Calgary Stampeders president says club has already started preparing free agent gameplan
Global News
The Calgary Stampeders' season ended sooner than planned but president/GM John Hufnagel is putting his down time to good use.
The Calgary Stampeders’ season ended sooner than planned but president/GM John Hufnagel is putting his down time to good use.
Hufnagel told reporters Wednesday the Stampeders have already started formulating their free-agent gameplan. And with a reported 43 players set to hit the CFL open market in February — including backup quarterback Jake Maier, running back Ka’Deem Carey, Canadian centre Sean McEwen and kicker Rene Paredes — Hufnagel admitted there’s certainly plenty to do.
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“It’s a task, it’s not easy,” Hufnagel said during a videoconference. “We’re at work already making the plan of attack.
“We’ll start early next week calling the agents of the players, depending on how they choose to do the negotiations. I don’t want to be too early with it but I want to have a lot of work done so at the beginning in January hopefully we can get some players’ names on some contracts.”
Calgary (8-6) finished third in West Division standings despite standing 2-5 at the halfway point. And while the Stampeders reached the CFL playoffs for a 16th straight campaign, their season ended with a 33-30 overtime loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the conference semifinal Sunday in Regina.
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The CFL resumed action this year after cancelling plans for a 2020 campaign due to the COVID-19 pandemic.