of his life, it might best be titled: 'To and from Russia, for love.' "I thought I could go over there for a short amount of time and, best case of scenario, the lockout would be done by the due date," Ladd said. "She would have tried to come over, but I don't know if I was comfortable with that. I just didn't want to leave her alone and there are so many things I just didn't want to miss out on." Ladd practised with a handful of his Jet teammates at MTS Iceplex on Wednesday and then formally agreed to join the Avangard Omsk Hawks, a club based in the southwestern part of Siberia, later in the day. The team splashed his signing on the front of their website early Thursday morning, heralding him as a 'classic Canadian forward.' "I had talked to as many people I could and from what I heard it is a great organization and one of the best over there," said Ladd. "I talked to (Alex) Burmistrov about it and guys that had been over there... I would have been comfortable with going over there, but I kept coming back to not wanting to leave Brandy by herself. "I feel bad for the team. They were really good to me and have given me the opportunity to play. At first I thought it was a good chance to play in the best league going right now. But after thinking about it, it wasn't the