Canucks’ Thatcher Demko leaves game with injury

The Vancouver Canucks‘ injury problems continue, as Thatcher Demko left Thursday’s game against the Seattle Kraken with back spasms.

The injury occurred midway through the second period when Noah Juulsen and Brandon Tanev were shoving in front of the net. As Juulsen charged at Tanev, he clipped Demko and knocked him over, and Demko needed to leave the game shortly after. Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet confirmed that the injury was a back spasm.

Demko had allowed 1 goal on 12 shots for a .917% save percentage with the Canucks up 2-1 at the time of his departure.

The injury comes at a tough time for the Canucks, as they’ve already been without some big impact pieces in Quinn Hughes, Filip Hronek and Elias Pettersson, not to mention that the team is dealing with plenty of drama between Pettersson and J.T. Miller.

Demko’s injury comes just as he was returning and getting reacclimated from his previous injury that he had sustained all the way back in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Going into Thursday’s game, he had played just 6 games, with a 2-1-3 record, an .879% SV%, and a -0.87 goals saved above expected.

Should Demko’s miss significant time with the injury, the Canucks will have to once again lean on backup Kevin Lankinen in his place, who has been a big reason that they’ve stayed afloat in the playoff race up to this point during Demko’s previous absence. In 24 games this season, he has a 14-6-4 record, a .908% SV%, 3 shutouts, and a +4.7 GSAx.

Arturs Silovs will also likely be recalled to the lineup should Demko be out for any length of time, as Silovs had been in the backup role during Demko’s previous injury. Silovs has a 1-4-1 record, an .847% SV% and a -7.73 GSAx in 7 games with the Canucks, as well as a 2-3-0 record and a .900% SV% in 5 games in the AHL with the Canucks’ minor league affiliate, the Abbotsford Canucks.