Vancouver Canucks place Thatcher Demko on LTIR, call up Arshdeep Bains from Abbotsford

All this move means is that the Canucks have deemed Demko won’t be ready to return until at least April 6th. He’ll be eligible to come off of LTIR at any point after that. The Canucks have been without Demko since he departed during the second period of their 5-0 win over the Winnipeg Jets on March 9th.

Demko’s injury is believed to be a knee injury, and was originally expected to keep him out for 2-4 weeks.

If a player is considered to have a long-term injury (causing them to miss a minimum of 10 games and 24 days), they can be placed on the Long-Term Injury Reserve (LTIR), which can be used to receive cap relief. By placing Demko on LTIR, the Canucks gain his $5 million cap hit in cap relief, which allows them some added flexibility while their star goaltender recovers from an injury.

All this suggests that the Canucks are now confident that Demko won’t be ready to return any sooner than April 6th. There’s no indication yet on how much later than that date Demko could be out, but when the injury originally occurred, Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet seemed nearly certain that Demko would be back in time for game one of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The playoffs are set to begin on April 20th, and obviously the Canucks would like to Demko to get into some game action before heading into the gauntlet that is the NHL postseason.

As for Bains, this will mark his second stint with the big club this season. The Canucks called Bains up for a five-game audition last month. Bains didn’t necessarily look out of place, but he didn’t do enough to make the Canucks keep him up with the big club after he went pointless through those five games. It will be interesting to see if Bains gets into any game action as the Canucks continue their march to the playoffs.