Captain is one busy Ladd

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/09/2011 (5195 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG Jets captain Andrew Ladd had quite an eight-day stretch through Tuesday in front of clicking shutters, microphones and notepads.

Tuesday at the MTS Iceplex, the production of television openings and visuals was taking place in a variety of dressing rooms turned into studios.

A week earlier, Ladd led the charge out of the back of a Hercules aircraft, modelling his new team jersey.

Later last week, he and 30-some other elite NHLers jetted off to New York for a two-day go-round with national media and broadcast types.

“I’ve never done that before,” of the league’s media-fest in the Big Apple. “It was neat to see for the first time, the way they do things. It’s very professional and they treat the guys very well. It was a busy two days but it was fun.

“We got to see New York and went to the U.S. Open (tennis) one night and got to see (Roger) Federer and (Jo-Wilfried) Tsonga play. That was cool.

“Plus I got to see lots of the guys I’ve played with, so that was fun.”

Hob-nobbing with fellow NHL stars seems to be the newest part of his job description.

“It’s funny, because there were so many guys I’ve played with along the way,” Ladd said. “And I hadn’t seen Sid (Crosby) in a while and Johnny (Toews) and Kaner (Patrick Kane) and Brian Campbell.”

All of this chatter and posing must be making him antsy for training camp to start this Saturday.

“For sure,” Ladd grinned. “It’s not even Saturday, it’s Oct. 9 that I’m looking forward to. I had been looking forward to Saturday but there’s been so much anticipation about every little thing we do, well, it’s big news here. It’ll be nice to settle down and start playing hockey.”

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Tuesday, the Jets announced that they’ve invited four players to training camp on tryouts.

Goalie David Aebischer, 33, left-winger Troy Bodie of Portage la Prairie, 26, left-winger David Koci, 30, and left-winger Janne Pesonen, 29, will all be in camp on Saturday.

Aebischer hasn’t been in the NHL since a single game in 2007-08. The former Colorado, Montreal and Phoenix goalie has been in Switzerland.

Bodie played 50 games for the Carolina Hurricanes last season, and nine for the Anaheim Ducks. Koci suited up for 35 games for Colorado last season, while Pesonen played in the KHL.

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Bits and pieces, notes and quotes from Day 4 of Winnipeg Jets’ rookie camp:

— Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff met with the media here on Tuesday and offered up the latest on negotiations with restricted free agent defenceman Zach Bogosian:

“There have been good conversations. Again, certainly something is going to come to a conclusion pretty soon,” Cheveldayoff said. “My hat goes off to the agent (Bob Murray) in this regard, we’ve had some good dialogue but we’ve kept it to each other. We haven’t let anything get out.”

— The Jets’ prospects were set to meet Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the No. 1 pick overall in the 2011 NHL draft, in Tuesday’s second of three games at the Young Stars tournament.

“I’ve heard a lot about him,” said defenceman Zach Redmond, the Ferris State product who was solid in Monday’s win. “He’s a little bit younger than I am so I haven’t followed him a ton. But I heard he’s a great player and I’m definitely going to have to watch him when he’s on the ice.”

— Just FYI, this from Sport Illustrated‘s Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback column and his ‘Ten Things I Think I Think’:

“I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week: “Great new logo and uniforms, Winnipeg Jets. Love this logo.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca ed.tait@freepress.mbca