Vancouver Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko ranked No. 6 overall on Paul Pidutti’s list of the top 20 active NHL goalies published to Daily Faceoff on Wednesday.
Demko, 28, posted strong numbers while battling nagging knee issues with the Canucks in 2023-24, going 35-14-2 with a .918 save percentage in 51 games during the regular season before suffering a knee injury in Game 1 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs that kept him out for the rest of the year (and could delay his 2024-25 season debut).
Pidutti, who goes by the handle @AdjustedHockey on social media, uses his yearly rankings as part of his model to determine which players are worthy of induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame. If Pidutti’s model deems a player to be as good or better than his most decorated contemporaries at any point in his career, it only strengthens their Hall of Fame case.
Demko is one of the NHL’s most talented and respected goaltenders. His performance in the 2023-24 season moved him up two spots in Pidutti’s rankings, with his new placement at No. 6 overall standing as the best of his NHL career to date.
Linus Ullmark, Connor Hellebuyck, Ilya Sorokin, Igor Shesterkin, and Juuse Saros all ranked ahead of Demko on the list, although Pidutti mentioned that if his rankings only accounted for the 2023-24 season, Demko would place second only to Hellebuyck.
Here’s a brief excerpt from Pidutti’s article describing how his High Noon player assessment tool works:
A weighted three-year average is used: 2023-24 represents 50% of a player’s score; 2022-23 gets one-third (33%); 2021-22 gets one-sixth (17%). The split helps us from crowning one-hit wonders […] Playoffs aren’t factored in — post-season opportunities and opposition being too arbitrary to include.
Pidutti also added that only goaltenders who have played in at least 111 games over the last three seasons (37 per year, on average) are included in his rankings, with the “intent … to weed out backups thriving in sheltered roles and those that can’t secure regular action.”
Former Canucks goaltender Jacob Markstrom, now with the New Jersey Devils, slotted in at N0. 21 overall on Pidutti’s list, representing a four-spot increase from one year ago and an eight-spot decrease from 2022. Both Markstrom and Demko peaked at No. 6 overall on the High Noon rankings.
The Canucks originally selected Demko in the second round (No. 36 overall) of the 2014 NHL Draft. Through 219 career games over parts of seven seasons in Vancouver, the San Diego product has posted a 116-81-17 record with eight shutouts and a .912 save percentage.
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