Insider confirms Thatcher Demko has inoperable injury.

The Vancouver Canucks may have pushed their goaltender too hard in the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs and it could come back to haunt them in the long run.

Recently National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman revealed that the Canucks star netminder is currently dealing with a lingering injury from that playoff run, one that he will be unable to repair via surgery and will instead have to deal with moving forward.

"The best piece of information I've been given is quite simply, he's going to have to learn to play with this," revealed Friedman on the 32 Thoughts podcast. "It's not something that can be fixed with surgery but it's something that he's going to have to learn to play through and can play through."

Additionally it sounds like there is some uncertainty about whether or not Demko will be ready to start the season, but that being said Friedman indicated he doesn't expect this to keep him out for a significant portion of the season.

"Right now I don't know that he's gonna be ready for the start of the season," admitted Friedman. "What I don't get the sense is that the Canucks are worried that he's gonna be out half the year."

Making this situation worse is the fact that it may have stemmed from Demko being rushed back from injury too early.

"I believe that the Canucks told Demko last year before the playoffs 'We need to know that we can count on you in the postseason, we don't want uncertainty, and you have to play 2 games before the playoffs before we commit to you to start the postseason,'" revealed Friedman.

"What it did is it forced Demko to rush to get back and I'm just not convinced that he was ever 100% healthy," revealed Friedman. "Demko comes back, wins the one game, and then he gets hurt."

This could be one decision that comes back to haunt the Canucks for quite some time.