In this installment of the Vancouver Canucks 2024–25 report card series, Thatcher Demko will be the Canuck to have his season reviewed. Demko was one of four goaltenders to play in a game for Vancouver this year, with the others being Kevin Lankinen, Artūrs Šilovs, and Nikita Tolopilo.
The 2024–25 season was not kind to Demko. For starters, Demko began the season by detailing the ailment that had kept him out of the bulk of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs — a popliteus muscle injury. This forced the goaltender to the sidelines, resulting in Vancouver signing Lankinen to a one-year deal to strengthen their goaltending department. While Lankinen performed excellently, Demko continued to rehab his injury.
Demko didn’t make his season debut until December 10 against the St. Louis Blues, during which he stopped 21 shots against in a 4–3 defeat. Despite the result, Demko still had a positive showing considering his last game was back on April 21. From his season debut to the end of the calendar year, Demko faced 173 shots in six games. The 25 shots piled on him by the Blues was the lowest amount he encountered in this span of time, though he also let in an average 3.43 goals per game. Even so, Demko still managed to impressively stop 30 shots in a 3–1 win against the Colorado Avalanche on December 16.
While injury scares may have subsided at that time, they quickly rose up again at the start of 2025. In Vancouver’s first game of the calendar year, a 4–3 shootout win against the Seattle Kraken on January 2, Demko exited the game due to back spasms. He returned a little over a week later, making 20 stops in a 2–0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Unfortunately, this was not the end of the injury bug for Demko. While his play began to pick up significantly after nearly a month in the lineup, another injury took him out of his February 8 start against the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was announced as week-to-week shortly after the 4 Nations Faceoff, and ultimately did not return until mid-March.
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Demko’s various stints during the season can be looked at separately, as all three were separated by various injuries. He played in six more games at the end of the season to round 2024–25 out, winning four and putting up a 2.99 GAA and .885 SV%. In all 23 games played during 2024–25, Demko registered a 2.90 GAA and .889 SV% — a noticeable difference from his 2.45 GAA, .912 SV% Vezina-finalist season the year before. Even so, with all of the injuries he faced, Demko showed flashes of the goaltender he was before the popliteus injury.
"I'm Excited To Be Going Into The Summer Healthy": Canucks Thatcher Demko Looking To Put Injury-Riddled 2024-25 Season Behind Him
The 2024-25 season was a complicated for Vancouver Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko. After finishing as the runner-up for the Vezina Trophy in 2024, the 29-year-old missed large portions of the season due to multiple injuries. In the end, Demko was only able to play 23 games, posting a 10-8-3 record while recording one shutout. <br>
Generally speaking, Demko played well with all things considered. He faced 25 shots or more in 16 of the 23 games he played in, six of which had shot totals of more than 30. While he wasn’t the busiest goaltender in the NHL, he did still face an average of 22 shots per game this season. To give Demko the benefit of the doubt, he receives a high C on the season. Regardless of his stats this season, clearly the organization trusts him to show up in the coming years, as they signed him to a three-year contract extension that will kick in at the end of 2025–26. With a healthy off-season now in the works, Demko will look to prove himself as a potential Vezina candidate.
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