Player Discussion Thatcher Demko
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Looking more like damaged goods at this point, which is super worrisome.
If your defense is lacking you need a superstar goalie to cover them... if your goalie is lacking you need a complete defense... we have neither...
At this point I'm dangling Lekk or Willander for a legit starter.
If your defense is lacking you need a superstar goalie to cover them... if your goalie is lacking you need a complete defense... we have neither...
At this point I'm dangling Lekk or Willander for a legit starter.
There's no way I'd ever give up one of your top prospects for a goalie. Canucks proved last year they could win games with DeSmith and Silovs between the pipes.
Are they as good as they are with Demko when he's fully healthy? Probably not. But anyone they bring in as a journeyman NHL goalie wouldn't be much of an upgrade on Silovs or maybe Tolopilo.
mossey3535
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- Feb 7, 2011
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With Woodley it depends. He talks a lot with Clark and has the closest ties with Vancouver so when RVH comes up in that context he doesn't usually say too much. When he interviews guys who are with coaches who are less into the RVH (I think it was Robbie Tallas who calls each RVH "taking another dollar out of the bank") he talks up that strategy more. Basically he's very diplomatic about it. Sometimes he'll throw out a question like "what do you say to all those people who say RVH is a liability?" to give them a chance to defend their stance. IMO he tries to be neutral.
What he said most recently about Demko is that he had faith that Demko's off-ice training has changed in response to the injuries and is going more towards what Bob did when he changed his off-season conditioning philosophy. Recall Bob was injured more in those days and after the changed he has improved and recently has been healthy enough for two deep cup runs with 50+ starts and around 20 playoff games on top of that.
My opinion is that the trackdown can be deployed a lot more intelligently which would reduce his in-game load. And they need to cut down his practice reps with down movement and post integration which should lower his off-ice load.
There are a lot of techniques and modifications on RVH that can be done to cut down wear and tear but I can understand why RVH is over-used. It's basically something you can deploy semi-blindly and it puts the odds on your side in many hockey game situations. However, that is an assessment that is changing as forwards learn to exploit it. And these other methods have their pros and cons. There's no magic bullet.
He has changed his workouts to more functional movement stuff but IMO this is a very common trend amongst the professional goalie community and has been going on for awhile. Thing is, I think he changed in summer 2021 but basically has been hurt since then so it's possible his off-season is composed of more injury recovery than conditioning with new FRC/FRS or whatever they call it.
A great rising tool is SenseArena which is VR training with actual footage of NHL and WJC players shooting on you. I use this and it is absolutely amazing. It helps you maintain your tracking without the wear and tear on your body every time you go on the ice. I think this kind of out of the box approach needs to be employed aggressively with him to prolong his career.
Killer Orcas
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What's the price on Askarov these days? Goalies never get what people expect and he's asked out already.
The off season story waiting to become much more than it is because of the lack of off season stories. Maybe lets slow the tidal wave of guessing and imagination until we get more information than "I heard"?
Raistlin
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- Aug 25, 2006
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Thanks for the insight. Indeed with all the hip and knee related injuries he's had recently, you'll have to attribute at least some of that to RVH. Changing his off season training to mitigate the wear and tear around those areas is the first step, more out of box techniques to prolong his career is why we have Clark under Vancouver's employ. This news is troubling however way you cut it though, Demko is as important to Vancouver's cup chance as Hughes. Let's hope load management, combined with Silovs/Patera/Tolopilo can keep the team in the home ice conversation this year.
Hansen
tyler motte simp
This might be the time to take a big run and lock up G for the future.
I believe the injury is to the knee if reports are true. Not sure other injuries were to the knee. Thought it was the hip (maybe wrong) and the surgery was, I believe, for the hip. If it is a different injury than before then you can have a lot more hope. However, if it is a persistent injury to the same body part, then that spells big trouble ala Schneider.
Wonder if anyone has more knowledge about this.
Wonder if anyone has more knowledge about this.
its time to cut ties with demko. he not gonna be healthy when vancouver needs him the most. so what if he plays 65/70 games a year. hes bound to get injured in at least a few games. silovs/patera as your starters? hell no.. time to find a legitimate number 1 guy who is reliable and wont break down as much. this feels like corey schiender 2.0 again.. look at his career was never quite the same in new jersey and went to tthe islanders and eventually retired.
The trouble with goalies, is that they're like Forest Gump's proverbial box of chocolates. There's no guarantee the guy you overpay for will be any better than the guys the Canucks already have.
I think you start the season with Silovs, if Demko's not ready. And then maybe sign a veteran backup on the cheap. Trouble is, the Canucks really don't have the cap space to add another goaltender they might only need for a month or so.
TruGr1t
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sting101
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Killer Orcas
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Makes sense but I'll be honest Demko though great doesn't seem like will be very healthy moving forward. Hip injury to anyone sucks to a goalie it's murder. Hopefully I'm wrong and he turns a corner health wise though.
wonder if there's a team that's desperate for another level of success that has been floundering in part or fully due to shit goaltending - toronto, carolina, detroit, buffalo, all come to mind - that would still pay a premium for demko and would prefer him for the short-run, happily risking that he may not hold up for an extension, over a guy like askarov.
and then on the opposite note, wonder if the canucks see that as a window extending move at the expense of making a run this year or next, but while de-risking the chances that the starting goalie just isn't available when it matters.
and then on the opposite note, wonder if the canucks see that as a window extending move at the expense of making a run this year or next, but while de-risking the chances that the starting goalie just isn't available when it matters.
credulous
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- Nov 18, 2021
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the window to trade demko is long passed. he's just too damaged now to return enough value to outweigh the value he brings if he can stay healthy for a playoff run
if the canucks had a clear cut replacement for him it'd maybe be different but silovs has a long way to go to prove he's that
theguardianII
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- Jan 30, 2020
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I keep saying it is hips. A common issue after his types of surgeries. When he left the last game they said "Knee, knee, knee" but which one? Did he limp? Favour one leg? He did step over the bench easily with pads on without leaning on anything.
IMO this indicates a hip joint. Getting a hip joint "cleaned out" has a recovery time of about 8 weeks, Demko's expected recovery time.
Also, our window is effectively right now, so with any replacement you would need to be reasonably confident that he would immediately step into the number one goal position and be an average to above average number one goalie.
Yes, I just don’t see us trading Demko until after this season’s run. After that, I could see a desperate team close to winning, or a team that’s a decent fit, taking the gamble. His elite skillset is polarizing. A team like LA, close to home for Demko, desperate for any semblance of goaltending, could be very interesting. But for this year, he’s staying for a run and we’re just going to have to roll the dice on his knees
credulous
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right, what are you going to get for him? a 2nd and a b or c prospect? how does that help more than just babying him through the season and hoping he can stay healthy for the playoffs
TruGr1t
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They will almost certainly not trade Demko at this point in the cycle. Sucks for Thatcher, though, as he has a contract coming up where he could have made the bag.
Actually, I think they could afford a relatively cheap, veteran goalie as an insurance policy. That is, if I'm interpreting PuckPedia correctly.
According to PP, the Canucks' have roughly $200k in cap space with a 23 player roster at the moment: 14 F, 7 D and 2 G. However, that includes Poolman's cap hit. They could send down a forward (Aman or DiGiuseppe), bring up a depth defenseman (Friedman, Wolanin, or Brisebois) and then use Poolman's LTIR to squeeze a decent veteran goalie under the cap.
It could work, although it might hamper the Canucks' ability to make a deadline deal to bolster their roster for the playoffs.
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