Saluting 16

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/03/2016 (3490 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Maybe you remember this most about Andrew Ladd: he was first on the ground here when the Atlanta Thrashers became the Winnipeg Jets. Or he twice led the team in scoring in his four-plus years in Jets colours.

Or, perhaps you’re in the camp that griped about those penalties he took in the offensive zone and preferred your captain be so fiery in interviews after losses that he looked angry enough to spit nails.

We bring this up today as Ladd is about to return Friday night for his first visit since last month’s trade to the Chicago Blackhawks. And undoubtedly the next couple of days will surely include a whole lot of reminiscing about his impact in the locker-room and on the ice and his legacy as the only captain the Jets 2.0 have known.

Now, when yours truly was trying to recall some personal poignant Ladd tale to build this story around, what first popped to mind wasn’t anything dramatic, but instead a scene from a couple of years ago.

The Jets were nearing the end of training camp in the fall of 2014 and, after waiting for a throng of reporters to move away from Mathieu Perreault — soon to play his first game as a Jet — your rumpled scribe approached.

“Mathieu,” I began, “have you got a couple more minutes?”

Ladd, sitting nearby, quickly interrupted.

“C’mon… it’s not Ma-a-a-th-U. It’s Mat-chew,” he said, first mocking my pronunciation of Perreault’s first name and then enunciating it in a absolutely dreadful French accent. “Get it right.”

Perreault then broke the awkward few seconds of silence with, “It’s OK. You were close enough.”

Ladd then rose up from his stall, grinned from ear to ear, and while walking away added: “Don’t forget… Mat-chew, Mat-chew.”

The point here? Everyone had their own perceptions of Ladd — gritty captain, the lacking captain or, in my case, the captain who liked to yank a reporter’s chain every once in awhile — but the most-important opinions were always formed by the men he shared the Jets’ room with for all those years.

And those guys universally respected him for his role in looking out for their collective well-being, to all those games when he pulled on his sweater and played hurt when many others would have taken a pass. He also always seemed to find that extra competitive gear when it mattered, cranking up his game after the all-star break and the race for the playoffs.

His leadership was understated publicly, but it says here what shouldn’t be forgotten is the role he played from the moment the transition from Georgia to Manitoba began and those early days when True North had to up its game from being AHL to NHL owners.

He came here that first summer on a personal scouting mission and then reported back to his teammates, every one of them wondering what this sudden change of address was going to mean. And that initial thumbs up from the captain, it turns out, was enormously significant for the players and especially for owners and managers who needed exactly that kind of validation to help establish credibility.

He brought experiences from two different championship rooms during his days in Carolina and Chicago, learning from the likes of Rod Brind’Amour, Glen Wesley and Ray Whitney, then Patrick Sharp and Brian Campbell and then passing that same knowledge on to young Jets prospects such as Mark Scheifele, Jacob Trouba and Nikolaj Ehlers.

Granted, it’s the kind of stuff any respectable captain does on any given day. But Ladd did all this often enough over the course of his time with the Jets that he was a Mark Messier Leadership Award finalist last year. That’s not just something Messier’s camp slaps together every spring, but comes after the Hall of Famer solicits suggestions around the league before choosing three finalists. In essence, it’s a bit of a reputation vote and Ladd’s leadership rep is pristine.

All of this isn’t to suggest True North commission a sculptor to begin work of a Ladd statue to be erected beside good ol’ Timothy Eaton. He was a capable and respected captain of a team that has one playoff appearance in five years, although there’s plenty of blame to go around on that.

But he played hard and he played hurt. And so when the club honours Ladd during Friday’s game, his four-plus years here are certainly worth a tip of the hat and a standing ovation. Take a moment during that celebration to study the Jets bench, for they’ll likely be the first to their feet.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPEdTait