Quote:
Originally Posted by Mint Babchuk Crunch
Much as I would love to, it's not fair to criticize Maurice for something he didn't do; however, Ladd's Carolina tenure was only 137 games, during which he produced 50 points. He was still young and unproven when he was traded away, and he played 3rd-4th line minutes in Chicago too. I think in Ladd's case they just gave up on him too quickly, not that he was misused here.
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Ladd finally got top six minutes here after Stillman was traded and had 10 points in his last 10 games...then was traded by our useless general manager because he wanted a "center" with Brind'amour having suffered a season-ending injury. Ruutu played the first period of his first game at center, then didn't see that position for about two years because he blows at it. In truth, Ruutu had barely played center since before the lockout, which had been the same story with Trevor Letowski. That's twice in under two years that Rutherford acquired a winger to play a key role on his team as a center, only for that player to end up playing wing almost immediately and the team still having a hole at center. I guess Rutherford didn't realize that there were good reasons that those players had been playing wing for years.
The trade made no sense and it still makes no sense whatsoever. We got a player who was at best equal to Ladd (and actually had worse production that season), was more expensive and two years closer to free agency. The three years after the trade we paid Ruutu $2.25M, 3M and 4M while the Hawks/Thrashers paid Ladd 1.55M, 1.65M and 2.35M. The effect of Rutherford's brilliant management in this case was to reduce his ability to spend elsewhere while not getting a better player. That's it.
As for whether or not Ladd was being misused, I'll say this: if a player dresses for a game and doesn't play a shift, or dresses for a game and plays 50 seconds, and that player is 20 years old, and his general manager doesn't send him to the AHL, then that general manager is a moron.
