Sorry for the earlier confusion. This is the correctly linked article detailing the 32 Thoughts portion on Demko.
TL;DR his knee injury is something he may never fully recover from, meaning he will need to "learn to play through it".
Makes it all the more of a priority for us to get someone like Lankinen. Riding Demko for 50+ games during his adjustment process would hardly be ideal. Keep in mind Demko was playing through issues in parts of his past few years and did not look like the same goalie.
by GoldenChest2000
26 Comments
JFC.
Theere it is. Cursed.
Canucks can never have nice things for too long.
This entire saga has been ridiculous. First he’s ready for WCF if they made it there. Then it’s he’s not coming back at all. Then there was apparently a mysterious surgery, which from the sounds of this article, is untrue. Now he just has to play through something for the rest of his career? WTF kind of luck is this
And remember: in every era of contention, there’s always that one detail that stops us from ever winning the cup. 🙂
It’s Demkover
Worst medical staff in the league
Friedman literally says “I believe” so this is him speculating. He does this a lot when he doesn’t have solid information.
Missing from the article is also the part in which Friedman said Canucks are not concerned because he’s not going to be out for long but still will target guys like Lankinen to bring in. And he also said that they’re going to change how much Demko goes on the ice and his workload.
He said “Clark is a drill guy, you do your drills everyday. They feel like this has come at a cost and now Canucks feel they have to change the way Demko practices”
Kevin Woodley also addressed the fact that some people around the league believe Clark’s system is too hard on the goalies and he thinks this criticism might have gotten to management and that’s why they want to try a different approach.
The fact they ran him so hard when we were practically guaranteed a playoff spot should have got someone fired. They prioritized a division banner over a playoff run.
It was like a slow motion car crash and everyone from fans to media to insiders were telling them to rest Demko and they wouldn’t
I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but we might need revamp the medical staff or something. I don’t recall shit like this happening during the Gillis era.
Thats what happens when you put chiropractors into positions of power
Only silver lining for the Canucks is he might be significantly cheaper to sign in 2026. Don’t think anyone’s handing him the Hellybuck or Bob contracts with the injury concerns he has.
The medical team’s management of players’ injuries is definitely a worrying pattern but there’s always more to a story than what we read as fans. I doubt the medical staff pushed Demko into a position he didn’t feel ready for given his physical health at the time. Injuries can linger and some never heal fully at all. Hindsight is 20/20, ground breaking concept right?
I’m in favour of a 60/40 tandem where a team doesn’t have to rely on singular elite goaltending with a high AAV. Maybe this is the signal for Vancouver to transition away from such high dependence on elite game-stealing goaltending and to what we saw last season; a commitment to team defence and structure that helps avoid putting goalies in bad situations. In the event a goalie does get injured, a replacement for their shared workload would be much easier to find/develop than constantly having to have elite goaltending in order to contend.
It does sting to think that Demko’s best seasons were potentially squandered under Benning’s idiotic regime.
Final thought – This info does make me feel slightly better about moving on from Ian Clark if his methods aren’t long term sustainable to the health and well being of the Canucks goalies.
I was so confident when he shut out winnipeg first game back from injury lmao
Team performance aside, you gotta feel for Demko. He had his knee permanently fucked up over a guaranteed playoff spot. Hope he’s not overly bitter about it cause that’s a tough headspace for a team’s goalie to be in.
Canucks mismanaging an injury OMG I would have never expected this.
We really need to reevaluate our medical staff/team management.
Like it’s not a coincidence that as soon as someone like Suter or Beagle (barely any history of being prolong injured) became so injury prone with us
This has shades of Brayden Holtby written all over it except Demko never won a Vezina.
Just like the dhawali reporting, I’m going to chalk this as opinion and rumors and nothing more till I hear from someone official. We went from a supposedly surgery and will miss camp and start of the season , to it’s okay hes on the ice to know oh he has a knee problem. I get that they need clicks cause hockey is in 30+ days, but this is just low end content .. and I’ll wait till either tocc, Patrick or Jim say anything. Everyone else can kinda shut it.
We have a laundry list of players now that have had bad experiences or recoveries yet multiple change overs in medical staff. What is going on lmao
This honestly makes me kind of glad Clark got moved. Everybody’s blaming the medical staff, but the goalie coach deserves the most accountability in this for assessing whether or not Demko was ready to go. I will be forever thankful for Clark being a huge factor in the Canucks being goalie central, but he teaches a style that has been stated to be detrimental for the hips and knees, and even worse is that he was the coach.
I love to see how Torenius contributes to the legacy; Shesterkin was made into one of the top three best goalies for the Rangers ever, and a large reason why he became the superstar that he is because of Torenius. It’s also important to note that Torenius teaches a style of goaltending that’s less stressful on the hips than Clark’s.
I think Friedman is out of line here. No conclusive evidence given. No one knows shit. Canucks said in the article they aren’t concerned because demko won’t miss much time.
You will see more and more of this throughout the years.
Over use of these joints because of style is going to catch up to now adult players.
I dont think its a Clarke style issue but more that too many years of the movement from when they are young to now.
I was a standup style goalie in my days and have brutal knee issues.
They are teaching kids to be on their knees right out the gates. Plus all the year round training.
Goaltender playing days will be lower over all. IMO.
Let’s not rush to judgement just yet. The whole article is basically, “may have done this” and “I believe that”, so just conjecture and speculation at this point, nothing concrete whatsoever. So let’s not panic folks, we’ll see what type of training camp/preseason he has as well as the first few games of the regular season and if he looks fit, etc and go from there, but we don’t know yet, so hold off on the conspiracies for now
Incomming overreaction and panic.