Vancouver Canucks co-president Henrik Sedin said on Monday that the team’s goal is to have goaltender Thatcher Demko back before Christmas.
Demko is recovering from hip surgery he had in January. He last played on Jan. 10 against the Toronto Maple Leafs, when he lasted just one period, allowing three goals on six shots.
“He won’t be ready early on, but our goal is to get him get him back before Christmas,” Sedin told the Halford and Brough show.
“There’s no timeline for that, but he’s taking steps every day. He’s got a great attitude, and we want to we want to make sure that he’s 100 per cent before he comes back, and that’s been our mindset from Day 1.”
Since being nominated for the Vezina Trophy in 2023-24, lower-body and back injuries have kept the 30-year-old out of the Canucks lineup. In the last two seasons, Demko has played only 43 games. Last season, he went 8-10-1 with an .897 percentage and 2.85 goals-against average.
“The last two years, I was playing with zero degrees of internal rotation in my hip,” Demko told the media on April 17. “So, everything above and below is going to take the hit. It’s the back, it’s the knees, the groin – everything is trying to do too much work.”
Canucks general manager Ryan Johnson said on Friday that the team will be patient for Demko.
“It sounds like a broken record, but we just are taking the correct steps with Thatcher to do this once and one time only, so I keep saying the lack of timeline,” Johnson said. “When you start putting timelines and then you’re trying to hold yourself to it, especially Thatcher in his own mind, we’re just working step by step, doing it the right way where everybody’s comfortable with it. And if it takes longer than expected or weeks more than we anticipate, if we’re doing it right, we feel really comfortable about it.”
To address Demko’s absence, the Canucks picked up goaltender Leevi Merilainen off waivers from the Ottawa Senators on Sept. 25 with Kevin Lankinen set to be the starter.
Lankinen appeared in 47 games last season with the Canucks, going 11-27-5 with an .875 save percentage and 3.70 GAA.
Merilainen struggled in the NHL last season with Ottawa, going 8-10-1 with an .860 save percentage and 3.51 GAA. He fared better in the AHL with Belleville, with a .909 save percentage 2.77 GAA.
The 24-year-old grew up in Finland with Canucks forward Aatu Raty but is eager to get into the flow with the rest of the team. He joined the team for practice on Monday with Vancouver opening the 2026-27 season on Tuesday night against the Edmonton Oilers.
“We live right by each other too during the summer, so I know him [Raty] very well,” Merilainen. “We’ve been playing with each other from like when we were, I don’t know, 10 or something like that. So yeah, I know him very well. ... You don’t just want to be with one guy. You want to learn or get to know get to know everybody, but it helps for sure.”
