Let's be clear about this. Next Thursday's one-round allocation of European players is not the most important draft on the CFL horizon.

Not even in the top two, actually, with the league's always-impactful CFL draft set for May 2, a week after the NFL draft might take a bite out of the upper tier of the Canadian pool.

Via a weighted lottery system, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats own the first choice in the CFL's second international draft, which follows January's three-round draft of Mexican players.

Half of the eligible field of 18 players who worked out with Canadians at the league combine in Toronto last month,will be drafted and teams are expected to bring them to training camp, as with Mexican players. But with ongoing contract talks between the CFL and the CFL Players Association it's not yet clear to anyone in the game into what kind of roster classification - International? New category? New categories? Exempt? - they'll be slotted.

Tiger-Cats co-GM Shawn Burke feels teams will rank European players on classic football size, speed and body movement, on some basic skills they showed at combine, and on the potential for improvement with exposure to a higher level of football training.

Age would also be a component. One of the Italian players, for instance, is an aeronautical engineer in his late 20s. You would assume there's a not lot of ramp-up time left on that clock, especially with an alternative career option.

To the non-scouting eye there seemed to be some raw material among the European players, tilting toward so-called natural athleticism positions such as wide receiver, running back and defensive line, rather than at quarterback, middle defensive line, linebacker, interior defensive back and offensive line, each of which requires the layered nuances of extended coaching and experience.

The absolute ceiling here, at least in the first year, is likely special teams. But that's also true for most Canadian draftees and a high percentage of American rookies.

"It's a venture we need to take as a league," says Marcel Desjardins, the Burlington boy who is GM of the Ottawa Redblacks. "We'll see how it works out. No one really knows yet."

While there are players from five European countries - Germany (6), Finland and France (4 each), Italy and Denmark (2 apiece) - the reality is that eight of the 18 play in the strong German League and a ninth grew up in Germany, with its 40-year interest in the gridiron game. Three more are playing post-secondary in North America already: two of the four French draft-eligibles are with McGill and University of Montreal and another is at a California junior college.

This is all part of commissioner Randy Ambrosie's repeatedly-cited CFL 2.0, and because the activation period between signing strategic partnerships with European leagues and the Toronto combine was short, it might be that what we're seeing this spring isn't necessarily the best young continental talent. A full year to better research, analyze and prepare players for CFL combines could make a difference.

Besides providing on-the-ground backing for the CFL's relationship with Euro leagues, the draft could produce some actual players, and no football league can turn its back on that possibility, no matter how slim.

With the AAF's loud belly flop, the CFL will get an unexpected one-time surge of American migration but, over time, football needs other continents to become secondary talent sources, as they have in baseball, basketball and hockey. Might happen, might not, but things didn't start out with much promise in those sports either.

smilton@thespec.com

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