PHILADELPHIA - A year after trading away Cory Schneider and three months after trading away Roberto Luongo, the Vancouver Canucks replenished their goaltending depth by selecting Thatcher Demko with the 36th pick in the draft.
Demko, a cool customer in net at Boston College and behind a microphone, wasn't worried about the kind of pressure goaltenders are under in Vancouver.
"I'll thrive on it," he said with a big smile.
Ranked first among North American goalies by NHL Central Scouting, the San Diego native is a candidate to be the U.S. starter at this year's world junior championship in Montreal and Toronto.
Rather than use the 50th pick they acquired from the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday for defenceman Jason Garrison, the Canucks sent it to Los Angeles for winger Linden Vey. The highly-touted Kings prospect has five assists in just 18 games of NHL action and was stuck behind other young forwards like Tanner Pearson and Tyler Toffoli, who played roles in the most-recent Stanley Cup run.
With the 66th pick, Vancouver took six-foot-six Russian defenceman Nikita Tryamkin.
