Canucks’ Demko says he would have signed in Vancouver for 20 years if he could have

Thatcher Demko left nothing to the imagination when describing how much he likes living and playing in the City of Vancouver. Speaking for the first time since signing a three-year $25.5M extension with the Canucks on Tuesday, Demko made it abundantly clear that he would have been willing to sign long term with the hockey club. Like, really long term.

“I would sign 20 years in Vancouver if I could have,” he told TSN 1050 radio in Toronto on Wednesday afternoon. “I have always wanted to be there my whole career. I’m a guy that I think there’s a dying breed that guys that get drafted somewhere and want to see it through no matter what adversity hits. I would have signed for a longer time, but I know the team is in a position with a little bit of uncertainty with my health last year. We felt confident that I was going to get back to the position I was in two years ago. At the end of the day, if I have to sign for three and get to the end of that one and sign another one, so be it. I think my priority was getting something done and getting more years in Vancouver.”

Demko has one year remaining on his current $5M contract before the new deal kicks in for the 2026-27 season. Limited to just 23 appearances due to three separate injuries last season, the hope is that with a full summer to train, the San Diego native can start next season with full health and return to the heights he did in 2023-24 when he started 51 games, won 35 of them and was the runner up to Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebucyck for the Vezina Trophy.

“The injury stuff for me really took effect 12 or 13 months ago, but before that I had a Vezina calibre season and I don’t feel like I’m that far off from doing that again,” he said. “I feel really good coming out of last year healthy and finally having a more normal summer and having to deal with all the rehab stuff I did last summer. It’s great for my body and for my mind. Things are going in a great direction for me and I’m feeling happy and obviously excited to be back in Vancouver next season.”

Demko has already returned to the ice to begin his summer training and has begun working with a trainer who has focussed his efforts on biomechanics specific to the position. The 29-year-old feels he’s already reaping the benefits and is excited about what the future holds.

“It’s been great, it’s really opened my eyes and educated me first and foremost about different things I can do in the gym,” Demko explained. “Again, it’s very goaltending specific. It’s really cool to see the core relation off the ice and then obviously transitioning into some of those specific on-ice positions as well.”

While Demko tended to the business of getting his own deal done with the Canucks, he was thrilled to see both Brock Boeser and Conor Garland commit long term to the program as well. Demko expects to see a highly motivated group when the team reassembles in September.

“We had a meeting with our leadership group and it was really up to us to say ‘hey, are we going to stick around?’” Demko revealed. “I think having these guys come back shows the league, it shows the media that we are all in and things aren’t as bad as they seemed last year for us. We’re two years out from winning our division and last year we were probably a handful of points shy of making the playoffs. Getting the gang back together and having guys stick around proves that we’re really excited to prove to the outside world that things aren’t as bad as they seem in Vancouver.”

Next season will be Demko’s seventh full season with the Canucks after breaking into the NHL in 2018. He is 14 starts shy of 250 for his NHL career and needs 24 wins to reach the 150 mark. His next victory will move him past Richard Brodeur into solo-third on the Canucks all-time wins list with 127. And if he ends up playing 20 years in Vancouver as he said he’d like to, then there’s every reason to believe he will hold all the franchise records for goaltenders. But after an injury plagued campaign last season, he’s probably best to simply approach things year by year. And although it’s only early July and training camp is still months away, Demko certainly sounds like he’s in a good frame of mind heading into next season.