Another Humboldt native will be stalking behind the bench of a junior hockey club after Brad Lauer was named the new head coach of the Western Hockey League’s Edmonton Oil Kings.
“(I’m) obviously very excited. I’m very fortunate. It’s a great organization. I think it’s a great opportunity for me to take what I’ve been doing as an assistant coach and now be able to implement them as a head coach is very exciting,” said Lauer in a phone interview with the Humboldt Journal.
Lauer joins Brayden Klimosko (Battlefords North Stars) and Dean Brockman (Swift Current Broncos) as Humboldt area natives who have been hired in recent weeks as the head coach at junior hockey programs.
Lauer joins an Oil Kings organization fresh off a last place finish in the WHL, and a team who has missed the playoffs in back-to-back seasons.
Lauer’s stop in Edmonton will be his first as a head coach after serving as an assistant with the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Tampa Bay Lightning (2016-2018), Anaheim Ducks (2012-2015), and Ottawa Senators (2009-2011).
Lauer also served as an assistant with the Syracuse Crunch (2011-2012) and Milwaukee Admirals (2007-2009) of the American Hockey League (AHL), and with the Kootenay Ice (2002-2007) of the WHL.
Despite joining the Oil Kings with no head coaching experience, Lauer says he feels comfortable jumping into the role, crediting past coaches with helping prepare him for this moment.
“I’ve been very fortunate to work with a lot of good head coaches and over the years have been given a lot of responsibility as far as the roles on teams and things to do, I kind of handled those situations as a head coach when given them,” he said.
“So I feel very comfortable moving forward into the head coaching position to make those decisions, to have the final say on the dos and the don’ts of the game.”
Lauer also comes to the Oil Kings having spent the previous 11 seasons out of the WHL, but despite coaching at the pro level, he says he is not worried about trying to adjust to coaching the kids.
“The pro is not an old man’s game there are a lot of guys I worked with, the Brayden Point’s who came into our league at the age of 19 who is still eligible for junior… so I think I do understand the kids at this level still,” he said.
“I’ve worked with those guys at the pro level but for me the biggest thing is being patient and just being able to day-to-day work with the guys consistently.”
While it will be a work in progress for Lauer as a young coach, and the Oil Kings as a younger squad, the 51 year-old Humboldt native said he expects his club will play an upbeat style.
“The game has changed, it’s a skating game. I definitely want to play the game with some pace, play a control game, aggressive style. If you don’t have the puck we want to make sure we’re going after it,” he said.
Lauer will have a little over a month to prepare for the coming season, with Oil Kings training camp set to begin at the end of August.
