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The 40-year-old Maas served nine CFL seasons as an Edmonton quarterback, lived year-round in nearby St. Albert for several years, worked in the oil-and-gas industry during off-seasons and, upon retiring as a player in 2011, said he “always felt like an Eskimo.”

If Maas became Eskimos head coach, it’s easy to construct a scenario in which other Redblacks coaches with expiring contracts head west, just as two years ago Rick Campbell left Calgary to become head coach of Ottawa’s new franchise and hired former Stampeders co-workers Don Yanowsky and Mike Gibson as assistants.

Desjardins, Campbell and others have talked about making consistency and continuity part of the Redblacks’ football operations even though CFL assistant coaches usually sign one- or two-year deals and individuals may have professional, family or other reasons for moving on. Including Maas, who also served as quarterbacks coach, Campbell had nine assistants in 2015.

“Put it this way,” Desjardins said Tuesday, one day before the CFL annual meetings started at Las Vegas, “we are going to be able to retain a number of our coaches. I just don’t know how many right now. It’s just too early to tell.

“The predicament we are in right now is the timing of everything. Because we and Edmonton were in the final game, it has delayed everything, whereas other teams have had the opportunity to start fishing out there for people weeks and weeks ago.”

Desjardins said the goal was to have the Redblacks’ coaching staff for 2016 finalized next week. A review of the 2015 season, including exit interviews with players and preparation of coaches’ reports, was completed within days of the 26-20 loss to the Eskimos in the Grey Cup game at Winnipeg.