Chicago Blackhawks forward Tyler Johnson faced the same choice former No. 2 draft pick Jack Eichel did about fixing a herniated disc: Elect to undergo spinal fusion surgery or have artificial disc replacement (ADR).

It became such a point of contention between Eichel and the Buffalo Sabres that the Sabres traded him to the Vegas Golden Knights on Nov. 4.

The Sabres preferred fusion surgery; no NHL player had undergone ADR before. Eichel insisted on ADR, which he had performed a week after the trade with the Golden Knights’ approval.

Johnson chose ADR, too, and all he needed to know he made the right decision was to sleep on it.

“With the disc, they say that normally you feel how you were before, but to be honest, I feel better,” Johnson said Sunday before the Hawks’ 6-3 loss in his first game against his old team, the Tampa Bay Lightning. “I haven’t been able to sleep on my stomach in probably four years because of this, and now I’m able to do that, so that’s pretty cool.

“It’s honestly crazy. I don’t wake up in the morning with a stiff neck anymore, so I’m pretty happy about it.”

“With the disc they say normally you feel how you were before, but honestly I feel better. I hadn’t been able to sleep on my stomach in four years because of this, now I’m able to do that, so that’s pretty cool.” —Tyler Johnson on artificial disc replacement vs. fusion surgery pic.twitter.com/3mNKzoaY3i

Johnson said the Hawks supported his choice.

“The organization as a whole was unbelievable,” he said. “They said right away, just do whatever I felt like was in my best interest.

“I spoke to a lot of doctors. The majority of them thought it was a great procedure. I’m very thankful that we did all our due diligence. Jack Eichel helped out a lot, doing a lot of that for me as well.

“Rehab, everything (has) just gone so smoothly. I’m very, very fortunate for that.”

Make no mistake, it wasn’t a no-brainer for Johnson.

Fusion surgery has a longer track record than ADR. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration first approved spinal disc arthroplasty in the lumbar spine in 2004, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

In fact, Johnson said the first doctor he consulted him steered him to fusion; ADR was “the last resort type of thing.”

“But as I started to ask more and more doctors about it, got more and more information on it — had some friends luckily in Florida that are spine surgeons and I was able to talk to them about it — that led me a lot more to the ADR,” he said.

He said Eichel’s research on the topic helped him too.

“He spent roughly a year learning about it,” Johnson said. “It made me feel a little bit better in that sense.”

Blackhawks center Tyler Johnson (90) and Maple Leafs defenseman T.J. Brodie (78) chase the puck Oct. 27, 2021, at the United Center. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

There were other considerations for Johnson.

“It’s something you have to live with for the rest of your life,” he said of fusion surgery. “The road to the recovery after that’s a lot harder. I would have been done all this year for sure, likely a lot into the summer as well. And then who knows what I would have felt like next year?

“Being as young as I am (31), you’re (also) looking at another fusion, or even two fusions (later in life). That was something that stuck with me, that I didn’t want to keep having that problem.”

Johnson also noted that even if he chose ADR, he could opt for fusion later on, but fusion would’ve been a permanent choice. It also would’ve affected his flexibility.

“There’s definitely mobility limitations. You don’t feel the same,” he said. “You lose, I want to say, between 3 and 5 degrees as far as your rotation.”

Before Sunday’s game against the Lightning, Johnson received his 2021 Stanley Cup ring and celebrated with former teammates.

His start to the game was a bit rough: He turned over the puck in his own zone — it amounted to a centering pass to former teammate Nikita Kucherov — but goalie Marc-André Fleury averted disaster.

Dylan Strome opened the scoring in the first period with his third goal in back-to-back games. But the Lightning opened the floodgates in the third period — and set a couple of records in the process.

Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat assisted on Strome’s goal, and Kane followed up Lightning winger Taylor Raddysh’s second-period goal with one of his own.

But Victor Hedman and Cal Foote scored a minute and a half apart to give the Lightning their first lead at 3-2 to finish the period.

Bad went to worse in the third when the Lightning scored three goals in 32 seconds — beating a team record by 10 seconds that they set on March 11, 2008, against the New York Islanders.

It also made Hawks history: The previous mark for quickest three goals allowed was 36 seconds by the Islanders on March 25, 2003.

“It started snowballing,” defenseman Riley Stillman said. “We’ve got to do a better job of parking things once they’re over. Once one goes in or two goes in, you’ve got to find a way to regroup and come back and do your best to get the next one for the team.”

Johnson had dealt with neck problems long enough. He said he first injured his neck after getting hit during the 2017 or 2018 preseason.

If he had considered surgery back then, he said, it would’ve been fusion, but he and the Lightning didn’t choose that route.

“It was a lot of trying to rehab,” he said. “At the time, we thought we could take care of it.”

But it never completely felt right.

This season, Johnson sustained a hit during an Oct. 29 game against the Carolina Hurricanes that shelved him for four months.

“I had numbness and tingling in my arm for about a month without it going away, so it felt like I needed to do something for it,” he said. “My surgeon, Dr. (Robert) Bray, did an unbelievable job, and when he went in, he said it was way worse than they even thought it was.

“It was not going to be able to come back on its own. We had to do something.”

He had surgery on Dec. 3. During his recovery, Johnson said, Eichel “was unbelievable in the whole process, even post-op explaining to me what he was doing recovery-wise. ... It was nice having somebody else that was going through it at the same time as me to be able to lean on and say, ‘Hey, did you have this? Or did you feel this? Or what can you/can’t you do?’”

But missing the game was difficult, especially with the Hawks struggling without him.

“Spending that much time away from the game is tough mentally, trying to get back into it as far as decision-making and things like that,” Johnson said. “I’ve never spent that much time away from the ice. … It’s the longest I’ve ever been off.”

Islanders center Casey Cizikas (53) pushes against the Blackhawks' Tyler Johnson (90) while fighting for possession of the puck Oct. 19 2021, at the United Center. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

Sunday’s game was Johnson’s third game back. Physically, he feels great, he said: “I don’t have anything that I would consider a setback or limitations or anything like that.”

Getting back up to game speed is another matter.

“Still trying to get back into it a little bit,” he said. “Trying to learn as things go and still trying to learn systems a little bit. It’s still new to me.”

Hawks coach Derek King said Johnson is “getting more and more like (himself). ... You can see that game coming back in him pretty quick. And he’s a good pro too. That’s what happens, they get it back quick.”

Johnson’s impact on the bench and off the ice impresses King the most.

“It’s good he’s back in the lineup,” King said. “The thing for us is he’s good on the bench, talks to the guys, makes sure everybody’s accountable, and we were missing that for a while with him and (Jonathan Toews), so it’s nice to have them both back.”