- TSN That’s Hockey Tonight: On TSN’s That’s Hockey Tonight, Gary Lawless of the Winnipeg Free Press spoke with the Winnipeg Jets captain Andrew Ladd about his looming contract.Lawless asked Ladd if the season starts and you don’t have a contract, will you consider shutting down talks? Ladd said he has to consider , as he doesn’t want the looming contract to be a distraction to his team or himself.
Do we really expect Ladd’s agents to stop talking to the Jets? No, says Lawless. But for the captain of the team to come out at this point and time and say “we are going to stop talking about talking ” that’s frustration coming though.
Lawless believes the two sides are close on term, possibly six-years, and thinks money is the difference. Jets want to get him a little shy of $6 million, but Ladd’s camp would like to be north of $6 million.
- Paul Friesen of the Winnipeg Sun: The low end of the Winnipeg Jets roster will have to free up cash for the for the top end, with potential rich contracts for Andrew Ladd, Dustin Byfuglien, Jacob Trouba and Mark Scheifele all within the next several months.Defensemen Adam Pardy, Paul Postma and Jay Harrison are fighting for the two extra spots on the Jets backend. Head coach Paul Maurice will likely go with 13 forwards and eight defensemen to kick off the season.
“Probably,” the Maurice said. “We may have to make a decision.”
Unless there is a trade, one of the three defenders will be sent to the American Hockey League, that is if he clears waivers, of course.
During Thursday’s game, Maurice placed Petan and Raffl on their off wings.
“Up front you just love the guys that were centremen and now can play either wing, because you can just find a place for them all over your lineup,” Maurice said. “And we didn’t have any of that a year and a half ago. When Scheifele went down we were in a lot of trouble, we just didn’t have any centre-ice men, and the wingers were lefties and didn’t like going to the other side.”
