The Vancouver Canucks have a Vezina-calibre goaltender on the roster. There aren’t many of these elite netminders in the league these days, and for the worst team in the NHL in 2025-26, that could prove to be quite the game-breaking element for them. Someone who could steal games and earn points in the standings simply by giving his team a fighting chance every night.

That’s what Thatcher Demko is in concept. In reality, however, things are a bit different.

Yes, the American netminder has shown his ability as one of the best goalies in the NHL. That is, however, when he’s healthy. For the last two seasons, and even dating back to the end of the 2023-24 season, when Demko played only a single playoff game, his injury luck has been horrendous. Demko only started 23 games in 2024-25, and just 20 in 2025-26. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the Canucks were as bad as they were without their bona fide number one between the pipes to backstop them.

At this point, at the age of 30 and shut down pretty early last season to focus on rehabbing, the vision for Demko is a bit hazy. Especially now, with the Canucks staring down the barrel of a rebuild once more to try and be competitive. What should the goals and expectations be for Thatcher Demko going into 2026-27?

It seems like a low bar, but it is what it is at this point. The expectations for Demko shouldn’t be Vezina form right away, considering how much time he’s been sidelined over the last couple of years. However, ideally, the netminder finds himself with a good run when it comes to his health. It doesn’t mean that Demko needs to go entirely injury-free – at this point, that might be too much to ask for.

If he’s mostly fine, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to see Demko get some rhythm going. He’s shown that when he’s healthy, he’s still one of the best goalies in the NHL. The advanced numbers over his starts provide an almost eerily accurate predictor of whether he’s hurt or not.

Again, this isn’t asking him to instantly regain his best form. But a healthy Demko who’s able to get into more of a stride should be one of the better starters in the NHL – and that would be more than a welcome boon for the Canucks, who have struggled to really find someone to hold down the fort between the pipes for the last couple of seasons.

This would be quite something. Given the injury history and the player in question, Demko might never be fully “healthy” again. But what if he was, and what if he returned to form in a relatively short time? That would be quite the storyline if it were to come true, and certainly falls into the exceeds-expectations category for Thatcher Demko.

Getting him back to that elite netminder status would be great on a personal level for Demko. It’s clear that he still has the ability, and the problem has been availability. For him to seamlessly step back onto the ice and at the peak of his abilities would be nothing short of phenomenal and something that no one would expect out of Demko.

However, that does beg an interesting question. If Demko were to return at the peak of his abilities, would it still make sense to keep him? The Canucks look committed to a longer-term rebuild for the first time in forever, and while having an elite netminder is nice, it isn’t as if they need to be winning lots of games. If anything, a healthy, elite Demko would be quite the trade chip on the market, especially with him turning 31 by the end of the 2026-27 season.

That’s a bridge to cross when Vancouver and Demko return to action, though. Much of that still remains to be seen, especially with just the health aspect.

This is probably the most set-in-stone: what would be most disappointing to see from Thatcher Demko this season. Or, rather, not seeing him much at all. If Demko finds himself injured once more in 2026-27, the conversation will likely shift to whether the Canucks could extract any sort of trade value out of him given the state of the player and the team.

Demko needs consistent game time and the chance to show he can handle a starter’s load again in the NHL. If he can’t do that, then, realistically, he’s a very expensive, very good in theory but often-injured backup. And most teams in the league likely wouldn’t be willing to spend $8.5 million of their cap space on a goalie like that.

It’s obviously not an ideal situation, but one the Canucks might have to contend with. Demko has not played more than 23 games in the past two years, and we haven’t seen an extended stretch with him at full go. The trend certainly isn’t encouraging and could be a precursor to further trouble down the line – in which case, it would only be a source of further disappointment and cause Demko to have a below-expectation season.

All of these hinge on one thing: if Demko is healthy. It sounds like a broken record, but it’s really the truth. We haven’t had him at 100% since the 2023-24 regular season, and at this point, it’s hard to envision him ever returning to that workload with those heights. But who knows? Perhaps, with the pressure of competing every night lifted from the group and the focus on development, Demko could be a stabilizing veteran presence both on and off the ice.