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With uncertainty in Canucks crease, Tolopilo says he’s ready to seize the opportunity

Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images

By Jeff Paterson

Sep 12, 2026, 11:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 11, 2026, 20:27 EDT

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With every day that goes by without Thatcher Demko part of the Vancouver Canucks summer skates, the probability rises that Nikita Tolopilo will start the season on the club’s National Hockey League roster.

Now, there are a lot of moving parts in play. There is Demko’s recovery from hip surgery, Tolopilo’s waiver considerations and the hockey team’s decision about how many goalies it wants to carry to start the season.

But the biggest consideration in all of this is that Nikita Tolopilo still needs to prove that he is a bona fide NHL-quality netminder. At times last season, the big Belarusian looked the part. But there were also nights when he wasn’t up to the challenge. And late in a lost season, Tolopilo seemed to lose the confidence of head coach Adam Foote.

The numbers weren’t pretty – mind you, very few numbers flattered anyone on the Canucks last season. And in a toxic defensive environment, playing goal was an almost impossible task.

Tolopilo won just six of his 18 starts, posting a 3.61 goals against average and an .881 save percentage. According to Natural Stat Trick, his goals saved above average was in the red at -3.29. So it was a struggle at times, to say the least.

But the 26-year-old sees nothing but opportunity unfolding in front of him as he prepares for the new season. And he says he’s put in the work over the offseason to come back ready to stake his claim to a bigger workload than last season.

“I feel great, I’ve been here almost a month now,” Tolopilo said after a group skate at Rogers Arena this week. “I came back a little bit earlier to skate with Marko (Torenius, the Canucks goalie coach). It’s been two or three weeks just one-on-one with him. I feel really good. I feel like that was a good summer for me. I feel stronger. I feel way more confident in my game. I put in the work back home. Excited and waiting to get some action now.”

Working in Tolopilo’s favour is the fact that he has a strong foundation and working relationship with new head coach Manny Malhotra from parts of two seasons together in Abbotsford.

While he still has to prove himself to earn opportunities, Tolopilo isn’t starting from scratch when it comes to impressing the head coach. Malhotra knows both the person and the player, and that should put Tolopilo’s mind at ease to some degree.

“It’s all about confidence,” he explained. “Even when you start playing NHL games. The first couple of games, you’re a little bit shaky. It’s a new league, 20 thousand people around you, you’re facing the best players in the world. Once you keep rolling and get five, 10, 15 games, it starts to give you some confidence. Every game, every practice you just feel better and better. That’s what I felt like after last season. It was a tough season for everyone, but at the same time, there were a lot of things that I can take with me for next season. I went back home. I know what my weak spots are, where I should focus a little bit more during the summer. So I did my job I think pretty good. It’s the most confident I’ve ever felt and I just have to keep pushing and never stop.”

Tolopilo credits his improvement to equal parts off-ice strength training and a focus on refining the technical aspects of the position he plays. He’s been a professional for seven years, starting out in Russia and then Sweden before signing with the Canucks as a free agent in 2023. He made his NHL debut and logged a pair of games for Rick Tocchet at the tail end of the 2024-25 season, and last season appeared in 21 contests. Every chance to face NHL shooters is an opportunity to learn. And Tolopilo says he applied that knowledge to the way he trained this summer.

“You feel a lot stronger in your legs, you get faster, you get quicker,” he said. “I put in a lot of work back home in the gym. It’s early, but I can see improvements. Probably most of the people aren’t going to see the differences, but that’s how I feel. It’s a good step in the right direction.”

And while he counts down the days until training camp, Tolopilo is also playing the waiting game as far as knowing exactly where Thatcher Demko is with his health and readiness to join the group. Obviously, that’s out of Tolopilo’s hands, but it certainly carries significant weight in terms of how much of an opportunity may be in front of him.

“It’s always something happening here,” he said of the uncertainty. “I just try to be better every day. I just focus on the practices and prepare for main camp. You never know what is going to happen tomorrow. It doesn’t change my mentality. I’m here to stop pucks, that’s my job and help the team win games. I just do my job the best I can and show people that I’m an NHL goalie.”

While pleased with the way he’s performed in informal skates with his teammates over the past couple of weeks, Nikita Tolopilo knows the time to prove himself starts next Thursday in Penticton.

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