New York Islanders Andrew Ladd Is Done For The Year

The New York Islanders will be without Andrew Ladd as it was announced that he tore his ACL and will be gone for the next five months.

The injury-riddled 2018-2019 season finally came to an end for Andrew Ladd today. The New York Islanders General Manager, Lou Lamoriello, announced that Ladd tore his ACL and will be out for the next five months.

Ladd was injured on three separate occasions this year. His first game wasn’t until the Nashville game this year, missing the first three games of the year banged up. He would then go on to play 14 games before getting hurt again in November.

Ladd missed just over three months on IR this time around. Returning on February 26, Ladd went on to play 12 more games before tearing his ACL against Arizona on Sunday. In 26 games, Ladd finished with three goals and eights assists for 11 points.

With four years remaining on his contract, Andrew Ladd is still a major question mark for this team. In his first three seasons, he’s been downright terrible and he holds a $5.5 million cap hit.

His first year he netted 23 goals, which is fine, but he only managed eight assists to go along with it. 31 points isn’t nearly enough for $5.5 million per year. He followed that up with just 29 points and a 12 goal return.

At times this year, he was productive but he wasn’t nearly healthy enough to get a true evaluation. Now, with Val FIlppula and Andrew Ladd hurt the Islanders will have some holes on their third line.

It appears that at least for now, Tanner Fritz and Michael Dal Colle or Tom Kuhnhackl will take over the third line roles. Lou Lamoriello said today that they aren’t considering a call up from the AHL so don’t get your Josh Ho-Sang hopes up.

In all likelihood, we’ll see Michael Dal Colle get a chance to play every day. He’s been okay this year, but playing alongside Leo Komarov and Tanner Fritz likely won’t spark more offensive upside for the former top-five pick.

Ladd is hopefully to be ready for training camp of 2019. What is role will be is another question though? With his regression and injury history, it’s going to be tough to find a spot for Andrew Ladd to be productive with this team going forward.