- Canucks co-president Daniel Sedin says there is still no timeline for Thatcher Demko’s return
- Demko had hip surgery in January and was limited to 20 games last season
- Read below for Sedin’s full comments and where Vancouver’s goaltending stands
Vancouver still has no idea when Thatcher Demko will be back in the crease.
Canucks co-president Daniel Sedin sat down with Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK on Tuesday and was asked where the goaltender’s recovery stands with training camp about to open. He would not put a date on it.
“Thatcher’s been at home working hard. Obviously there’s no timeline for him. We want him to come back and be 100 percent, so when that happens, we’ll see. He’s worked really hard this summer, so it will be really fun to get him back and important for our group.”
Take a look at the full Sedin interview:
Demko was shut down in late January and had hip surgery, ending a year that never got going. He finished 8-10-1 in 20 games with an .897 save percentage and a 2.90 goals-against average, and that came right after a 23-game season in 2024-25.
The Canucks were the worst team in the league last season at 25-49-8. A healthy starter is one of the few things that could move that number in a hurry.
Kevin Lankinen has the net until that changes. Vancouver also brought Chris Driedger in on a PTO in late August with Demko’s opening-night status up in the air, and general manager Ryan Johnson has been clear the team is not working off a calendar with him.
What makes the wait worth it is what Demko looks like when he is right. He has played more than half a season only twice, and both times he landed in the top seven of Vezina Trophy voting. The 2023-24 version went 35-14-2 with a .918 save percentage in 51 games, made the All-Star Game and finished second for the award.
The 30-year-old San Diego native is signed through 2028-29 at $8.5 million, the second-largest cap hit on the roster behind Elias Pettersson.
Demko was not the only item on the agenda. Sedin said there is no rush to name a captain, talked about Pettersson, and addressed the eight-year, $9.38 million AAV extension Zeev Buium signed last week, a deal that locks up the 20-year-old defenseman as the centerpiece of the rebuild.
Until Demko is cleared, the net belongs to Lankinen, and nobody in Vancouver is willing to guess how long that lasts.
