Thatcher Demko Went Looking for Coaches, and Found His Game
From cross-country coaching stops to goals taped on the bathroom mirror, Demko's development playbook, from InGoal's 2026 Coaches & Camps Guide
- Demko compensated for having no full-time goalie coach in San Diego by seeking out different coaches at every hockey destination he and his father traveled to.
- Collecting multiple perspectives from different coaches — rather than committing to one voice — helped Demko build a more complete, well-rounded game.
- Demko kept a notebook throughout his development, writing down lessons from each coach; years later, he found that the goals recorded in those notebooks had been achieved on the timelines he set.
- The multi-coach mindset applies beyond summer camps — Demko sees tryouts, training camps, and new teams as additional opportunities to absorb new ideas.
- Demko supplemented his coaching gaps with YouTube-era self-coaching and a daily goal-reminder system — including goals taped to his bathroom mirror.
Growing up a goalie in San Diego meant Thatcher Demko traveled for hockey constantly, and every time he hit the road, his dad found a new goalie coach at the destination.
Toronto, Michigan, all over North America: new voices, new perspectives, and a notebook to catch all of it.
In InGoal’s “Why Thatcher Demko Went Looking for Coaches — and Found His Game” feature from the 2026 Coaches & Camps Guide, the Vancouver Canucks standout explains how curiosity and structure took a kid with no full-time goalie coach to the top of the position. It’s a valuable lesson and one that is not limited to summer sessions, with Demko finding new voices, ideas and inspirations throughout those seasons in California, and a mindset in doing so that applies to opportunities to work with new goalies coaches in tryouts, training camps and on new teams.
You have to be willing to open up your mind to different types of perspectives and interpretations of the game. Because everyone knows there's not one right way to play the game, so if you can pull two things from this guy that you saw in Toronto, and then pull two things from the guy that you saw when you went to go try out for Shattuck, you're going to eventually create a more rounded goaltender.
Hear it in his own words, from InGoal Radio Episode 3.
Another Notebook Story
Like Brandon Bussi’s dad elsewhere in this guide, Demko’s development ran through a notebook. One coach remembers a young Demko “just scribbling, writing things down” and wondering what the kid was doing. Years later, Demko looked back and realized the goals in those notebooks had come true, on the timelines he wrote for them.
The full story has the origin of the notebook habit, the YouTube-era self-coaching that came before it, and the daily-reminder system, goals taped to the bathroom mirror, that kept him honest. We won’t spoil the details.
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Born Dec 8, 1995 · San Diego, California, United States — Drafted 2014 · Rd 2, #6 overall
| SEASON | GP | W | GAA | SV% | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | 51 | 35 | 2.45 | .918 | 5 |
| 2024-25 | 23 | 10 | 2.90 | .889 | 1 |
| 2025-26 | 20 | 8 | 2.90 | .897 | 1 |
| CAREER | 262 | 134 | 2.81 | .909 | 10 |