Lamoriello said that although Ladd's knee is medically cleared from his torn ACL last March, the team felt there was still another benchmark to hit before coming back into an NHL game. Lamoriello said Ladd has worked hard during his recovery and done everything the team has asked and is receptive to playing more games with the Sound Tigers.
"We've seen that certainly the strength of that knee - although cleared - allowing him to do the things he has to do to play, we haven't seen that yet," Lamoriello said. "What we'll have to do is just make sure that it's there. He'll have to be honest with himself on how he feels and where he's at physically. He's worked at it, there's nothing that he could have any more than he's done. Is he back sooner than he should have expected? I'm not a medical person so I don't make those decisions. He's agreed to do this. He agreed to go down for conditioning and I explained to him today the reasons why and he's extremely receptive. He's worked very hard."