By: Brayden Fengler / September 10, 2024 The Canucks had an undeniably strong season last year. The team’s appearance in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs was beyond impressive, especially considering where they were just 12 months before that. During the 2022-23 campaign the Canucks finished in 22nd place across the NHL and three positions out from a final wild card spot.
However, beyond just remembering the excitement of how far the Canucks got as a team, it’s hard to forget that not all players made it to the end of their playoff run.
For different reasons, Canucks starting goalie Thatcher Demko and the team’s star winger Brock Boeser, didn’t play out the entirety of the playoffs. Headed into this year, we’re checking in on where both Canucks are at medically and what we can hope to see from them during the 2024-25 season.
Thatcher Demko
Thatcher Demko played just one game for the Canucks in their last playoff run. After being a large part of what got the team their in the first place. Demko wouldn’t be able to help his team when they needed him most.
The way Demko appeared to have suffered his injury seemed relatively innocuous at the time. Many pointed to the moment shown in Farah Lalji’s tweet below, as the moment that Demko is suspected to have injured his knee, simply by pushing off the post as the play continued around his net.
Demko was no stranger to injuries before this instance either, with six injuries to his career records just concerning his lower body alone. At the time of this season-ending injury, Demko had only recently returned from another knee injury sustained on March 10th of that season.
Artūrs Šilovs impressed as the eventual replacement for Demko through the rest of the playoffs. However, the jury is still out on how much Šilovs can be relied on in future situations where he is thrust into the limelight as the Canucks starter.
I believe we saw Šilovs successfully pass a trial by fire last postseason, and he would be well-suited as a heavily utilized backup for the Canucks. This off-season the Canucks signed another backup goalie contender Jiří Patera. So it’s clear that the Canucks are though still keeping their netminder options open.
Demko has been skating in the ramp-up to the Canucks season. But for those like myself that assumed May to August would be enough time for Demko to be back to 100%, it doesn’t sound like that’s the case either.
If Demko still needs more time before he starts this season, the Canucks of course need to give him as much time as he needs, perhaps even extra time. But the reality is, the Canucks need Demko to play a large amount of games this season if they want to revisit the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Šilovs and or potentially Patera could both hopefully take a large number of games off of Demko’s plate this season, but the Canucks still need Demko to eat his fair share.
Brock Boeser
Brock Boeser made it further into the playoffs than Thatcher Demko, playing all but the last game of the Canucks postseason. Brock’s absence came as just as much of a surprise as Demko’s.
Similar to Demko, there was no major incident on the ice during the game prior, that forecast the end of Boeser’s season. But in between game six and seven of the Canucks’ round two match-ups with the Edmonton Oilers, it was announced that Boeser was suffering from a blood clotting issue.
The severity of the medical issue at the time of the announcement was low, but the issue preventing Boeser from playing came from the treatment. Boeser was placed on blood thinners, and with that treatment, playing a game where everyone around you has razor-sharp blades on their feet becomes less than advisable.
Boeser at the end of the Canucks season had said that his treatment would not impact his off-season training and this did appear to remain the case over the summer.
Boeser is now fully off of blood thinners, baring a few low-impact preventative measures that Boeser will be taking this season, it does not appear that he is at risk of being out of action for this same reason any time soon.
Boeser had a career-best year last season, playing all but one of the team’s 82 regular season games, the most games that Boeser had ever played in a season of professional hockey. Boeser earned 73 points last season, completely dwarfing his previous career-best season, which was 56 points earned during the 2018-19 campaign.
Before this past year, Boeser had also never eclipsed 30 goals in a season. He not only beat that mark but reached 40 goals total last year.
Boeser played himself into a fundamental role within the improved Canucks of last year, and the Canucks built their new team around players like Boeser who showed their value. It has felt before like Boeser could be replaced if the Canucks needed to do so, but last season Boeser made that possibility look a lot harder for the team to pull off.
Fingers Crossed
Both players have seen more injuries and absences over their careers than just the key examples that took them out of play at the end of this last season. Hopefully, both players can be managed across the duration of this season so that when the Canucks really need them in April and June they are ready for playoff hockey.
Losing both players last year, although not an immediate dager to the team, certainly put them in a spot where they were be less productive in their hunt for the Stanley Cup. The Canucks are still not in a position where they can afford to lose these pieces in that hunt again.