Prospect Info: Thatcher Demko

[Billy Kvcmu]

He's been fine.

No he has not
The Connor Brown goal and the Austin Mathews goal were both unacceptable

 

[Green Blank Stare]

The timing of the goals he gives up are back breakers. Two goals in the first 10 mins in 3 straight games and a goal within a minute in the third in three straight games.

Teams always playing catchup

They're just f***ing brutal. It'd be one thing if they were getting caved in and he let a couple through. He's getting beat on routine plays.

 

[Raistlin]

He is unremarkable.... That's what he is so far. We got so used to Markstrom's magic that we get irate at a mere whiff of average goaltending. No it's not ideal that Markstrom goes down and we have to rely on a rookie down the stretch who did not get enough play. This is where faith comes in fellow Canucks. I believe he is mentally tough enough to pull through.

 

[David71]

bad goals the past 3 games. so far. that 2nd one by toronto was absolutey terrible.

 

[Ninjadude]

Demco is a good goalie, but he has had a tough time playing net lately. I'm going to go say part of his development is because the coach didnt want to play him in games this year. You cant expect him to play once every month and now every game and expect him to be brilliant.

 

[Diamonddog01]

Getting Cloutier / Luongo playoff vibes from him. So mentally fragile.

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

Thatcher is making Markstrom more money with each passing game.

 

[LordBacon]

Markstrom wasn’t this good when he was demko age too.
I mean sure this few games is absolutely horrible but such is the pain you have to live with when playing a younger goalie.
Demko has the potential to be a very good starter,
People need to chill, this season shouldn’t be shouldered by a backup goalie anyways. If anyone is to be blamed it’s the brain dead gm and coach.

 

[VanJack]

Canucks won't make the post-season with Demko between the pipes.....a rookie goalie playing behind a shoddy defensive team is a recipe for disaster in the NHL.

If the Canucks do re-sign Markstrom, I'm beginning to think the 'goalie of the future' is Mikey DiPietro in Utica.

 

[B-rock]

Markstrom let in a bad goal a game as recently as three seasons ago. Demko needs more time and unfortunately he didn’t get much this year. It’s trial by fire now and hopefully he can get into a groove.

I’m more dismayed that the rest of the team couldn’t exploit Toronto’s porous defence. A decent bit of pressure and they fold, but there just wasn’t any. I don’t think Demkos the biggest problem with this team.

 

[dbaz]

his first real taste of nhl action and its when teams start to ramp up play. its similar to playoffs now, then you add in that the canucks are in a playoff spot chase dor the first time in years. thats loads of pressure on him.

then add the toxic fanbase and media in vancouver and it could break him.

 

[VanJack]

Markstrom let in a bad goal a game as recently as three seasons ago. Demko needs more time and unfortunately he didn’t get much this year. It’s trial by fire now and hopefully he can get into a groove.

I’m more dismayed that the rest of the team couldn’t exploit Toronto’s porous defence. A decent bit of pressure and they fold, but there just wasn’t any. I don’t think Demkos the biggest problem with this team.

You know I think you might have nailed it.....Green rode Markstrom like a rented mule this season, and Demko got virtually no playing time. Now that Markstrom is basically gone down the stretch, it's apparent that Demko isn't ready.

I suppose you can't blame Green, who's basically coaching for his job and Markstrom gave him his best chance to win. He might have gotten away with it if the Canucks had some journeyman goaltender with some NHL experience as a backup who didn't need a lot of games to be ready.

But unfortunately when your backup is a rookie, you're playing with fire....and it seems inevitably that it's going to bite you in the butt.

 

[Ainec]

Canucks won't make the post-season with Demko between the pipes.....a rookie goalie playing behind a shoddy defensive team is a recipe for disaster in the NHL.

If the Canucks do re-sign Markstrom, I'm beginning to think the 'goalie of the future' is Mikey DiPietro in Utica.

They will make it with demko and be fine.

 

[PavelBure10]

Demko has been terrible since being called upon since the Markstrom injury. He is letting in easy goals each game, and looking mentally fragile at times while tending the crease. However I don't entirely fault him. Demko was not getting enough games in this year, Green kept riding his Vezina caliber goaltender instead. While Demko just sat on the bench getting stale. Demko pretty much got thrown to the wolves as of late when Marky surcomed to injury, he wasn't ready for such a heavy workload so soon.
As for Demko's development, I'm not worried about it at all. Markstrom didn't start becoming good until his late twenties. There's still plenty of time for Demko to develop into a very good #1.
... However, I do think Demko would make a very good trade piece at the end of the year. Not that I want Demko to be traded, but I do think he could be a valuable trade chip to get one of the overpriced players off of the roster "Beagle, Sutter, Eriksson, Roussel,". I think Demko could be a very good goaltender in the future, but I want to see Markstrom resigned anyway possible. Markstrom is the lifeline of this Vancouver Canuck team.

