Blackhawks’ Tyler Johnson out 3 months after undergoing Jack Eichel’s disc surgeryBen Popeon December 3, 2021 at 9:42 pm

Blackhawks forward Tyler Johnson will be out for three months. | AP Photos

After a month of uncertainty about his timeline, Johnson on Friday became the second NHL player — behind Eichel — to ever receive an artificial disc replacement.

NEW YORK — Jack Eichel has opened the floodgates on artificial disc replacement surgery in the NHL.

Eichel, now of the Golden Knights, was was finally allowed on Nov. 20 — after months of public drama, culminating in his long-awaited trade from the Sabres — to become the first NHL player ever to undergo that type of operation.

And on Friday, Blackhawks forward Tyler Johnson became the second NHL player to do so. He’s expected to miss roughly three months, putting his estimated return date in early March.

“It’s hard on him,” interim coach Derek King said. “[He was] coming here as a new player, [looking for a] fresh start, and this happens. I feel for him. Obviously we’d love to have him on the team and in the lineup, he would help us. But he’s got to do what’s best for Tyler, and we’ll back him up on the decision he makes.”

Traditionally, NHL players with herniated discs in their necks have received an anterior cervical discectomy with fusion (ACDF), which require six-plus month recovery times and often require follow-up surgeries later in life.

The ADR carries a shorter recovery time and is more likely to fix the issue permanently.

But the fact an ADR had never happened in the NHL before — making its eventual impact on player performance a bit less certain than for ACDF — prompted the Sabres to infamously prevent Eichel from making his choice about his own body. That sparked one of the biggest medical controversies in league history.

The Hawks easily avoided a similar saga by letting Johnson do as he wished.

The surgery, which TSN’s Darren Dreger reported happened in Los Angeles after a week of consultation, ends more than a month of uncertainty about Johnson’s health timeline. He left the Hawks’ Oct. 29 loss to the Hurricanes with an injury and had not played since.

From Nov. 3 to Nov. 10, Johnson was also in COVID-19 protocol. On Nov. 11, King said he was “ready to get going” and the Hawks just needed to “get him up and running.” But the updates turned more negative after that. On Nov. 17, the Hawks placed him on long-term injured reserve. Then on Nov. 25, he participated in part of practice for the first time since the injury, but hadn’t been seen since.

The Hawks’ team physician, Dr. Michael Terry, said in a Friday statement they turned to surgery “after trying to manage his neck pain conservatively for the past couple of weeks,” and King later provided more clarity.

“They tried different procedures, [they] wasn’t getting what they wanted out of them, so this was the next step,” King said. “It’s major, but he’ll be fine and he’ll just work his way back. And who knows? Sometimes you recover quicker than you think. But he’s got a lot of hockey left in him.”

Johnson, 31, was initially slotted as the first-line center and on the first power-play unit during training camp, a surprise after the Lightning essentially dumped him to the Hawks for Brent Seabrook in an offseason salary cap maneuver.

He didn’t live up to expectations early on and slid down the depth chart, finishing October with three points in eight games. Still, his absence has been felt by a Hawks team that has direly lacked depth scoring.

“He was really good in that middle spot on the power play, and also just adds a lot of speed and energy to our lineup,” Patrick Kane said. “That’s tough to hear. Hopefully he’ll get better soon and be able to come back better than ever.”

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