RALEIGH - After much consideration this spring, the Carolina Hurricanes decided not to make a coaching change. Monday, they made a change to Peter Laviolette's staff.

Assistant coach Jeff Daniels will replace Tom Rowe as head coach of their American Hockey League affiliate in Albany, N.Y., while Rowe will replace Daniels on Laviolette's staff in Carolina, the Hurricanes announced Monday.

"When I said at end of the season I would look at everything and evaluate everything, this was part of the evaluation in terms of making a change," Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford said.

Kevin McCarthy remains associate coach, and Tom Barrasso will continue in his role as goaltending coach.

For Daniels and Rowe, it's the next step in their coaching careers. Daniels, who joined Laviolette's staff in December 2003, gets his first chance to be a head coach. Rowe, who has coached Carolina's prospects since 2004 to rave reviews, gets his chance to return to the NHL.

"Based on the job that Tom did last year and some of the things they've done with their system, it adds some new ideas for Peter," Rutherford said. "Peter is still the head coach. He will make the decisions. But this changes our coaching staff up with a few different ideas.

"In Jeff's case, it gives him the opportunity at this point in his career to run his own team, be the general manager, be the coach. It will strengthen his career as to where it could go from here."

Rutherford approached Daniels about taking over in Albany after the season. He accepted the job last week after much consideration. He spent the final four seasons of his NHL career with the Canes before jumping behind the bench only weeks after his retirement.

"Obviously the last couple [of] years I was getting a lot of experience just as an assistant coach," said Daniels, 39. "I knew if I ever wanted to make the next step, this was an opportunity to go out on my own and coach in a great league."

He'll certainly be acquainted with many of the players on his new team. Eleven players spent time with both Carolina and Albany last season as Rowe guided a revolving-door roster into the AHL playoffs.

Rowe, who is 156-130-34 as an AHL coach, said his role on Laviolette's staff is as yet undefined, and the two spoke only briefly during Carolina's organizational meetings last week.

Given his background, it would be natural for Rowe to work with Carolina's forwards and share special-teams responsibilities with McCarthy. Rowe, 52, was the first American player to score 30 goals in the NHL.

"The timing's right, and I'm definitely looking forward to it," Rowe said. "It's something I wanted to do. I didn't expect it this year -- maybe over the next two or three years. But it's definitely something I'm ready for."

In a statement relayed via e-mail, Laviolette spoke highly of Daniels.

"This is a great opportunity for Jeff to become a head coach," he said. "We will miss what he brought us in our dressing room here, but it is an exciting chance for him."

Laviolette said Rowe "has knowledge of our organization from working with our prospects in Albany and spending time with our NHL players during training camp. He should be an asset to our club."

In a separate move Monday, the Hurricanes hired former Hurricanes forward and current Raleigh resident Robert Kron as the team's European scout, a position vacant since 2004. Kron will spend this season working from here and move to Europe for the 2009-10 season.

"We liked Robert's work ethic as a player," Rutherford said. "This gets him started."

(Staff writer Javier Serna contributed to this report.0