Canucks: What does a successful 2025-26 look like for Thatcher Demko?

There are a few X-Factors for the Vancouver Canucks heading into the 2025-26 NHL season.

If two of these things happen, the Canucks are almost certainly going to have a good season, and will likely make the playoffs:
-Thatcher Demko has a great season and remains healthy.
-Elias Pettersson bounces back and puts up 80+ points.
-Quinn Hughes continues to be this team’s engine, and is squarely in the Norris Trophy conversation once again.

If three of those things happen, then the Canucks are likely to have a great season, similar to the one they turned in back in 2023-24, when “everything went right.”

Those were the days…

Enough daydreaming. Let’s dive into the next name on our list in our series of Canucks season previews: Thatcher Demko.

Everyone knows how important Thatcher Demko is to the Canucks, and in case you forgot, 2024-25 served as a good reminder. Even with Kevin Lankinen turning in solid goaltending — that was more stellar than “solid” in the early parts of the season — the Canucks quite clearly missed their All-Star goaltender.

After finishing as the runner-up to Connor Hellebuyck for the Vezina Trophy in 2023-24, Demko didn’t get a chance to train much during the summer of 2024. Instead, he was stuck searching for answers for a knee injury he suffered in the dying moments during the Canucks’ first game of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The knee injury held him out until mid-December. Then on January 2nd, Demko exited vs. Seattle with back spasms. That was a small injury, but an injury nonetheless. Then just over a month later on February 8th, it was another injury. Only this one was revealed to be a lower-body injury that kept Demko out until the end of March. The end result? 2024-25 was something of a lost season for Demko.

Meeting expectations for Thatcher Demko

Obviously, the hope (and expectation, to some extent) is that Demko can at the very least put those health issues in the rearview mirror. Demko and the club both sounded confident that would be the case, with Jim Rutherford highlighting that Demko has changed the way he trained just months before signing Demko to a three-year contract extension.

And if that happens? The possibilities could be wide-ranging…

Exceeding expectations for Thatcher Demko

It’s hard not to get excited about what a healthy season for Thatcher Demko could mean. Typically, when he’s had a full offseason to train without having to worry about rehabbing any ailments, Demko turns in a remarkable season. The trouble has been that his body has broken down towards the end of the season, meaning the Canucks would be wise to keep his total number of starts low. But that’s a story for another day.

Expectations are high for Demko, which means that exceeding expectations means he’s right back to being a fairly clear-cut top two goaltender in the NHL. Further, leading the Canucks back to the playoffs, and keeping that same high level of play through the playoffs would fall into the “exceeding expectations” category. Statistically, a .915 save percentage or higher while remaining healthy is about as good of an outcome as any Canucks fan could hope for.

Below expectations for Thatcher Demko 

If the expectation for Demko is to remain healthy (for the most part), then missing months of the season would be below expectations, and would rightfully have fans — and likely the organization, too — a bit worried about the financial commitment the club just made to Demko. Similarly, if Demko is healthy but for some reason doesn’t look like the elite goalie we’ve seen in the past, the concern level will raise while the Canucks’ winning percentage does the opposite.

There’s a reason Demko found himself on our recent list of the 5 Canucks with the most pressure on them heading into 2025-26, and that’s because the team absolutely needs him to be both healthy and at least near-elite if they want to do anything that really matters next season.