Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson had heart surgery during 4 Nations break
Chicago Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson used the 4 Nations Face-Off break to take care of an important medical situation.
Chicago Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson used the 4 Nations Face-Off break to take care of an important medical situation.
In the latest episode of the team’s documentary series Every Shift, Davidson revealed that he had heart surgery during the two-week pause in the season.
Heart surgeries are nothing new for Davidson, who was born with a defect known as Tetralogy of Fallot that required two open-heart surgeries in his first year of life. In 2019, Davidson had another heart surgery to replace a pulmonary valve. This latest surgery replaced that valve after it had stopped working properly by inserting a new valve into the one already in his heart.
In the documentary, both Davidson and his wife Angelica expressed gratitude to the Blackhawks for putting his health and family first despite his high-stakes role in the organization.
“I think what’s meant so much to us and to me is that we’ve never even had to think about that part, about what’s going to happen with (his) job,” Angelica Davidson says. “Because honestly I don’t think he has a ton of time, really, to sit down and think about his health issues when he has so much other stuff going on around. He’s got a young team, a young family, it’s always something that I’m worried about in the back of my mind.”
Two weeks after surgery, Davidson was back at the United Center to watch the Blackhawks and prepare for the trade deadline. It was a busy deadline for the Blackhawks, with three trades in the first week of March headlined by a move that sent Seth Jones to the Florida Panthers for Spencer Knight.
“I feel great,” he says of his post-surgery recovery in the documentary. “There was a period where I was a little slow and low energy but I think that’s pretty natural given the type of operation I went through. I feel 100 per cent, I feel great.”
