How Thatcher Demko Overcame Pain and Tragedy to Become One of Hockey's Top Goalie Prospects

It's easy to see a goalie on a streak like the one Thatcher Demko went on recently and resort to cliches. He's standing on his head. … The puck's the size of a Frisbee to him. … It's a wonder he ever allows a goal.

Really, though, it's a wonder that the Boston College junior stopped as many shots as he did the past few seasons, considering he'd been playing in persistent pain—which was only exacerbated by the position he plays and his butterfly style—and needed offseason surgery to repair the labrum in each of his hips.

His freshman (16-5-3 record, 2.24 goals-against average, .919 save percentage) and sophomore (19-13-3, 2.19 GAA, .925 save percentage) numbers were good enough for the Vancouver Canucks to select Demko in the second round of the 2014 NHL draft, making him the second goalie picked. For most people, that would be a cause for celebration. But so far in the 2015-16 season, Demko's been playing with a purpose.

While Demko has recently proven to be human, allowing 10 goals over his past three games (a win, a loss and a tie), his overall numbers on the season remain staggering. He has a 13-2-1 record. He ranks fifth among Division I goalies with a 1.62 GAA and is tied for sixth with a .941 save percentage. He had allowed only six goals by the time he recorded his nation-best sixth shutout of the season.

"I've never seen a goalie play at the level he's playing at right now," BC defenceman Steve Santini said.

Demko's doing all this while still trying to recover from the operation. His mother, Danielle, says he's at probably 80 percent of capacity after the April surgery.

"I'm still working my way back, for sure," Demko said. "I'm definitely not 100 percent. It is a four- to six-month recovery until you're cleared to play. And I'm at six months right now. It's a year until you're 100 percent."

Danielle and Brenton Demko knew their son was special when he was 4, and were eager to get him on the ice after seeing the way he moved in roller skates. When they first brought him to the San Diego Ice Arena, he hated it. But soon enough he took off. He rotated through all the different positions on the ice, as you do at that age, but didn't want to do anything else after getting a taste of the net.

"I think when I was little it was about the pads," Demko said with a laugh. "I thought the pads were really cool."

He also liked the leadership aspects of the position. And it didn't hurt that goalies are always on the ice.

When he was 15, living in a billet and playing for the L.A. Junior Kings, Demko got an offer from the Omaha Lancers of the United States Hockey League.

"Thatcher said, 'Mom, Omaha's calling me up. They want me there by Monday,'" Danielle said. "I was like, 'Yeah, we're not doing that.'"

She rattled off a list of reasons he couldn't go, rapid fire. "He waited until I finished and he said 'Mom, this doesn't happen to kids from California. You and Dad have laid a great foundation, you need to let me go.' And I sat there and I thought, 'I've gotta let him go.'"

San Diego to L.A. soon became L.A. to Omaha. A year backing up Alex Lyon (now a junior at Yale) in Omaha led to a year with the United States' national development team program. That meant moving from Omaha to Ann Arbor, Michigan. And his season in Ann Arbor, in which he went 30-9-4 with a .910 save percentage, led to college visits. He was 16.

Longtime BC coach Jerry York wasn't deterred by his age. In fact, when Demko offered to accelerate his final year of high school to enroll early, in time for the 2013-14 season, York welcomed it after some initial surprise.

"He had to do an awful lot of work to finish that diploma in three and a half years," York said. "We thought he was mature enough as a person and coming along as a goaltender that he could do that."

Moving up his enrollment required Demko to complete his senior course load during the summer. Instead of enjoying the San Diego weather, he spent up to eight hours a day, seven days a week, with his eyes glued to his computer screen—even when his family took a trip to Hawaii.

"It was pretty miserable, I'll be honest," he said. "I was on the beach, you know, with my computer, typing papers up, while everyone was playing in the water."

But Demko never wavered.

"That's my kid," Danielle said. "When he was accelerating school and in this pain and dealing with all this stuff that summer, he said, 'If I don't play 15 years in the NHL, I will be so pissed. I'm not doing this for three or four years in the show.'"

They were camp friends.

Separated by geography most of the time, Thatcher Demko and Ian Jenkins were united maybe once a year when they collided at various goalie camps. They exchanged numbers and kept in touch via text message during the year.

An almost universally liked figure for his outsized personality and his adopted mantra, "Have a Purpose," Jenkins was also one of the top goalie prospects in the U.S. and as such was invited to the Warren Strelow National Team Goaltending Camp in 2011. Demko also received an invite.

The pair played and palled around at the camp together in May 2011 before going back to their respective homes the Sunday it ended. For Jenkins, that was Milan, Michigan. That Wednesday, he signed a contract to play for the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League.

The very next day, Jenkins was critically injured when he fell from the back of a truck driven by a friend and struck his head on the pavement. He died four days later at the age of 15.

Demko was greatly affected by Jenkins' death, as were many of the elite hockey prospects he'd made an impression on.

"He was just a young teenager but he had this maturity about him," Demko said of Ian. "Whether he was on the ice, he was up in the weight room, he was reading some sort of goalie-related article, or watching a video trying to get better, he always had a purpose with what he was doing. When he passed away, I tried to embrace that the best that I could."

To honour his fallen friend, Demko has had the initials "HAP" embroidered into his gloves and pads and emblazoned on the back of his helmet. He scrawls "HAP 35"—Ian's number—onto the tape on the knob of his stick.

He has tried to live a life of purpose, because he knows that tomorrow is never guaranteed.

"I think Thatcher being a fellow '95 [birth year] goalie it really hit home with him," Santini said of Ian's death. "It just kinda teaches you not to take anything for granted."

The streak started in the third period of a loss against Rensselaer.

For the next 200-plus minutes, Demko didn't give up a single goal, blanking Wisconsin and then shutting out Colorado College twice. Denver scored three goals in a 4-3 BC win, but then all Demko did was run off another 200-plus minute scoreless streak with shutouts of UMass and then Maine twice.

Before he could do any of that, he had to relearn how to walk. After the hip surgery, he was off his feet for two months. He had to teach himself how to bend his knees again, how to put one foot in front of the other without help. Then he had to worry about getting back into something resembling hockey shape.

"When I did get back on the ice," he said, "my biggest problem was my [lack of] strength in my legs, and just [not] having that stamina. If I did take a couple shots I was gassed, because I hadn't done anything in four months."

Not one to waste time, Demko read books and watched video while he was bedridden.

"I did a bunch of little things that kind of gave me some tools in the toolbox to help myself with the mental aspect of the game," he said. "Because I do feel like that's a part that I need to get better at if I'm going to be going to the next level."

Though there doesn't seem to be much doubt that Demko is ticketed for the next level, according to those close to him that "if" is just who he is.

"He's playing very, very well," York said. "But what I like about Thatcher is he's very humble. He understands that the better the defense plays in front of him, the more chance he has to control the game. It's a great attribute for a goaltender to have, because it makes a team want to play for him even harder."

Demko says his mobility is better, he's more flexible and he's as good mentally as he's ever been. And the memory of his friend, gone too soon, is always close.

"When you're growing up, you want to get better at things so you go to practice and do the extra things," he said. "But there's a lot of times when people get caught in this routine of just going through the motions, and they kind of lose sight of what they're going for.

"It's just a constant reminder of what you're trying to accomplish, what needs to be done in order for you to accomplish that. It keeps you focused, it keeps you motivated. It just keeps you going."

Pushing forward with purpose, ready for whatever might come.

All photos by John Quackenbos/Boston College