Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy reportedly underwent successful back surgery and is expected to make a complete recovery and miss about two months, according to the team's announcement.

With the NHL season around the corner, Andrei Vasilevskiy will be missing some time to start the regular season. Luckily, it does not seem to be something that will cause him to miss a huge chunk of time, at least with the initial timeline that the team reported.

The NHL season starts in the middle of October, and the Lightning play their first game on Oct. 10 at home against the Nashville Predators. Vasilevskiy will obviously not be available at that time, but it will have been a couple of weeks already by then. The timeline for his return ranges from late November to early December, barring any setbacks.

The Lightning have Matt Tomkins, Hugo Alnefelt and Jonas Johansson on their roster during training camp and the preseason, so it will be interesting to see who they go with at the start of the year.

Jonas Johansson has by far the most experience compared to Matt Tomkins and Hugo Alnefelt, but it is unknown who will take over the starting job in Vasilevskiy's absence.

While it is tough to hear for fans that the Lightning will be without their top goaltender for the early part of the season, it is encouraging that he will likely be returning with plenty of time to get acclimated again and play at peak form before what hopefully is another trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.