Isn't Andrew Ladd the type of player the Jets need?

In what was possibly his last home game as captain of the Winnipeg Jets, Andrew Ladd went hard to the net and scored a short-handed goal in a 5-3 loss to the Dallas StarsTuesdaynight.

The crowd at the MTS Centre, understanding the potential significance of the moment, gave Ladd a standing ovation.

• RECAP |Jets fall to Stars, giving up 3 in 3rd

And with that, the trade watch is on.

It doesn't appear the Jets and Ladd, who's scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent this summer, will come to an agreement on a contract extension this week. Judging from the way the player was talking before and after the gameTuesday, a trade prior to the NHL trade deadline (Feb. 29) is a forgone conclusion.

So here's the question: is Ladd a guy the Jets should be moving on from?

There will be no argument from this space that the team needs to shake up its core. As of this moment, there are NINE Atlanta Thrashers still on the team, a five-season evaluation on a group that has yielded nothing in terms of success against the overall measure of the league.

Yeah, it's time. 'Has been for a while.

• Will he be traded? Winnipeg Jets' Andrew Ladd sees 'writing on the wall' as NHL deadline looms

Blame the lack of a supporting cast assembled by general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff all you want any criticisms of his roster are valid given the lackluster results over the last five seasons. But this group should have been actively stripped down and sold off a long time ago, not just piece by piece as off-ice situations come up (Evander Kane, Zach Bogosian) or as contracts expire (Jim Slater, Ron Hainsey).

And now, with Thrashers before him retained by management, there's no room for a two-time Stanley Cup winner who's been at or near the top in goals, game winning goals, points and games played since the NHL has been back in Winnipeg.

Ladd, 30, is coming out of a five-year, $22-million deal he signed right when he arrived in Manitoba, signaling to the rest of the NHL that Winnipeg is going to be a pretty good place to play.

If reports are to be believed, he was looking for over $6 million annually over six years to remain a Jet. If other reports are to be believed, the Jets had an offer of six-times-six on the table last summer, which Ladd passed on.

It's funny how a slow start to the season changed the club's perception on Ladd he told reporters his agent hasn't seen an offer from the Jets since December. One wonders what the perception would be if there was another 20 games left before the deadline. The way Ladd is going now (seven goals in his last 10 games), he might get his money from the Jets.

Maybe he wants to move on from Winnipeg who knows? All situations are different. Dustin Byfuglien, locked up by the club earlier this month, valued playing close to home more than seeing his salary average out to over $8-million per year, so he gave the Jets a bit of a hometown discount.

Ladd isn't playing the hometown discount game. He might feel like he's given the Jets a financial break by playing beyond his last deal, and after watching players like Kane, Bogosian, Blake Wheeler and Ondrej Pavelec get huge raises from True North over the last five years, he probably wants to feel the same love.

Hard to blame him. He's been a consistent performer on a woefully inconsistent team.

Barring a miracle, Ladd will have to find that kind of affection elsewhere. Can anyone see a scenario where the Jets are in the market for a 'Ladd-type player' in the next couple years?

Nah, what are the chances of that?

The Jets are a young team, and if those peddling the endless "bright future" message of this organization are right, they could be even younger next year. It's pretty easy to see how a guy like Ladd might be worth something a little more than what the game sheet says at the end of the night.

It used to be the Jets would talk up Ladd's leadership, his commitment to the city and what his "rings in the room" meant for the development arc of the young players whenever the opportunity came up. You couldn't put a price on that, or so it was implied.

Now that it appears Ladd has, there's not much interest.