Looking back at the Blackhawks’ trades involving Andrew Ladd

In the wake of Andrew Ladd’s retirement announcement this past weekend let’s look back at some of his career milestones in the NHL, like winning two Stanley Cups and getting traded four times in his career, three times involving the Chicago Blackhawks.

Andrew Ladd was drafted fourth overall in the 2004 NHL Draft by the Carolina Hurricanes. Ladd would spend the first three seasons of his NHL career with the Canes playing in 137 games and putting up 50 points during that time. He would end up winning the Stanley Cup as a member of the Canes in 2005-06 as a rookie.

Over the course of his 16 year NHL career Ladd would play for six different teams, the Arizona Coyotes, Carolina Hurricanes, New York Islanders, Chicago Blackhawks, Atlanta Thrashers and Winnipeg Jets. Although it is important to note the Thrashers would relocate to Winnipeg and become the Jets so it is basically like he played for the same team there.

Ladd was captain of the Thrashers and Jets during his time with both teams. He only went to the playoffs one time while with the Jets, and his team was swept in the first round of the 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs at the hands of the Anaheim Ducks. Now, let’s talk about some of the trades Ladd was involved in during his time in the NHL.

Looking back at the Blackhawks’ trades involving Andrew Ladd

Ladd was traded four times during his NHL career. First was on Feb. 26, 2008 at the 2008 NHL trade deadline. The Blackhawks sent Tuomo Ruutu to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for Ladd. Ruutu had more experience in the NHL than Ladd at that time and had just come off a 38 point season but the Blackhawks sent him to Carolina adding a much younger Ladd who would be able to mesh well with the roster the Hawks were constructing.

Ladd would win the Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks just a few years later in 2010. He registered six points including three goals during the 2010 run for the Stanley Cup at just 24 years old Ladd had just won his second Stanley Cup and was set to become a top line player in the NHL.

During the summer of 2010, the Blackhawks were up against the salary cap and were going to have to reconstruct their roster after winning their first Stanley Cup in almost 50 years. Ladd was sent to the then Atlanta Thrashers in exchange for Ivan Vishnevskiy and a 2011 second round pick that would become Adam Clendening.

Clendening would play just four games in a Blackhawks uniform and Vishnevskiy also did not work out for the team either. But, trading Ladd during the summer of 2010 allowed the Hawks to keep a core group of their players from their first championship run together and eventually win two more Stanley Cups in 2013 and 2015.

Ladd would then be traded back to the Blackhawks on Feb. 25, 2016. The Blackhawks were looking to win back to back Stanley Cups after winning in 2015.

They had an excellent roster filled with stars still and were looking to add one more legit top line player to play with Jonathan Toews after trading Brandon Saad during the 2015 offseason. Adding Ladd was supposed to help Toews’s game going into the playoffs but to add him it would cost a 2016 first round pick, Marko Dano, one of the team’s top prospects at the time and a conditional third round pick.

The Hawks would end up losing in round one that season at the hands of the St. Louis Blues, and Ladd would not re-sign with the Blackhawks that offseason opting to join the New York Islanders on a seven-year $38.5 million contract.

Ladd would end up being traded one more time in July of 2021 from the Islanders to the Atlanta Thrashers. While he won’t be heading to the hockey Hall of Fame, Ladd played in over 1000 NHL games. He was the captain of the Winnipeg Jets during their first four seasons back in Winnipeg and got to play for a few really amazing teams during his career. Oh, and most importantly he won two Stanley Cups! Congratulations Andrew on an amazing career!