Andrew Ladd Has Become Scoring Threat Since Joining Winnipeg Jets

Andrew Ladd has won two Stanley Cups in his career, but was never a major scoring threat during those playoff runs. After winning in 2010 with the Chicago Blackhawks, Ladd found himself moved to the Winnipeg Jets.

In his third year now in Winnipeg, Ladd has quickly become a serious threat to score for the Jets. If Winnipeg wants to make the playoffs for the first time since coming back to town, Ladd will need to keep scoring with the frequency he has been the last two years.

Ladd has scored 29 and 28 goals over the last two years, and has nine goals in just 16 games so far this season. Ladd was a top-five pick by the Carolina Hurricanes back in 2004, but it has taken until now for him to really prove he is a consistent goal-scoring threat. The Jets have been hanging around the .500 mark all season long but look like a team that could be starting to gain some traction in the NHL.

The Jets are in the middle of a long road trip right now, but any road trip is a long trip considering how far Winnipeg is from any of their divisional rivals, and Ladd has been keeping up his hot play over the last two-plus seasons. I would expect Ladd to probably finish with around 20 goals again this season, and may even average a point a game over this shortened season.

I guess it is only a matter of time before Ladd reached his true potential.

Andy Schmidt is a columnist/writer for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter @ASchmidtSports, like his Facebook page or add him to your network on Google.