Now that captain has checked out 'Peg, negotiations should go smoothly
It appears Andrew Ladd was a tad surprised at his first real look at his potential new home.
The captain of Winnipeg’s new NHL team, fiancee in tow, poked his head into the ’Peg, Thursday, and much to his amazement didn’t find an isolated, mosquito-infested shantytown with one coffee shop and gravel roads that roll up every night.
“Even in my short time here, it’s a lot different than even I expected,” Ladd said, mentioning our selection of eateries and nice neighbourhoods, for starters. “I guess I didn’t really know what to expect.”
That’s how it is with most NHL players who’ve never been here for more than a cup of coffee — or a game in the minors.
Some even think we don’t have any parks (hello, Ilya Bryzgalov — are there enough Russians for you in Philadelphia?).
So Ladd decided to scout it out, on his own dime, not only for himself — as a potential restricted free agent, he has to decide if he wants a long-term relationship with us, or just a one-season fling — but for his teammates, who want to know if they’re moving to the end of the earth, or if you can at least see it from Portage and Main.
“We were kind of in limbo, and this hopefully gets the ball rolling,” the 25-year-old from Maple Ridge, B.C., said. “Maybe I can provide some info for a lot of the guys that are unsure about what’s going on here and what it’s like. Especially how you’re treated with ownership goes a long way. And we didn’t have that great an experience in Atlanta with that.”