Taylor Shire
Regina Leader-Post
Brett Lauther admitted he was caught off guard by his recent trade to the Saskatchewan Roughriders from the Ottawa Redblacks.
“I didn’t see it coming really,” said Lauther, a veteran kicker who was acquired by Saskatchewan on Wednesday, the day of the CFL’s trade deadline, in exchange for a fifth-round draft pick.
“I was kind of planning the last couple days; joking with my wife being home for Halloween for the first time with our daughter and was planning my dad coming up and doing like a hockey and football weekend.”
Instead of ending the year with the Redblacks, who will miss the postseason after getting off to an 0-14 start, Lauther, who has made 94.1 per cent of his kicks this year, rejoins a team he spent the last eight seasons (2018-25) with prior to being released this off-season.
“Still a little bit surreal,” said Lauther, a member of the 2025 Grey Cup champions who posted his lowest field goal completion percentage (72.2 per cent) last year with the Roughriders. “It’s been a crazy 24 hours, but very thankful to be here right now.”
When he was called into the general manager’s office on Wednesday, Lauther — who has a career 82.4 per cent success rate — said he didn’t know what was up. In the hours that followed, he was packing his stuff up and catching a flight to Regina
“Just got told I was traded, and I asked where, and then it’s been a blur for 24 hours to get here,” said Lauther, who arrived in Regina Wednesday at midnight and attended Thursday’s walk through at Mosaic Stadium prior to meeting with the media. “You kind of come back and nothing has skipped a beat. I don’t want to lie and think I thought I was going to come back or anything like that, but I just wanted to go out there and try to play well.
“Going over there in the first place, I was like, ‘I’ll see if I still got it.’ Felt like I did. That’s why I wanted to go to see. But if I didn’t, I could kind of retire in peace. I wanted to go out and play well and try to extend the career.”
Despite being a proven kicker in the CFL over the last decade, the 35-year-old will be watching from the sidelines this week as Saskatchewan hosts the Calgary Stampeders on Friday night at Mosaic Stadium with rookie Dawson Hodge handling kicking duties for a third straight game after replacing fellow rookie Alex Hale.
“I don’t think it would be fair to the football team, quite honestly, to just toss him out there without an extensive work of operation with a new snapper, new holder,” said Roughriders head coach Corey Mace. “And Dawson’s been on it this week, so I thought it was the right thing to do for the football team and for Brett too.”
Mace did get to do the right thing for Lauther on Wednesday as he introduced — or reintroduced — the veteran to the team, which went about as expected in a locker room that preaches “family” each and every day.
“We introduced him as we do with every new player that comes in,” said Mace. “He got some boos, he got some cheers, which is exactly what you would want.
“As you would think, lots of hugs, lots of smiles. He’s meant a lot to this team in the previous years and just to see some familiar faces and for them to see him, it was a nice reunion.”
For Lauther, while he admitted it was “bittersweet” to leave Ottawa after making some friendships this season, he’s happier than ever to be back in Saskatchewan.
“I’m very thankful for the Redblacks organization; they gave me a chance to play football this year, and probably forever in debt to those guys,” said Lauther, who played 12 of Ottawa’s 14 games. “But it’s like anything in life, you’ve got to turn the page pretty quickly sometimes. And thankful to be back here, back in green, and try to just contribute any way possible.”
And despite the Roughriders releasing him in February after a statistical down year, Lauther doesn’t hold any ill will towards Saskatchewan’s management.
“There’s probably a lot of opportunities to hold ill will or things like that, but I just don’t think that in my opinion, it’s a great way to go through life,” said Lauther, who had played 114 regular season and eight playoff games as a Roughrider. “I’ll never hold ill will. If anything, I think that’s just mostly from like maybe media or fans, not anyone in here. For me, it’s the complete opposite.
“I’m forever in debt to those guys and this organization. Everyone upstairs, the fans, you name it. I’m super lucky to be playing football and get to do what I get to do. So definitely no ill will.”
