Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers to have sports hernia surgery

WINNIPEG -Saturday brought the news that Nikolaj Ehlers and the Winnipeg Jets were hoping they wouldn't have to hear.
"He will have a sports hernia surgery next week," Jets head coach Rick Bowness announced. "We won't know the length of time he will be out until they get in there and see what they're dealing with. Those details, they will be finalized a little later."
The 26-year-old hasn't played since the second game of the season against the Dallas Stars due to a lower-body injury. The Jets tried to rest it to see if the injury, which forced Ehlers to remove himself from morning skate in Colorado on October 19, and were encouraged when there was some progress about 7-10 days later.
"It was slower progress, no question, but we didn't push it and we gave it a little extra time, hoping to try and avoid this," said Bowness. "There comes a point where, 'OK, there's something a little more than we can find right now.' So it came to this."

Ehlers skated on his own for nearly 30 minutes at the Jets practice facility, hockey for all centre, on Wednesday morning. It was after that session that things changed.
"He felt something," said Bowness. "And so we were trying to get him to the point where when he went out he didn't feel anything. We couldn't get him to that point, so that brings us to that decision."
If there is good news, it's that Bowness expects Ehlers to return at some point this season. The timeline just depends on how the forward recovers from the procedure.
Ehlers joins a growing list of players on the Jets injured reserve list.
Earlier this week, Mason Appleton had wrist surgery and will miss the next 8-12 weeks. Morgan Barron also had wrist surgery on November 4, and is expected to miss 4-5 weeks. Additionally, Logan Stanley also remains on injured reserve with a fractured foot and hasn't played since October 24.
Three of those players - Ehlers, Appleton, and Barron - were in the Jets top nine forwards at the time of their injuries.
"Sometimes when that happens, you're putting a guy in a role that normally wouldn't be in," Bowness said. "Give our forwards a lot of credit because of all the guys we've asked to adjust their roles, their minutes and even the guys that they're playing with normally, they've all done a good job."
At 10-4-1, the Jets are off to their best start in franchise history, but are now in the midst of playing 23 games in 45 days to close out the 2022 portion of their schedule.
Losing a six-time 20-plus goal scorer like Ehlers will certainly have an impact up offensively, and the loss of Appleton and Barron - two stellar penalty killers and 200-foot players - will certainly test the Jets' forward depth during that stretch.
"We've tightened it up defensively. And that's going to keep us in the games," Bowness said. "The guys that have stepped up and played those roles have done an exceptional job. We need that."