Canucks: Where's Thatcher Demko? And other questions ahead of training camp

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With one week until training camp opens, there are more than a handful of questions to consider about the Vancouver Canucks.

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Here are the five biggest:

Will Thatcher Demko play?

No. 1, with a bullet, is the health status of the Canucks’ top netminder.

All we know is Demko finished last season on the shelf with a knee injury. He was close to making it back to play in the playoffs, but in the end he wasn’t quite ready to play in what proved to be the Canucks’ last game of the season, a 3-2 Game 7 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.

Since then, it is not clear exactly what has happened — has he had some kind of procedure on his knee? — but all reports say he won’t be a full participant, if he’s a participant at all, at next week’s training camp in Penticton.

And if he’s not ready for training camp, what is his timeline for a return? Will he still be ready for the season opener on Oct. 9?

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Will the Canucks bring in another goalie?

Question No. 2 is obviously prompted by question No. 1. If Demko isn’t available for pre-season practices, the Canucks do have enough goalies to cover things off — but they’ve been poking around the idea of bringing a netminder in on a professional try-out (better known as a PTO).

We know they have approached veteran free agent goalie Kevin Lankinen about the idea, but it’s very clear the goalie is more interested in a full contract offer.

There was a suggestion last week that perhaps Antti Raanta was an option, but it’s not clear any deal has actually been made between team and player.

There are still a handful of other goalies out there who might be PTO options.

The bigger question will be what happens if Demko isn’t ready to start the regular season. It’s very clear the Canucks are not inclined to add another contract — president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford told Postmedia last week that the team doesn’t want to go into long-term injured reserve, so adding a contract would be hard — but are they ready to start the year with Arturs Silovs and Jiri Patera as their goalie tandem?

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Who will play on Elias Pettersson’s other wing

Question three is a much more fun one? It’s very clear that Jake DeBrusk will be get a long look as one of Elias Pettersson’s wingers, but who will line up on the other flank?

There’s good reason to think Daniel Sprong could be the guy. His offensive instincts and speed are well-suited to how Pettersson wants to play the game. One of his frustrations last season was the inability of his wingers, especially Ilya Mikheyev, to finish glorious chances. (Is there a more definitive example of Mikheyev’s struggles to finish that his miss early in Game 7 vs. Edmonton? He deked out Stuart Skinner but lost the handle on the puck.)

A goal there probably would have changed the game.

If it’s not Sprong — who does have defensive deficiencies in his game — who would be next? Might Danton Heinen, who looks like a possible fit for J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser, land with Pettersson instead?

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And what about Nils Hoglander, who had a long run with Pettersson last season and found great success there, but who also faded in the playoffs as the checking got heavy?

Can the the Hughes-Hronek pairing really get split up?

After Filip Hronek signed his massive contract extension in the summer, Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin mused that perhaps the team will find a way to split up the Hronek-Quinn Hughes pairing.

Hronek’s puck-moving talents are obvious and the Canucks want to keep playing a strong puck-possession focused game. If Hronek were to play away from Hughes, that would add to their puck-moving prowess in the aggregate.

But that pairing was so dominant, it’s hard to ignore. When they played together last season, and that was most of the time, the Canucks dominated possession.

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Also, if you move Hronek to another pair, who plays with Hughes? There are few obvious alternative candidates on the Canucks’ roster: could Tyler Myers or Vinnie Desharnais really handle the tough opposition Hughes inevitably lines up against?

Can Rick Tocchet tweak his system up to re-energize the offence?

The Canucks struggled to create offence in the playoffs. They are a strong defensive team under head coach Rick Tocchet, but the veteran bench boss admitted after the season he probably needs to help his players find more opportunities to create offence.

Early in the year, the Canucks scored goals by the bucketful. Some of that was just good luck. But there’s clearly finishing talent there.

For Tocchet and his staff, this season will be about building a system that creates consistent scoring opportunities.

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pjohnston@postmedia.com

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