TORONTO — The Canadian Football League is adding a third regional combine after the success of last season’s events.
This year’s combines will held in Edmonton on March 17, Montreal on March 19, and Toronto on March 20.
The national CFL combine is set for March 21-23 in Toronto.
“The league introduced the regional combines last season in order to provide more players opportunities to work out in front of scouts and coaches,” said Kevin McDonald, the CFL’s vice-president of football operations. “And the results and feedback were very positive.”
The CFL also announced it has adjusted the invitation process. The top 40 players eligible for the CFL draft on May 13, as ranked by the teams and league office, are invited to attend the national combine.
The league, with input from all teams, will then invite additional players from the regional combines based on performance. There’s no minimum or maximum number of players required to be invited to the national combine, but the expectation is that six to 12 players will be extended an invitation.
“This year we have initially invited fewer players to the national combine to provide us with more flexibility to invite players who perform well at the regional combines,” McDonald said. “Last year’s regional combines added three excellent players to the national combine roster, and they all went on to be selected in the first four rounds of the CFL Draft.”
Those players were Concordia defensive back Kristopher Robertson, who was selected in the second round (11th overall) by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers; Jermaine Gabriel, a defensive back from the CJFL’s Calgary Colts, who went in the second round (17th overall) to the Toronto Argonauts; and Michael Klassen, a defensive lineman from the University of Calgary, who was taken in the fourth round (32nd overall) by the Montreal Alouettes.
