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The Thatcher Demko summer saga took another twist Tuesday, with Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK TV’s Donnie and Dhali reporting that the Vancouver Canucks’ goalie is “back skating and working out on the ice.”
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There have been various reports over the past couple of weeks suggesting that Demko wouldn’t be ready for training camp, at the very least, due to some sort of off-season medical procedure tied to the knee injury that knocked him out of action during last season’s NHL playoffs.
The Canucks, through it all, have said precious little. There’s an argument that training camp doesn’t start until Sept. 19 in Penticton, a lot can happen between now and then and there’s no point in the Canucks adding any fuel to the story right now. There’s also a school of thought that if the reporting about Demko, 28, has been incorrect that the Canucks would be adamant in setting the record straight, because this is a period where they are trying add to consumer confidence and sell tickets.
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We’ll see where Demko sits soon enough. More and more Vancouver players will be taking to the ice locally for pre-season skates in the coming days. The Canucks’ Jake Milford Charity Invitational Golf Tournament goes Monday at Northview Golf and Country Club, too.
Dhaliwal also reported Tuesday that the Canucks are still talking with free-agent goalie Kevin Lankinen, 29, who got into 24 games with the Nashville Predators this past season. He was a $2 million cap hit. Vancouver, according to Puckpedia.com, has just over $190,000 of cap space, but that’s without moving injured defenceman Tucker Poolman to long-term injury, which would open up more room.
Demko’s injury or not, Vancouver could use more goaltending depth. Arturs Silovs, 23, is slated to be Demko’s backup, and Vancouver has the trio of Nikita Tolopilo, Jiri Patera and Ty Young signed after that. Patera, 25, is the wise vet of the group, with 100 ECHL/AHL games to his credit and eight in the NHL — all with the Vegas Golden Knights. Tolopilo, 24, played his first pro season in North America last year with the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks, and Young, who turns 20 later this month, played last season with the WHL’s Prince George Cougars.
Lankinen has 112 NHL games.
Goaltending has been a news-filled position with the Canucks this off-season. There’s been the knee-ligament inflation that kept Silovs from playing in an Olympic qualifying tournament for Latvia, plus Ian Clark stepping back from his day-to-day work with Demko and Silovs to become a goalie scout and goaltending development coach.
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Courtesy : https://theprovince.com/sports/hockey/nhl/vancouver-canucks/canucks-thatcher-demko-back-skating-and-working-out-on-the-ice-according-to-report