Nikolaj Ehlers to Miss 'Months' With Sports Hernia

Sometimes, the bad news just keeps coming. For the Winnipeg Jets, the injury front continues to deliver suboptimal reports. On Saturday, head coach Rick Bowness announced that winger Nikolaj Ehlers would be out indefinitely as he recovers from a surgical procedure related to an ongoing sports hernia injury. "He will have a sports hernia surgery next week," Jets head coach Rick Bowness said on Saturday morning. "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." Although his timeframe to return is unknown, Ehlers will certainly be out for months as surgeons look to repair damage to his lower-body later this week. Having missed the past 13 games, Ehlers attempted to get back out on the ice on Wednesday, but Bowness' report following his absence on Thursday indicated something had gone awry. "He felt something," his coach added. "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." Sadly, the option of dodging surgery was no longer on the table and Ehlers is now set to go under the knife after skating in just two games (to which he collected three assists). "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," Bowness said. "There comes a point where, 'OK, there's something a little more than we can find right now.' So it came to this." For now, Ehlers will remain on the injured reserve, alongside his former replacement Mason Appleton - who is out eight-to-twelve weeks with a wrist injury - and fellow winger Morgan Barron (out until mid-December with a wrist problem). The team will look to continue rolling with a conglomeration of fill-in talent in both the top and bottom-six forward groupings. "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." The Jets are expected to lineup as follows: Connor - Scheifele - Gagner Perfetti - Dubois - Wheeler Jonsson-Fjallby - Lowry - Mäenalanen Toninato - Gustafsson - Eyssimont Morrissey - Pionk Dillon - Schmidt Samberg - Capobianco Hellebuyck