Tyler Johnson will be out three months after getting neck surgery, the same surgery that Las Vegas Knights star Jack Eichel recently had. Johnson’s injury occurred on October 29th.
Johnson was traded to Chicago in the offseason from Tampa. Johnson didn’t get off to a great start in Chicago before he got hurt. Johnson played eight games and was a minus-6 during those games. He also struggled to produce on offense, with one goal and two assists. This was before King had taken over as interim head coach. King has this team operating at an entirely different level now. Johnson did show some bright spots. His ability on the power play has been missed, evident by the lack of luster play over the last month. Johnson, Kane, and DeBrincat were placed on a line early, and it never changed because they had chemistry and a lot of speed up and down the ice. Johnson’s speed is something that the Blackhawks are lacking. I wish Tyler Johnson a speedy recovery on his artificial disk replacement. If this timetable is correct, he should be back just in time for the last month, maybe two months of the season. But with Johnson and Eichel being the only hockey players to have this surgery done, many unknowns could come with it. But if all goes well, Chicago could find themselves in a battle for a playoff spot at that time, and a guy like Johnson would be a considerable boost.
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