Slicing and Dicing the Jets: Andrew Ladd 2015-2016

The Winnipeg Jets missed the playoffs for the fourth time in five seasons since the move to Manitoba, and the 14th time over 16 seasons over franchise history. The season does not end for us though at Jets Nation.

Welcome to our series where we take an analytical approach, dissecting what went wrong with the Jets 2015-2016 season and how to improve the team for next year.

We turn our evidence-based breakdown of the Jets with Andrew Ladd’s 2015-2016 season.

After averaging a point per 82 game pace of 60 points from 2010-2015, Ladd disappointingly had his lowest point pace for the Thrashers-Jets franchise with a 47 point pace. The only captain the Winnipeg version of the team has ever known was then traded prior to the deadline, garnering the club a 1st round draft pick and 21-year-old Marko Dano.

Ladd spent over half of his time playing as part of the now-defunct Ladd’s Little Wheeler. The line did not perform as characteristic of the past in terms of out shooting and out scoring.

Ladd tended to play with the Jets’ best on the top-line while playing against the opposition’s best. He did spend some time in the middle-six though with Adam Lowry and one of Alex Burmistrov or Joel Armia.

Ladd was also leaned on heavily in all situations, in both power play and penalty kill.

Ladd saw his 5v5 production fall substantially, with it arriving from a combination of shot volume as well as shooting percentages. One would expect some bounce back in the percentages, but there were some signs of aging and injuries in the shot volume numbers.

Normally being a pretty efficient shot differential driver, Ladd found himself being below the line in both relative Corsi and Goal differentials, meaning the Jets performed better with Ladd on the bench than on the ice.

While Ladd struggled at evens, he did perform fairly well in special teams… although being better than the Jets average is not as difficult as some other teams.

Ladd had a tough year as a Jet.

Normally a very versatile all-around player, the 30-year-old found himself more of a special-teams specialist. It remains to be seen how much of Ladd’s decent was aging versus poor luck versus a tough pre-season injury, but Ladd will still be missed in Winnipeg both for what he did and for who he is.