Canucks’ Demko ready for rebound season: ‘That fire in me is back’

VANCOUVER – With the option to wait a year for unrestricted free agency and a much bigger payday after his body and mind healed from an excruciating 2024-25 season, goalie Thatcher Demko chose instead to sign a three-year contract extension for the Vancouver Canucks on July 1 because he wanted to set an example.

He wanted to show everyone, here and around the National Hockey League, how much he still believes in the Canucks. How much he wants to play in Vancouver and be part of what Demko expects to be a rebound season for the team and himself.

In his first interview since re-committing to the Canucks for $24.5 million over three years, the 29-year-old told Sportsnet on Wednesday that he didn’t want to run from adversity.

“I’ve always wanted to be here,” Demko said before travelling to Penticton for the start of training camp on Thursday. “We’ve had some tough times, for sure, as a team the last handful of years. There’s been some great times, but there’s been some struggle at times. But for me, I was drafted here and I feel an immense responsibility to give everything I can to get this team to where it wants to go.

“I know the culture is kind of shifting (in the NHL) as far as, you know, the players have more rights and are able to maybe demand certain things or ask for trades or get out of contracts and things like that. But for me, you know, I consider myself a pretty loyal guy. And after what we went through last year, I wanted to be part of the solution, as opposed to kind of running from the adversity.

“I’ve been incredibly lucky to be here for as long as I have. And to your point of maybe waiting another year and getting more money, it’s never been a money thing for me. I saw this as an opportunity to kind of tell the rest of the league that guys are still committed to being here.”

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About to open his 10th training camp with the Canucks, the 2014 second-round pick followed his best season with his hardest.

A torn popliteus muscle that destabilized Demko’s knee – he said the confounding injury was unprecedented in the NHL – prevented him from training last summer and did not allow him to start playing last season until December.

Unable to build the physical “platform” he needed to endure an 82-game season, Demko suffered two subsequent injuries and logged just 23 games the year after he finished second in Vezina Trophy balloting. His save percentage plummeted to .889 from .918 as the Canucks reached a critical mass of debilitating injuries and drama and missed the Stanley Cup playoffs by six points.

Not only has Demko rebuilt his platform, but he said he feels as prepared as he has ever been.

“Yeah, we got to work pretty much right away,” Demko said of his off-season training. “I missed enough time last year that I didn’t feel like I was really needing that much time off. You know, trying to explain what I was going through last year (with the popliteus injury), I can’t really do justice to it. It’s just such a breath of fresh air to be able to come into a season healthy, with a very clear mindset as far as what I needed to do, and having the freedom to go out and do it. It’s been about five months of a really detailed and disciplined approach to get me in a good spot to be ready to go this year.”

With a history of injuries – Demko’s Vezina-finalist season two years ago followed a 2022-23 campaign that saw him struggle to bounce back from knee surgery before suffering a torn groin – the San Diegan said he has added people for his personal “team” and altered off-season training to make it more preventative.

“This summer, just as much work as I was putting in in the gym, I was putting the same amount of work into the mental side of things, too,” he explained. “Last year was difficult and, you know, I’m a human being. You naturally just start to question things and you start getting worried about different things and different facets of your life. Being able to really slow down and have another child and have some perspective again, slowly start to feel like myself again, that confidence just kind of came hand in hand.”

Demko and his wife, Lexie, welcomed baby Penelope in May, a little sister for 20-month-old Dawson. The family lives in Michigan, where new Vancouver coach Adam Foote visited last spring with Demko, Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson – the three core Canucks who combined for nine injuries last season.

Hughes lives about 15 minutes from Demko, while Pettersson flew in from Sweden for dinner and golf.

“I think everyone was pretty shocked that Rick took off,” Demko said of Rick Tocchet, who chose to leave the organization as a coaching free agent and signed instead with the Philadelphia Flyers. “I’m not really going to speak on that because it’s in the past now. But I think Footy is a guy that would lace up the skates and go kill a penalty tomorrow if he could. He loves the game, loves the hard parts of the game, and I think that’s a huge, huge thing for our team. Just maybe be a little bit grittier and be committed to doing the hard things.

“He’s also very communicative with us, giving the leadership group a voice. And he’s a guy that I feel does a really good job of walking the line between having a personal relationship with his players, but also being their boss. He’s very straightforward; there’s no blurry lines with him. He’s a guy that guys want to play for. I think he is going to get a lot out of our group.”

Demko was the first out-of-province Canuck to return to Vancouver, arriving with crease-mate Kevin Lankinen in early August to work under Marko Torenius and strengthen their relationship with the Canucks’ goaltending coach.

Demko said he has everything he needs to perform and now just has to “go out and do it.”

“You know, it was such a crazy year last year,” he said. “It almost, in a way, just felt like a write-off, you know? And I hate to say that because we’re all competing every night. But there are intangibles that sometimes just block a team from doing what they know that they can. I think the energy around this year is just about having that freedom and that fresh air in the room. We’re in a better place now as a group. We’re closer. Obviously, you don’t want to have to go through what we went through last year to create camaraderie. (But) our team has made a conscious choice to make sure that is the result, as opposed to going our separate ways.

“It was really satisfying to feel my body kind of transform back into what it was before the knee stuff. Missing an entire summer and the better part of eight months (due to the popliteus injury), your body just takes a hit. Other things start bugging you physically. So to kind of go in with a clean slate, I started to feel like myself again – and not even just on the ice or in the gym, but getting on the ground and playing with my kids. That is where it was, like: ‘Oh yeah, I’m good.’ I’m back to being strong. I’m back to being mobile. That fire in me is back to wanting to really play and compete. So, yeah, we accomplished a lot this summer. I just feel a lot more happy.”