 

[lennor]

Hes let in 2 bad goals in 3 road games where the team in front of him has been sluggish and loose to start almost every period. The overall team defence is the issue which was masked by a superhuman Markstrom all season long. They will get better, have some faith and don’t be so results based even though all the points matter right now.

 

[Lupuls Grit]

I was at the game and am as frustrated as everyone else. Demko was not great and certainly not at Markstrom's level. But remember it was not long ago that Markstrom regularly let in soft goals - usually at least one bad one a game. Demko will be fine. He is already - even at this level - a much better back up than most NHL teams have in their system. Ideally, we find a way to keep both goalies for the next 2-3 years though I understand that may not be possible.

 

[Brock Boeser Laser Show]

Demko is athletic enough to be a future #1 but his technique is still really raw which prevents him from being good consistently. I see a lot of bad habits that will have to be coached out of him if he wants to eventually transcend from backup to starter in this league. Thatcher will have to put in a lot of work in the next few seasons to get to where markstrom is now technically.

 

[tyhee]

Markstrom let in a bad goal a game as recently as three seasons ago. ...

That was the media-driven story supported by some frustrated fans, but 3 seasons ago Markstrom, on a bad team, had a 2.63 GAA, .910 save% and according to hockey-reference, -2.11 GSAA. That save % was the same as the league average, GAA just barely worse than league average and GSAA a little below average. By comparison, Ryan Miller in the starting role was only a little better overall statistically with a 2.80 GAA, .914 Sv% and + 0.32 GSAA.

Despite the crap written about him, Markstrom was very close to being an average NHL goalie that season. Unless you consider that the average goalie gives up a "bad" goal every game, there's no way Markstrom was giving up a bad goal every game. The media and many fans understandably frustrated by a poor team and looking for a scapegoat would often choose a goal that it was possible to stop (no matter how difficult) and wrongly call it a bad goal.

 

[DS7]

Demko is fine. He just needs time and he's not being put into a situation where he can succeed easily.

Canucks have become complacent playing this style in front of Markstrom all season and Green leaned heavily on him, so Demko isn't as game ready as he should be had we opted for a more balanced split rather than relying on Markstrom as a workhorse. It would help too if the coaching staff has the team play a system that surrenders less shots.

I have no doubt he'll find his groove as the season goes. The question is, will it be too late by then?

 

[elitepete]

You guys realize how terrible Markstrom was at age 24 right?

 

[VanJack]

Demko is fine. He just needs time and he's not being put into a situation where he can succeed easily.

Canucks have become complacent playing this style in front of Markstrom all season and Green leaned heavily on him, so Demko isn't as game ready as he should be had we opted for a more balanced split rather than relying on Markstrom as a workhorse. It would help too if the coaching staff has the team play a system that surrenders less shots.

I have no doubt he'll find his groove as the season goes. The question is, will it be too late by then?

An excellent point....this is a perfect storm of negative circumstances for Demko.....a rookie goalie being forced to play every night as the playoff intensity ramps up.

He probably isn't any worse a goalie than he was at the start of season, getting every fourth or fifth game behind Markstrom...unfortunately that backup role in no way prepared him for what he's facing now.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

Yeah I’m not too concerned with Demko for this season. Schneider struggled in his first two seasons when he was given the chance to play (much smaller sample size, but similar trajectory leading up to his opportunity to play in the NHL). Although the difference was that management was more patient and sent Schneider back to the AHL when he didn’t look ready.

 

[MarkMM]

his first real taste of nhl action and its when teams start to ramp up play. its similar to playoffs now, then you add in that the canucks are in a playoff spot chase dor the first time in years. thats loads of pressure on him.

then add the toxic fanbase and media in vancouver and it could be the test we need to see if he's the goalie we can count on realistically in the Vancouver environment.

Fixed it for you.

But seriously, I do think highly of Demko and for the most part the blame is on Green for having a chronically poor defence structure and not playing Demko enough to ease him into the NHL while getting us a better understanding of him.

That said, some goalies do grab the prize when offered and this is Demko's chance to give us confidence to spend Markstrom's cap money elsewhere.

 

[StreetHawk]

You guys realize how terrible Markstrom was at age 24 right?

Demko right now isn't afforded the luxury of making mistakes like Markstrom did after Miller left. Need him to perform now unfortunately.

He needs to play better, but I'm not going to write him off. But, the team needs a good run out of him.

 

[RussianRacket]

Getting Cloutier / Luongo playoff vibes from him. So mentally fragile.

We said the same about Markstrom. Now look at him.

Kid is having a bad stretch. Its all part of the NHL experience.