Canucks will be haunted long-term after how they dealt with Thatcher Demko

When it comes to pure talent, there is no denying Thatcher Demko's placing as one of the top goaltenders in the game today. He's coming off a career-best season, which saw him eventually finish second in voting for the Vezina Trophy.

Last month the NHL Network ranked Demko sixth, in their list of the top 10 goalies as of right now. At the time we criticised this ranking, making the case that he should have been ranked higher and with good cause ... or so we thought.

It's entirely possible that one of the reasons the 28-year-old wasn't ranked higher, was down to his ongoing issues with injuries. If this is the case, then we accept there is more substance for 'only' ranking him in sixth place.

Demko's long injury history

Back in May, we asked if Demko had the durability to be the Canucks' long-term answer as the number one netminder in Vancouver? He's suffered a variety of ailments since taken over as the main man between the pipes, including this past season with knee problems.

In fact, the latest issue has the 2014 second round draft pick as a doubt to even be ready for the beginning of the upcoming regular season. It turns out that he is taking longer than initially expected, to recover from his knee injury.

As if this wasn't bad enough for Canucks fans, this turn of events could have been avoided altogether, if not for the actions of the organisation itself. This new information comes to light courtesy of Elliotte Friedman, on last Friday's edition of his popular 32 Thoughts podcast.

Rushed back before he was fully healthy

Friedman was discussing how the Canucks approached the situation with Demko's knee injury, ahead of the 2023-24 playoffs. He said: "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.' What it did is it forced Demko to rush to get back and I'm just not convinced that he was ever 100 percent healthy. Demko comes back, wins the one game, and then he gets hurt."

If correct, this is a stunning turn of events. Particularly given how much praise general manager Patrik Allvin, head coach Rick Tocchet and the rest of the front office have quite rightly received, for the way they've run things and turned around the fortunes of the Canucks.

As if this wasn't bad enough, it now turns out Demko's injury is one which now cannot be resolved, even through surgery. Friedman said: "The best piece of information I've been given is quite simply, he's going to have to learn to play with this. It's not something that can be fixed with surgery, but it's something that he's going to have to learn to play through and can play through."

What is particularly concerning, is that the organisation were already aware of his injury history, and yet still pushed for him to come back before he was ready to. No matter how much the Canucks needed him, this was an extremely irresponsible and short-sighted approach to take.

As a result, we're now in a situation where Demko, his teammates and the fans will be concerned about how he performs and if he can remain healthy, whenever he does eventually return. Ultimately, this is a situation which has the potential to haunt the Canucks organisation long-term, and they have no one to blame but themselves.

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