The Winnipeg Jets have let Brad Lauer go.
The Winnipeg Jets have made the decision to part ways with assistant coach Brad Lauer following two seasons with the organization.
Brought in in the summer of 2022 with Rick Bowness, Lauer's job was that of special teams - most notably power play.
The Jets' special teams, however, were anything but.
Finishing 22nd out of 32 teams on the power play, Winnipeg struggled mightily, albeit, the team was without all members of its top unit for a multiple chunks throughout the year.
Lauer - who was selected 35th overall by the New York Islanders in 1985 - joined the Jets out of Edmonton, where he served as head coach of the WHL's Oil Kings since 2018. Prior to that, the now 57-year-old bounced between the WHL, AHL and NHL, with stops in Kootenay, Milwaukee, Ottawa, Syracuse, Anaheim and Tampa Bay.
Kevin Cheveldayoff announced the move at the Scott Arniel introductory press conference.
"Over the weekend, I had a chance to speak with Brad Lauer," Cheveldayoff said. "And we chatted about the change of roles and the change of the situation here and we came to a mutual agreement that we're gonna part ways.
"So, we wish Brad all the best, he's put two hard years of his career into working here but one thing that when we talked about going through the process here with Scott was that we were looking to add some outside influence on both the assistant coaches, whether it'll be an associate or assistant, those are things that we'll kind of wait to see how some things unfold. I know, Scott's got some distinct plans of how he wants to move things forward, but I definitely wanted to thank Brad for his time here."
In terms of who Arniel has in mind, well, it's anybody's game.
"Yeah, actually my phone was buzzing like crazy here since Friday," the new bench boss said. "There's certainly been a tremendous amount of turnover in the league in the last year in the last two years. So there are some a lot of people that have contacted me. We'll work hard this week to put a staff together. There's other teams that are trying to do the same thing."
What Arniel did acknowledge, however, was that assistants Marty Johnston and Wade Flaherty will be back with the team for 2024-25.
"We'll just build off of that," he added.
"I'm going to be wide open for everything. There's experience, certainly important, and all that. We're gonna need somebody there on the powerplay, obviously, somebody to pick up the defense and probably the penalty kill, but I am open I'm open to everything.
"I've got some really interesting, interesting text messages, emails from, from some young coaches, some guys that I've heard about, I've gotten names from management. I've got some names from some other coaches that have recommended people as well. So I think that I'm not going to be close minded on any of that. I want to talk to all these guys. I want to kind of see who's out there and what they bring to the table and whether that's young or experienced. I’m going to look at it all."
Arniel expects to announce his full staff for next season within the coming weeks.