By now, most everyone is intimately familiar with the delicate nature of the Vancouver Canucks’ goaltending situation as the start of the 2024-25 regular season draws closer and closer.

Star Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko, who was named an NHL All-Star and a Vezina Trophy finalist for his exemplary performance last season, sustained a knee injury in early March of this year that resulted in him missing a few weeks of action.

Demko ultimately returned to his starting duties on April 16, just five days before Vancouver’s first playoff game of the year. But as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman indicated on Friday’s edition of 32 Thoughts – The Podcast, the Canucks put pressure on Demko to return to action and prove himself before the playoffs began, which, in turn, may have led to him re-injuring himself.

“There’s been a lot of rumours about what procedures Demko may or may not have had,” Friedman said. “There’s just a lot of mystery there, because nobody will talk about it. This is what I believe.

“I believe that the Canucks told Demko last year, before the playoffs, ‘We need to know that we can count on you in the postseason, we don’t want uncertainty, and you have to play two games before the playoffs before we commit to you to start the postseason.’ I think that’s a very reasonable position to take.

“However, what it did was it forced Demko to rush to get back, and I’m not convinced he was ever 100 percent healthy. You can understand the Canucks’ position while also understanding what it made Demko do. And so, Demko comes back, he wins the one game, and then he gets hurt.

Friedman went on to comment about the uncertainty surrounding Demko even during the playoffs, noting that he received contradictory information from various sources about whether the 28-year-old goaltender would be able to return, and added that Demko’s injury may not ever be fully addressed.

“I believe the best intel was, nobody knew. And right now, we’re still in the same place. The best piece of information I’ve been given is quite simply, he’s gonna have to learn to play with this. Like, it’s not something that can be fixed with surgery, but it’s something he’ll have to learn to play through and he can play through to a high level.”

Demko posted a 35-14-2 record and a .918 save percentage in 51 games with the Canucks during the 2023-24 regular season. He stopped 22 of 24 shots he faced in the club’s Game 1 victory over the Nashville Predators in the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

With Demko’s status still uncertain, the Canucks have been linked with multiple veteran goaltenders in free agency, including Kevin Lankinen and Antti Raanta. Additionally, young Latvian goaltender Artūrs Šilovs is expected to be ready for the start of training camp despite missing the Olympic qualifiers due to “knee ligament inflammation.”

The Canucks are slated to kick off the 2024-25 regular season at home against the Calgary Flames on October 9.