Report: Thatcher Demko's Rare Injury Like A "Once in 50 Years" Occurence

He suffered a rare injury to the back of his knee in Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs back in April, but now, as we near the end of August, there's still doubt that Vancouver Canucks' No. 1 netminder Thatcher Demko will be ready to start the season in October.

And now we get a report from NHL insider Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, who dropped this ominous bit of news he heard about Demko's injury:

What happened with Thatcher Demco was a rare fluke injury... One doctor had explained it as, 'You could be in practice for 50 years and never see this injury.'

Initially, the Canucks hoped that it wasn't very severe, according to Seravalli, and that was evidenced by the fact that Demko was seen on skates during the second round. But of course, he never returned.

As the runner-up for the Vezina Trophy this past season, it goes without saying how important Demko is to the Canucks' chances in 2024-25. But it sounds like when he'll return is still a mystery at this point.

"If this is still lingering, it makes you wonder if there's anything they can do about this injury," said Seravalli on a recent episode of Oilers Now. "Sorry to be so vague about it, but if you gave me $1 million to explain what his injury is, I couldn't do it. All I know is it has something to do with the back of his knee.

"I don't know where they go from here."

There's some thought, opines Seravalli, that perhaps goalie coach Ian Clark may have been overworking Demko, possibly contributing to the goalie's injury problems over the years, and also potentially explaining Clark's recent surprising shift out of his role and into a goalie scout and goaltending development coach for Vancouver.

“I think it’s fair to say that there’s probably been some friction there over the years when it comes to Demko and Clark,” said Seravalli.

Demko started 51 games this past season, and went 35-14-2 with a .918 save percentage and a 2.45 goals-against average with five shutouts. He missed just over a month near the end of the regular season, and then all of the playoffs save for the first game. He has two more years to run on his contract with a $5 million cap hit.