32 Teams, 32 Players: Thatcher Demko

Getting ready for the start of the season by highlighting one player on every NHL team that is worth paying attention to this season. We continue today with Thatcher Demko of the Vancouver Canucks.

We are inching our way toward the start of the 2024-25 NHL season, and as we get closer we are going to highlight one player on each team that stands out for the season. What kind of player? Well, a player that could make a difference, be an X-factor, be on the verge of a breakout, or just simply be a player under the microscope and needing to have a big season.

Basically — which player do I think is the most fascinating on each team.

We are not going in any particularly order and continue today with Thatcher Demko of the Vancouver Canucks.

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There was perhaps no bigger surprise during the 2023-24 NHL season than the Vancouver Canucks.

After eight years of consistent mediocrity, directionless management and a top-heavy core of talented players that had no complementary support, everything finally clicked into place with a 109-point season that produced a stunning Pacific Division title (ahead of Vegas, Edmonton and Los Angeles!) and a first-round playoff series win.

Even with the lack of results in previous seasons there was always the bones of a good team here and some high-level players to build around. Elias Pettersson is a star. J.T. Miller might have an undesirable contract but he is a top-line scorer. Quinn Hughes is going to be competing for Norris Trophies for years. Brock Boeser is simply a finisher. They all just kept getting dragged down by bad contracts around them, bad coaching and even worse management that did not know how to build around them.

Slowly but surely, some of that has started to change over the past couple of years.

They have competency in the front office. Rick Tocchet has been a great addition as a head coach. Their underlying numbers ended up being great in terms of driving possession and suppressing scoring chances. They simply built a deeper roster. Everything about the team was solid!

But the biggest change last season was a bounce back year from starting goalie Thatcher Demko. After being limited to just 32 games in 2022-23 — and struggling when he played — he came back in 2023-24 and played at a Vezina Trophy level, finishing as the top runner-up to Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck.

He had a .918 all-situations save percentage and a .923 even-strength save percentage. Among the 34 goalies that appeared in at least 40 games, those numbers ranked second and fourth in the league respectively. He was a rock all season, and there was a nigh-and-day difference in the Canucks’ success when he played versus when he did not. That has also been a pretty consistent trend over the past four years.

Since the start of the 2020-21 season the Canucks are 98-68-14 when Demko is the goalie of record, good enough for a .583 points percentage. That comes out to a 96-point pace over 82 games, which is a borderline playoff team.

When he has not been the goalie of record during that stretch, they are only 53-51-18, a points percentage of only .508. That is an 83-point pace over 82 games. Not even close to a playoff team.

Obviously any team is going to be better when their starting goalie plays as opposed to their backups, but there is a significant gap between Demko’s level of play and the goalies that have consistently been behind him on the team’s depth chart. Over that same stretch the Canucks have used eight different goalies. His .913 save percentage is 10 points better than the next closest goalie to him over that stretch, and one of only two that actually had a save percentage over .900 (Jaroslav Halak had a .903 save percentage in his 17 appearances with the team).

This is also important because nobody really knows how healthy Demko currently is going into this season.

That, more than anything, makes him one of the season’s biggest X-factors.

Let’s talk about it.