Danny Maciocia said he received no advance notice the CFL’s salary cap would increase by more than $400,000 per team next season.
While the news was delivered less than a week before the start of free agency, but while a negotiating window was in play for players to test the market, the Als still lost a number of starters to other teams.
Receivers Kaion Julien-Grant and Reggie White Jr., signed with Edmonton and Winnipeg, respectively, while linebacker Reggie Stubblefield signed with Hamilton. Guard Philippe Gagnon jumped to Saskatchewan, while defensive-back Nafees Lyon now will call Ottawa home.
“I’m not going to get into all the details … but we did our heavy lifting in December and January,” Maciocia told The Gazette recently. “When we met as a staff and made the decisions, we were comfortable. Not ever were we thinking or contemplating maybe if we waited weeks we’re going to fall into X number of dollars. We were set in how we wanted to look in 2025.
“It doesn’t change anything as far as how we’re operating. Nothing changes. I must admit I didn’t anticipate it, but it doesn’t really mean anything right now. We’re good. We’ve done our heavy lifting. We’ve signed the people we needed to sign and it’s business as usual.”
On Feb. 5 the CFL announced its salary cap was being raised $412,365 per team in 2025, going from $5.65-million to $6,062,365. The increase was driven by 2024 league revenue, based on attendance and game-day revenue. The old figure was negotiated as part of the 2022 collective bargaining agreement — a seven-year deal that was only reached following a four-day strike by seven of the CFL’s nine teams.
“Maybe this would have been a bit of a bigger story in December,” Maciocia said. “It’s not a big story for me right now.”
Maciocia said the additional funds will come in handy when dealing with injuries and potentially adding extra players, either to the active or practice roster.
It’s believed Stubblefield, who missed most of last season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, is getting in the $130,000-$140,000 range from the Tiger-Cats. Julien-Grant, a productive Canadian who has suffered his share of injuries, could be paid as much as $165,000 from the Elks.
Macioicia has replacements for both. Bryce Cosby and Najee Murray filled in for Stubblefield. Julien-Grant always was going to be overshadowed by Tyson Philpot. And the Als would rather start four import receivers — Austin Mack, Cole Spieker, Charleston Rambo and Tyson Snead. It also wouldn’t be surprising if Montreal changes its ratio, starting an import at right guard for Gagnon.
As Maciocia promised, the Als weren’t active in free agency, signing defensive-linemen Josh Archibald and Shawn Oakman from B.C. and Edmonton, respectively, along with Ottawa offensive-lineman Cyrille Hogan-Saindon.
Montreal had a league-best 12-5-1 record last season, but lost at home to Toronto, the eventual Grey Cup champions, in the East Division final. The Als’ record leads Maciocia to believe not many holes needed to be filled. Also, his philosophy never has been to build a team through free agency.
“I don’t believe in throwing money at problems,” he said. “If you have problems, you address them internally. How do you address them? Simple. Through the draft. Make sure you draft well. The number of days and resources we have spent being on the road to find and search (for players). We feel fairly confident we can find these guys. Once we find them, they come up here and produce, it’s about keeping them here. Creating that foundation and nucleus that can be sustained over the course of time.
“That’s how we envision building this thing. That’s who we want to be. We don’t want to go out there and say … lets throw money at it. We’ll find our own. We’ll develop our own and when they do come up, we’ll take care of our own. We don’t want to flip the roster; we just want to tweak it. Make it better, younger and affordable. And we want to sustain it.”
Maciocia worked diligently in re-signing Montreal’s potential free agents — at least those he and the coaching staff wanted to retain moving forward, including defensive-tackle Dylan Wynn only last week. And there will always be a handful of unknown players who stick coming out of training camp.
“The fact we were able to keep our nucleus and foundation intact for another year together, there’s going to be so many less question marks going to training camp,” Maciocia said. “I think when we go to training camp we’re going to be pretty good.”