The NHL’s Ottawa Senators announced today that Brad Lauer has joined the club as assistant coach.
Lauer is reunited with Ottawa’s head coach Cory Clouston after serving as Clouston’s assistant for five seasons with the Kootenay Ice of the Western Hockey League. During his seasons with the Ice, from 2002-03 to 2006-07, the team picked up more than 100 points twice and won 40 games three times. Kootenay’s winning percentage during that span was .638, while its 139 wins over Lauer’s last three seasons are the most in any three years combined in team history.
For the past two seasons, Lauer has been assistant coach under Lane Lambert with the Milwaukee Admirals. The Ads finished the 2008-09 season tied for the best record in the AHL with 107 points, posting a 49-22-3-6 record. Milwaukee lost to the Houston Aeros in the West Division Finals, four games to three. In his first season with the Admirals in 2007-08, they finished fourth in the West Division with 95 points (44-29-6), losing in the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs.
The New York Islanders’ second-round pick in the 1985 draft, Lauer played three seasons with the Canadian Hockey League’s Regina Pats beginning in 1983-84. He completed his 16-year pro playing career at the end of the 2001-02 season and posted 111 points on 44 goals and 67 assists in 323 career NHL games with the New York Islanders, Senators, Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins. His most successful NHL campaign came during the 1987-88 season when he recorded 35 points (17 goals, 18 assists) in 69 games with the Islanders. He was also a member of the 1991-92 Blackhawks team that reached the Stanley Cup final.
Lauer also played 13 seasons in the AHL and the International Hockey League. Suiting up with the Indianapolis Ice, Las Vegas Thunder, Cleveland Lumberjacks and Utah Grizzlies of the IHL, he recorded 273 goals and 275 assists for 548 career points. He also skated for the AHL’s Springfield Indians and Capital-District Islanders, where he registered 28 points (10-18) in 26 games.
In 1992-93, his best minor-league campaign, Lauer topped all IHL players with 50 goals and finished fifth in the league in scoring with 91 points in only 62 games with the Indianapolis Ice.
The 42-year-old native of Humboldt, Sask., finished his playing career with the Sheffield Steelers of the British Super League in 2001-02.
