Lauther returns to the Roughriders

Brett Lauther is going to kick back with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

The CFL team announced Friday it had re-signed the veteran kicker, who had opted out of his contract in 2020 to try and find a job in the NFL. He didn’t sign with anyone last season and officially became a CFL free agent Feb. 9.

The 30-year-old product of Truro, N.S., initially joined the Roughriders in 2018.

After going 54-for-60 on field-goal attempts in 18 games that season, he was named a West Division all-star and was Saskatchewan’s nominee for CFL awards as most outstanding Canadian and most outstanding special-teams player.

In 2019, he was good on 32 of 41 field-goal tries over 13 games.

Before joining the Roughriders, Lauther had played four games in 2013 with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, who had selected him in the seventh round (53rd overall) of the 2013 draft out of Saint Mary’s University.

Saskatchewan had 34 players become free agents Feb. 9. It has re-signed or extended the contracts of 24 of those players, including Lauther, punter Jon Ryan, tailback William Powell, receivers Shaq Evans, Kyran Moore and Jordan Williams-Lambert and four members of the starting secondary.

Two players — linebackers Cam Judge (Toronto Argonauts) and Alex Chevrier (Montreal Alouettes) — signed free-agent deals with other teams.

Two players — defensive end Charleston Hughes and receiver Kenny Stafford — were released. Hughes subsequently signed with Toronto.

Of the other six players, linebacker Solomon Elimimian retired and five remain unsigned.