Getting by without Thatcher Demko is nothing new to the Vancouver Canucks. The star netminder has now been forced to leave four of his last 36 regular-season starts with injury, plus the 29-year-old was unable to carry on after his lone playoff appearance in the past five years.

So the Canucks have been down this path before. The team will turn to Kevin Lankinen in Demko’s absence, but how exactly will – and should – the Canucks handle their netminding decisions while Demko is recovering from his latest ailment?

According to Frank Seravalli, early reports are that Demko will miss two to three weeks after leaving last night’s game against Winnipeg after just 20 minutes. Again, that is preliminary, but also only an estimate at this point. So it’s far too soon to pinpoint any kind target date for a return to action.

In the meantime, the Canucks have a compressed schedule to contend with, starting with a long flight on Wednesday and three games in four nights, beginning Friday in Carolina. Surely, Lankinen will handle the bulk of the starts with Demko on the shelf, but he shouldn’t play them all. So what are the team’s options?

Run with Lankinen

Lankinen was signed last September amidst injury uncertainty with Demko. So this is nothing new to the 30-year-old Finn. Already with the maintenance day drama of the past week, Lankinen has been forced into back-to-back starts and has now appeared in four of the team’s last five games. He’s also given up five goals in three of his last four starts. And last year, after yet another Demko injury ahead of the 4 Nations Face-Off, Lankinen was forced to shoulder a load of 12 of 15 starts including six straight at one point and 10 of 11. In those 12 starts, his save percentage dipped to .885. In the 10-game run, when he played more minutes than any other NHL goalie, the save percentage fell further to .873. So the idea of playing Lankinen in the dust right now, not only seems unwise, but also significantly risks injury at a time when the team can simply not afford it. Every player has their limits and the Canucks seemingly pushed Lankinen to his last March. The organization needs this player, but it also has to learn from the error of its ways as recently as last spring.

Turn to Patera

Jiri Patera is on the roster and served as the back-up to Lankinen in both games over the weekend. Of all the goalies in the Canucks stable, he has the most NHL experience behind Demko and Lankinen having played eight games for Vegas over parts of two seasons (2022-2024). That said, it feels like there are significant organizational trust issues when it comes to giving Patera a chance. He had a dismal 2024 training camp which led to the team scrambling to sign Lankinen. And this year’s camp didn’t go a whole lot better when Patera wasn’t given so much as a period of preseason action before being dispatched to Abbotsford. He was injured for almost all of last season and this season has made five AHL appearances behind a patchwork Abbotsford roster and is 1-2-1 with a 3.10 GAA and a .894 save percentage. Patera was signed to be organizational depth, but between injuries and a glut of goalies on the farm, really hasn’t had much of an opportunity in the Canucks system. But perhaps it’s Patera time for at least a couple of starts while Demko recovers from this latest injury.

Wait for Tolopilo

In a perfect world, this would simply be Tolo time. Unfortunately, the big Belarussian was injured in Abbotsford’s third game of the season on October 24th and has been out of commission for the past two weeks. Word from the farm is that Tolopilo is close to returning to practice and, in theory, game action shouldn’t be too far behind. But is it asking too much of Lankinen to hold down the fort and start every game until Tolopilo is an option? And what sort of position would that put Tolopilo in if he is asked to step into the NHL and face the best shooters in the world with limited – if any – practice time in the condensed schedule as he works his way back from a significant injury? That hardly seems like a plan. Ideally, Tolopilo would get a couple of AHL starts to rediscover his form before being recalled by the big league team.

Roll the dice with Young

Ty Young is one of the other goalies in Abbotsford under contract to the Canucks. Ty Young is also 0-5 with a 5.08 and a .838 save percentage in his five AHL games this season. That’s not all on him since he probably doesn’t even know half the names of the defenders in front of him with the roster churn that has gone on there. Still, he was lifted after surrendering five goals on 21 shots through two periods of a 7-0 home ice loss to San Jose on Tuesday night. At 21, Young is probably too young to be thrown into a situation that could quickly become a replay of Mikey DiPietro’s NHL debut when he was shelled for seven goals on just 24 shots. Young doesn’t need that. And the organization doesn’t either. So Ty Young doesn’t really seem like a viable option even for spot duty to fill a gap at the NHL level.

Make a trade

It’s conceivable the Canucks could explore the trade market for veteran depth insurance. But really, why part with even minimal assets, unless the team knows there is a possibility Demko will be out longer than expected? Even still, at that point, Tolopilo should be ready to shoulder some of the load. So looking around for another netminder at this stage seems like it should be a non-starter.

The Canucks are likely going to have to turn to Jiri Patera for a spot start or two and live with the consequences. The Canucks have a busy weekend, but then can catch a breather with just two (home) games between November 18th to 25th. By then they should have a better sense of where Demko is in his recovery and can plan accordingly before heading back out on the road for four games – including another three in four in California plus a visit to Denver – that will take them into the first week of December.