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With all due respect to Brad Sinopoli, the Ottawa Redblacks lost the four best players on their offence within the opening hours of Canadian Football League free agency on Tuesday.

Three of them were snatched away by the Edmonton Eskimos, whose general manager Brock Sunderland and head coach Jason Maas were Ottawa’s assistant GM (2013-2016) and offensive co-ordinator (2015) before heading west.

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The good news?

After dusting off the carnage, Redblacks GM Marcel Desjardins has approximately $1 million in extra money to spend, with the salary cap likely to settle somewhere close to the $5.2 million it was last season when a new collective agreement is ironed out between the CFL and the players’ association.

Photo by Greg Southam Greg Southam / Greg Southam/

Asked during a conference call with local media if he had an ace up his sleeve, Desjardins chuckled.

“Well, the ace up our sleeve is that we’ve proven we can put a winning team on the field,” said Desjardins, whose Redblacks have been in three of the past four Grey Cup games. “Our perspective on that doesn’t change.”