the Vancouver Canucks took to the ice for practice Tuesday without goaltender Thatcher Demko, who’s considered week-to-week with a lower-body injury.
The club announced that Demko will stay in Vancouver during their upcoming five-game road trip, starting Saturday in Vegas against the Golden Knights. They recalled netminder Arturs Silovs from the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks ahead of Tuesday’s skate.
“I was told he’s not going to go on this trip and it’s a lower-body deal, so he won’t be there,” assistant coach Adam Foote told reporters following Tuesday’s practice, including NHL.com’s Kevin Woodley.
Demko suffered the injury prior to the league’s stoppage, departing midway through the opening period of the Canucks’ eventual 2-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on February 8th. He stopped all six shots he faced before leaving the contest.
At the time, head coach Rick Tocchet – who remains away from his NHL club as Team Canada prepares for its championship game against Team USA on Thursday – described the ailment as not serious and said it wasn’t related to his previous knee injury.
The 29-year-old netminder, a Vezina Trophy finalist last season, missed the first two months of the season, totalling 24 games, after injuring his knee during last year’s playoffs. He was unavailable for most of Vancouver’s postseason run, which ended in the second round after falling to the Edmonton Oilers.
Separately, the 6-foot-4, 192-pound goaltender also missed a pair of games earlier this season after experiencing back spasms during a 4-3 shootout win against the Seattle Kraken on Jan. 2.
It’s been a challenging 2024-25 season for Demko, who’s struggled to deliver the type of elite-level production most have come to expect. In 17 starts, he owns a 2.87 goals-against average and .891 save percentage, resulting in just one shutout.
Last season, he registered a 2.45 GAA and .918 save percentage with a career-high five shutouts across 51 starts – the second-most of his eight NHL campaigns – while finishing as the runner-up to Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck as the league’s top netminder.
Kevin Lankinen, expected to rejoin the Canucks on Friday after representing Team Finland at the 4 Nation’s best-on-best tournament, will serve as the club’s No. 1 goalie in Demko’s absence. He features a 2.53 GAA and .905 save percentage in 34 games (32 starts) this season.
Vancouver should receive a significant boost on its back end once the NHL schedule resumes in the form of Quinn Hughes, who skated in a non-contact sweater during Tuesday’s practice. He missed the final four games leading up to the break with an undisclosed injury.
But the reigning Norris Trophy winner may first have to make a stop in Boston to wait on standby as a potential injury replacement for Team USA, which is down to six defencemen after Charlie McAvoy was ruled out of Thursday’s final with a shoulder injury.
Hughes, originally named to the American’s roster, had to pull out due to his previous ailment and was replaced by Jake Sanderson. If his country loses another blueliner, he’d be called upon to suit up for gold versus Team Canada at TD Place.
As for his NHL club, the Canucks will resume play Saturday while in control of the final wild-card seed in the West at 26-18-11, sitting three points up on the Calgary Flames.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @Hall_Thomas_
Photo: Jenn G. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.