Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko steps back onto the ice after taking a break while practicing with coaches during the opening day of the NHL hockey team's training camp, in Penticton, B.C., on Sept. 19, 2024.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Thatcher Demko and his medical team have spent the past few months scouring the globe, trying to find other hockey players who’ve dealt with the same muscle injury the Vancouver Canucks goalie is currently working through.
It turns out Demko’s situation is exceptionally unique.
While they found about five soccer players with the same lower-body ailment, they could not find a single other hockey player.
“It’s been wild,” Demko said Thursday. “That’s been part of the frustration, just not having a ton of information and you’re kind of just going in blindfolded. And it can be scary at times.”
The 28-year-old all star was not on the ice with his teammates Thursday as the Canucks started training camp in Penticton, B.C., but he skated on his own before the sessions began.
When, exactly, he’ll be ready to play remains to be seen.
“I would say that we’re on a great trajectory right now,” the netminder said. “I’m the most confident that I’ve been in the rehab process up to date.”
Demko posted a 35-14-2 record with a .918 percentage, a 2.45 goals-against average and five shutouts for Vancouver last season, despite missing several weeks with a knee injury.
He first felt the current injury during Vancouver’s first playoff game last season, a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators where he made 29 saves.
The ailment kept Demko out for the rest of the postseason as the Canucks bested the Predators in a six-game set before falling to the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of a second-round series.
If Vancouver had made it through to the Western Conference final, Demko said he likely would have played – whether he was completely ready or not.
“As a competitor, you kind of lie to yourself in a playoff situation and I thought maybe I was a little further ahead than I was in hindsight,” he said.
“I will say that I kind of hit a bit of a wall in the summer as far as recovery went. And we did see a little bit of a lack of progress there for a couple of months. But I would say the last two or three weeks, we’ve seen a ton of progress.”
Recovering hasn’t been a linear process, Demko said, and being sidelined for training camp was never part of the plan.
“I think missing playoff games last year was definitely the low point in my career mentally, spiritually,” he said. “If you had asked me when I was going home for the summer if I’d be ready for camp, I would have said ‘Yeah, 100 per cent.’
“I can’t sit around and think, ‘Poor me that I’m not out there.’ Obviously, I want to be out there. I want to be competing with the guys. I want to be leading by example, I want to help the young guys coming in. But this is the hand I’m dealing with right now.”
Uncertainty around the injury has brought a lot of frustration, Demko added, particularly when he can’t get on the ground to play with his one-year-old son.
Still, he believes that heading into his eighth NHL season, he’ll get back to “100 per cent.”
Maintaining that form, though, may require some tweaks to his training regime.
“I think it comes down to just a little bit of maturity. Quite frankly, I just kind of have one gear and that’s just to go as hard as I can and try to get better every day,” Demko said. “And I’m just learning that there’s different ways to get better and maintain your system of play and make sure that you stay sharp and at the same time taking care of your body.”