The Ukrainian spent two years in Hull between 2006 and 2008, impressing enough in the Rays inaugural Elite League campaign to pick-up the Defenceman of the Year award as he recorded ten goals and 17 assists in 54 games.
He was re-signed by former coach Rick Strachan in 07/08 and logged nearly 30 minutes of ice-time per game at times early on as injuries hit. He was then switched to forward during a second injury crisis later in the season having failed to replicate his offensive stats from his debut season and ended 07/08 with just two goals and 13 assists in 53 games.
As F Block Blog stated following 07/08:
"The Ukrainian man mountain proved solid and reliable with 30 minutes of ice time during the Stingrays injury crisis. During the second string of injuries he was reliable as ever as he moved up front as a forward. [He] will be disappointed with his points total after a 30 point 1st season but should return."Adding later:
"Ladygin wasn't a fan favourite of Evgeny Alipov proportions, however, he very very rarely put a foot wrong and was a solid defenceman, which many fans appreciated. His strength and confidence to take anyone on at the back (physically and defensively) was what endeared him to the fans the most."Since leaving the club in the summer of 2008 - after Strachan made it clear he would be having a clear out of imports - Ladygin has spent all of his time in Eastern Europe.
Primarily, he has iced in the relatively high standard of the Russian second tier, however, he has also mixed in short spells in his native Ukraine as well as single season's in the top flight in both Kazakhstan and Belarus.
Last season Ladygin was called up to the Ukrainian national team for the Olympic Games Qualifiers by former Humberside Hawk Alexander Kulikov - father of former Stingray and former teammate to Ladygin Slava Koulikov. The rangy blueliner iced in six games in his debut campaign for the national team, recording two assists as they were knocked out of the qualifiers by Slovenia - who progressed to Sochi 2014.
The signing of Ladygin officially bolsters the Rays blueline to six imports and eight defencemen, however, it is highly likely that utility man Kyle Mariani - who has spent the majority of the season as forward - will remain up front on the club's third line - where he has been constantly improving.
During his previous spell in the city Ladygin was a solid, imposing but not overly physical defenceman at 6'4, who rarely put a foot wrong. Offensively, while his shot from the point sometimes appeared somewhat awkward, he was something of a scoring sensation in his first season - ending the year as joint fourth topscorer. He failed to live up to that in his season season an will be under no pressure to produce offensively this season.
Indeed, given that either he or fellow recent signing and former teammate Pavel Gomeniuk, were supposed to be a forward replacement for Derek Campbell, it would appear player-coach Sylvain Cloutier is happy with the offensive threat posed by his forwards and that he wanted to shore up his D with these two signings.
Cloutier told the Hull Daily Mail:
"I have tried to sign Lady for a couple of years now. I played against him when I was with Coventry and always thought he was a tough player to play against. He did really well in his first year here before and was the defenceman of the year but in the second year he switched between defence and forward and it didn’t work out for him."The fact the Stingrays have managed to fill the import slot is an big boost for Cloutier and the Stingrays.
Provided Ladygin arrives in time, they could now be at full strength with maximum imports for the first time since in a long this weekend as Bobby Chamberlain returns from GB U20 duty and Tom Squires, Matty Davies and Sam Towner all potentially return from injury.
