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Vancouver Canucks fans can breathe another sigh of relief.
A week after forward Dakota Joshua returned to game action after missing more than a month with a hand injury — and nearly a month since Carson Soucy returned from the injured reserve list — the Canucks’ No. 1 goalie, Thatcher Demko, has been spotted back on the ice.
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Demko hit the ice near the end of Tuesday’s morning skate in Las Vegas, Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy reported on X midday Tuesday.
The goalie was injured last month — suspected by many to be a minor knee sprain — and has been on the long-term injured reserve list.
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But over the weekend, head coach Rick Tocchet said Demko was making good progress and was expected to be back on the ice soon.
So Demko suiting up adjacent to his mates is not a big surprise — especially after he was pictured as part of the Canucks’ travelling party in a social media post shared Monday by the team’s official accounts.
Because he’s on long-term injured reserve — a move made last week to create cap space to activate Joshua and recall Arshdeep Bains — Demko has to sit out 24 days and 10 games. He’ll pass both those barriers this week and will be eligible to return to game action as soon as Saturday, though most reports have speculated he wouldn’t play until sometime next week.
After Tuesday night’s game at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the Canucks have seven games remaining in the regular season, with the finale on April 18 in Winnipeg, two days before the Stanley Cup playoffs are set to begin.
The date of the Canucks’ first playoff game is not yet known. It could on April 20, though that would be a tight turnaround after returning from Winnipeg just the day before.
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