Spokane Chiefs notebook: Trades change dynamic of team; conference standings tighten during playoff push

The Spokane Chiefs team that coach Brad Lauer left in December when he went to help coach Team Canada at the IIHF World Junior Championship in Minnesota was drastically different than the one he returned to.

But the only constant in life is change, especially in the Western Hockey League. 

The organization made a trio of trades before last week’s deadline, bringing in four significant player acquisitions, while sending one of the team’s leaders packing to a Western Conference rival fighting the Chiefs for a playoff spot. 

The team acquired winger Logan Wormald and center Dominik Petr before the holidays, then added forward Tyus Sparks and defenseman Marek Howell and a first-round pick for expected NHL first-round draft pick Mathis Preston on Jan. 5.

“You know, the timing wasn’t great with the trade deadline and me being away,” Lauer said after practice at Eagles Ice-A-Rena on Tuesday. “It’s a part of our business where, you know, sometimes you don’t like it. But we’re floating around the .500 mark. I think we’re a better team than that. I thought that we made some good moves, got some good veteran guys.”

Wormald and Petr are 20-year-olds, joining Sam Oremba to provide the Chiefs with a full complement of overage players. 

“We needed a little more depth, which I think was good,” Lauer said. “We need a good push here in the second half.”

“The guys have been really welcoming. Coach has been awesome, kind of showing me the way things work,” the 6-foot-4, 206-pound 19-year-old Howell said. 

Preston’s departure changes the dynamic of the team on and off the ice. 

“He’s a great teammate, a great person, a good person off the ice. Smiling all the time, you know,” Lauer said. “But the league is in a different place right now than it was two years ago, with NCAA and all that stuff coming in. For Mathis, I think it’s a great opportunity for him to grow his game and become the type of player that he’s more capable of being and we wish him nothing but the best.”

“I mean, he’s a guy that you hate to lose,” defenseman Will McIsaac said. “But a lot of guys are stepping up a little bit more with some shoes to fill, so we expect a little bit more from everyone now that he’s gone.”

Close conference

When the Chiefs resume play on Friday, against conference-leading Everett on the road, they will be on the outside looking in at the playoff contenders with nearly two-thirds of the season in the books. That’s the bad news. 

The good news is that only five points separate the Chiefs from fourth place in the conference, so there’s plenty of opportunity to move up in the standings quickly – if they can get on a roll. 

“It’s not like other years where if you’re (in ninth place) this time the year, you’re completely out of it,” Lauer said. “We understand where we’re at. We see the numbers. We see that we’re playing a lot of the teams that are in front of us in the second half here. It’s playoff time for us. We have to have that approach now.”

“If you look at the standings, especially in our conference, kind of third to ninth is all separated by four, six points,” Howell said. “Realistically, not many games, and couple teams have games in hand. So for us, I think we’ve just got to take advantage of that and kind of win our next few to really kind of put us back in the race and go from there.”

In testament to the closeness of the standings, the teams fighting for the last few spots – including the Chiefs, the 10th-place Vancouver Giants and even the 12th-place Seattle Thunderbirds – acquired as many players to address on-ice concerns as the conference leaders.

“Everybody wants to push for the playoffs,” Lauer said. “You don’t need to finish first. I mean, it’s not too often the first-place team ever wins the championship, so we just need to get there. That’s our goal. We just need to get there. And then when we get there, whoever we play we’ll be ready for it. They’ll get our ‘A’ game.”

“Our conference in general is just super tight right now,” McIsaac said. “It’s starting to become playoff hockey here and coming down to the wire, wins are real important. So, we’re just trying to fine tune the little things here.”

World class experience

Even though Team Canada lost in a semifinal and came away with bronze at Worlds, Lauer said it was a “great experience.”

“A few years ago, I might have had an opportunity to be the head guy there, but, you know, I ended up going to NHL,” he said. “It’s something I’ve been always thinking about wanting to do. Just, the timing has never worked until now. … Obviously, it’s not the medal for Canada that want every year, but at least we were able to bring a medal home, which they haven’t done in a while.”

Lauer remained in contact with Chiefs management and his coaching staff while he was away, but he tried to stay “in the moment” with Team Canada.

“I watched games, watched highlights,” he said. I texted a lot with players, with (GM) Matt (Bardsley). Kind of had a pulse on it. But I wasn’t running it.”

He left that to associate coach Brian Pellerin and assistant coach Jake Toporowski.

“It was opportunity for them to spread their wings a little bit and get a taste of running a bench and doing their thing,” Lauer said. “They can’t coach (the way) I would coach. They’ve got to do their own thing.”

Three named to midterm rankings

Forwards Chase Harrington, Tyus Sparks and Brody Gillespie were among 78 Western Hockey League-developed players named to NHL Central Scouting’s Midterm Rankings.

NHL Central Scouting unveiled its Midterm Rankings on Monday in conjunction with announcing Buffalo, N.Y., as the host for the 2026 NHL Draft.

Harrington, a winger out of Prince George, B.C., was ranked 32nd among North American Skaters, Sparks was 63rd and Gillespie was 138th. Harrington is among 10 current WHL players ranked among the top 32 skaters in North America. He ranks third on the team this season with 14 goals and 21 assists for 35 total points.