Why Thatcher Demko is ready to be a professional goaltender

Photo Credit: Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports

On Thursday night, Thatcher Demko and the Boston College Eagles were eliminated from the Frozen Four, meaning that Signing Watch is officially on. Heck, it might be over by the time you read this.

Demko is a goalie I saw live about a dozen times this season, and several more on television. I’ve also watched him play at least that often in each of his previous two seasons. I can tell you unequivocally that he’s one of the best goaltending prospects I’ve seen come through NCAA hockey in quite a while and the Canucks would be very wise to sign him now. That’s only because you don’t want to get involved in a whole Jimmy Vesey-type drama, but also because Demko has nothing at all left to prove at the college level.

He’s a professional goalie in every way but getting paid at this point, and really ought to be in the AHL.

Demko is a career .926 goaltender in college hockey, across 98 appearances. He’s also .930 at 5-on-5. The national average save percentage in the last three seasons is in the .910 range, so that’s a pretty substantial gap.

Even in comparison with Hockey East goaltenders, which tend to have save percentages closer to the .918-.920 range, Demko is clearly a cut above over the course of his career. And this year, he took it to another level.

He went .935, led the nation with 10 shutouts, split the league’s Player of the Year honors with UMass Lowell’s Kevin Boyle (who just signed a deal with Anaheim last week), and was for my money the best goaltender in the country. He’s a Hobey Baker finalist, and should win the Mike Richter award as the nation’s best goalie on Friday night unless something goes horribly wrong — like someone thinking Charlie Lindgren’s win total deserved votes.

In all, he only missed two games (in a single weekend) for the Eagles this season, both with a minor injury. That was a pleasant change of pace, because Demko played hurt a lot down the stretch last season, and ended up having that double hip surgery which has become en vogue among young goaltenders these days. Clearly, going under the knife helped, because he stayed healthy and excelled as a player.

“I think he’s had a terrific year. we’ve seen it right from the get-go,” legendary BC coach Jerry York said after a tournament game two weeks ago against Harvard. “He had that hip surgery last year, both hips. He’s elevated the team a
lot this year. This was an outstanding game for him, but he’s had a
number of these type of games over the course of the year. You get to
NCAA’s and you expect him to play well. He’s become a real leader for us.”

The other thing you have to keep in mind about Demko is that he’s still very young. He only turned 20 in December, so he played all but the final 24 games of his 98-game career as a teenager. That’s extremely rare in college hockey for players at any position. And certainly, it’s unheard of for goaltenders.

And what’s most surprising is that apart from a few temporary dips in the quality of his performance here and there (mostly caused by a bad game or two), he’s basically been a lights-out goalie for his entire career.

(Just for preemptive clarification: I lumped ages 17 and 18 together because he was splitting time early on, and had only played in six games — one of them in mop-up duty — by the time he turned 18, which was before the averages kicked in.)

This is a goaltender that is generally going to win you a lot of games. But that’s not to say he hasn’t gotten better, because he certainly has.

He’s always been a big kid at 6-foot-4 and 200-ish pounds, which is something you basically need to be an elite goaltender these days. And he’s always used that size to his significant advantage, because he is incredibly sound positionally.

The areas in which he has grown into the sport though are the ones that differentiate him from his competitors, and what make him pro-ready these days. It’s how elite-level talent differentiates itself from the pack.

“I think he’s just getting more mature,” York told me. “He’s handling different
situations better. I think he’s reading plays better. He’s always had
terrific skills and size and a good understanding of angles but now he’s
kind of reading 3-on-2s, 2-on-1s. He’s moving, almost
anticipating where the shot’s coming from. He’s getting better and
better every year. He’s still a young player for us.”

If all goes as it should in the next week or two he won’t be a young player for BC much longer. Instead, if the Canucks are smart (ha ha ha) they’ll sign him tonight, put him on a plane to Vancouver, and have him playing in the season finale to burn a year of his ELC and make damn sure he’s locked up.

Demko going back to school for a senior season would be a disaster. Well, not for the Eagles. But you know what I mean.