The NHL playoffs recently came to an end with the Las Vegas Knights lifting the Stanley Cup Trophy, but one of the main reasons their championship run was possible was because of a neck surgery saga that led one of the best players in the league to Vegas.
Few people have entered the NHL with more hype than Jack Eichel. After becoming just the second freshman to win the Hobey Baker award, which is given to the nation’s best college hockey player, Eichel was drafted second overall by the Buffalo Sabres. Despite scoring 137 goals in his first five seasons and being named team captain at the age of 21, the Sabres continued to struggle, extending the league’s longest playoff drought.
Also during this time, Eichel began to notice some mild discomfort in his neck, and while it didn’t seem like a major issue in the moment, it became serious in March of 2021 when he hit his head against the boards. The hit led to a herniation of a disk in his neck, and the team recommended that he take a conservative approach to repair. Conservative care typically works wonders for patients, but very few patients are attempting to become healthy enough to play hockey at the highest level in the world. When his disc pain worsened, both Eichel and the team believed that surgery was the right move.
However, here’s where the events that led Eichel to Vegas were set in motion. The team wanted Eichel to undergo the standard Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF) procedure. This was the typical procedure for hockey players who had needed a surgical correction on a cervical disc in the past. As we’ve talked about on the blog, ACDF can provide great results, but because it involves fusing adjacent vertebrae together, neck mobility is compromised. Fearing that this loss in neck mobility would also affect other areas of Eichel’s spine and lower body, which could physically limit the skills that made Eichel great, his personal medical team wasn’t so keen on the ACDF procedure. Eichel also talked to some NHL players who had undergone the ACDF procedure, and many lamented about the post-op rigidity of their spine.
Pursuing ADR
This led Eichel to decide that Artificial Disc Replacement (ADR) was the right move for him. ADR retains mobility in the spine by inserting an artificial disc into the spinal column to mimic the movements of a healthy disc, but it had never been performed on an NHL player. ACDF had been proven to be a safe option for players, and while doctors believed that ADR would leave Eichel’s spine healthy enough to play professional hockey, nobody knew for sure. Eichel wanted to pursue ADR, but the team preferred the known of ACDF.
Interestingly, the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement stated that teams have final say over a player’s medical treatment, which had never really been an issue until the Eichel situation. Eichel fought to get ADR, but the team wouldn’t budge on their preferred route of ACDF. Since Eichel did not pursue the surgery, he failed his team physical and was stripped of his captaincy prior to the 2021-22 season. If the team wasn’t going to let him pursue the operation that he believed was best, he decided that he needed to find a new team willing to let him have a say in his medical care. He requested a trade, and in November of 2021, it was Las Vegas that fittingly took a gamble on Eichel and allowed him to pursue ADF.
Just five days after the procedure, Eichel was back skating on the ice without a neck brace. He continued to put in the work during his rehabilitation, and in February 2022, just three months after undergoing ADR, Eichel made his debut for the Knights. The Knights missed the playoffs that season, something Eichel had grown accustomed to, but this season, Eichel helped the Knights to the best record in the Western Conference. The team kept defending home ice all the way to the finals, where they eventually hoisted the Stanley Cup trophy after a 9-3 thumping of the Florida Panthers in Game 5. Eichel led all players in the playoffs with 17 assists, helping to give back to a team that had taken a chance on him.
Eichel may have been the first professional hockey player to undergo ADR, but odds are he won’t be the last. His route could soon become the standard for future players who are plagued by a similar disc issue in their neck, as he’s seen nothing but success. It’s a wonderful story about pursuing the right medical treatment for you and finding a care team who is willing to help you achieve your goals. If you ever find yourself needing care for your neck or spine, we hope that we can be the team you trust. Give Dr. Jackman and the team at The Midwest Spine & Brain Institute a call today at (651) 430-3800.
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