{"id":555093,"date":"2026-04-18T07:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T07:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/555093\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T07:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T07:45:18","slug":"canucks-goalie-demko-reveals-new-information-about-his-injury-troubles-daily-hive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/555093\/","title":{"rendered":"Canucks goalie Demko reveals new information about his injury troubles | Daily Hive"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2025-26 season started with such promise for Thatcher Demko.<\/p>\n

As the Vancouver Canucks netminder started the campaign, he looked to put 18 months of injury disappointments behind him.<\/p>\n

Then, like it has many times in the past, it all unravelled.<\/p>\n

Demko exited the Canucks game on Nov. 11 with an injury. Although he returned a couple of weeks later, his presence in the lineup was short-lived.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a challenging year for sure,\u201d Demko said on Friday as the Canucks conducted their end-of-season media availability. \u201cMental warfare and just disappointment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canucks announced in January that Demko would undergo season-ending hip surgery. Canucks president Jim Rutherford later revealed that they believed they\u2019d found the root of Demko\u2019s underlying issues for years.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019d be fair to take Dr. Rutherford with a grain of salt, Demko finally shed some light on his situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had glimpses coming into this season that there might be some underlying problems that were causing some of the issues that I was having,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is such a major surgery that it was our last resort,\u201d Demko said. \u201cYou\u2019re trying to play through things where we didn\u2019t have to take the drastic measures that we ended up taking.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think at a certain point, we just realized that I wasn\u2019t really able to, one, stay healthy, and two, I wasn\u2019t able to play at the standard that I\u2019m used to playing at.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"demko<\/a><\/p>\n

Demko got off to a hot start before injuries derailed his season. (Bob Frid\/USA TODAY Sports)<\/p>\n

Demko came out of the gates firing, posting a .926 save percentage in seven October games. That was the peak of his season, as he battled injuries and inconsistent play before being shut down in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s brutal, quite frankly,\u201d Demko said. \u201cYou have to have a sense of positivity going through those situations and keep telling yourself that this time it will be different, you have this hope that you build up, even when you don\u2019t feel like it, just to have that letdown every time, time and time again, it\u2019s tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Demko also shed some light on exactly why he\u2019s been so injured over the past couple of seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last two years, I was playing with zero degrees of internal rotation in my hip,\u201d he revealed. \u201cSo, everything above and below is going to take the hit. It\u2019s the back, it\u2019s the knees, the groin, everything is trying to do too much work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sure enough, Demko did suffer injuries to all three of those body parts in the last two seasons, something he hopes will now be a thing of the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve already seen incredible strides in my movement and my ability. This will be a unique summer. I still have a ton of work to do. I\u2019m excited for that work, I\u2019m excited to build it up from the ground up and build it back up to where I was the year of the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to stay here in Vancouver the entire summer to make sure we\u2019re going about this the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout all of these struggles, Demko admitted he did contemplate his future in the NHL.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was flirting with, what does the rest of this look like for me? Talking to different professionals\u2026 I mean, I don\u2019t feel that way now, I\u2019m ready to go now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m gonna be in a great spot in a couple of months here. But I\u2019ve had a struggle on the mental side of things. Watching the guys go through what they go through and not feeling like I could contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"demko<\/a><\/p>\n

Demko gave lots of love to his Canucks teammates for how they navigated this season\u2019s challenges. (Bob Frid\/Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Lost in all of Demko\u2019s health struggles is the fact that his new three-year deal, worth $8.5 million per season, doesn\u2019t kick in until July 1.<\/p>\n

But, as long as he\u2019s healthy, the veteran netminder sees himself as part of the solution in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve said that I want to be here since the day I got drafted, regardless of what that looks like,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year wasn\u2019t good enough from our perspective. A lot of things happened. I do think that we have a better team than what we showed this year. I think we have a lot of really good pieces. We have a lot of young energy in the room, and I think that\u2019s really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also showered his Canucks teammates with praise for how they grew amidst a historically bad season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m probably on the back half of my career here\u2026 but I\u2019m so proud of how the guys have stepped up here with the departures of other guys. It\u2019s super inspiring for me to see other guys do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes you want to become better in those areas, become a better leader, become a better man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy fire and my passion has been growing and growing the last few weeks and few months here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025-26 season started with such promise for Thatcher Demko. As the Vancouver Canucks netminder started the campaign,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-555093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116424601756476143","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}