Duane Forde's Top 25 Canadians

[url]http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/feature/?id=11911[/url]

We have 1 guy in the Top 25, Gauthier at 13.

We have 1 guy in the next generation, Bauman.

We have 1 guy in the honourable mentions, Hage.

A few thoughts:

Kamau Peterson is #1?!? What?

Lumsden is #4? The guy still hasn't played a season. Yes he is a game changer but you can't help your team when you are on the bench for 9 games a year.

I take this list with a grain of salt but does it bug anyone else that we are perceived to have inferior Canadians?

I know other people on this site have ranted about how weak our Canadians are compared to the other teams in the league.

You have be strong in Canadians to win in this league. I think we have a base of average Canadians that could be good one day and that we have something to build on.

I think Ben Cahoon is definitely more deserving for #1 and lumsden should be in the 11-15 range.

Don't get too worked up over 1 person's opinion.

Who's getting worked up? we're stating that Kamau Peterson doesn't deserve to be #1 in OUR opinion, nobody saying Forde's an idiot or anything.

It bugs me more that we don’t HAVE enough Canadian talent. Part of the issue is that some of our best Canadian talent is on the o-line, where it is less visible. But overall, I think the departure of Lumsden leaves a gaping hole in terms of “high profile” Canadian players in our lineup.

That isn’t to say that we don’t have some excellent Canadian talent, but that we need MORE.

Think about our projected starting lineup and our recent draft history:

Gauthier has been an excellent addition.

Gagne-Marcoux looks solid.

Many on this forum (including me at times) are critical of Hage, but he has the respect of his peers and coaches.

Auggie is popular with local fans, but his level of play hasn’t caught league-wide attention.

Barker, Rottier and Carlson have big potential, but they aren’t yet proven.

If Giguere ever comes to the CFL, he’d be a big plus.

Stala is a good player, but not a star, and is on the downslope of his career.

Bauman hasn’t shown much so far in his first two years. This is a critical year for him.

Bekasiak has been a bust.

There are some decent “journeyman” type players in other positions, but when you compare our overall Canadian talent to other teams, I think the reality right now is that we fall short. If Barker, Rottier, Carlson and Bauman can achieve their potential and remain in Hamilton, we’ll be making good strides. I still think this team will need to continue to scour the free agent market for quality veteran Canadians over the next few years.

Hamilton fans: The major weakness of your team is lack of excellent non-import talent. How many non-import players, drafted in the last 3 years, are on your active team? Not many. Gauthier is not a player drafted by Hamilton; same with Stella. My team,Montreal, has 12-drafted in last 3 years- and some are already all star.

Good luck.

Richard

Peterson really came into his own last year, no doubt, but yes I question a no. 1 ranking as well. But Forde knows more than I do about players that's for sure. I do think Lumsden has played just barely enough to rank high but agree as well no. 4 a bit high due to lack of playing time. Interesting analysis though, will have to look at the article in more detail later.

If Lumsden and Peterson played for Hamilton we would have them listed as numbers 1 and 2. Oh yea they played for Hamilton and we let them go... Everyone said Peterson couldn't catch when, in fact, our incompetent QBs couldn't get him the ball. And Lumsden for Kenton Keith turns out to be a real bust for us.
It's hard to be a ticat fan.

We did NOT let JL go. We offered him $150k/season last year. He gave us the finger. He then signed for $75k in Edmonton. Basically a big f*&^ you to the organization and the city.

Peterson had his problems catching the ball when it hit his hands. Looks like, with better coaching, he has overcome that problem.

Sigpig you are correct, we did not let him go. We just put out such poor teams for three years he wanted to get out at any cost. Can you blame him? Hopefully this year things will turn around for the Ticats. My comment was meant mostly against those who criticize two top notch Cdns who the Ticats had but could not keep. Both, I predict will be outstanding this year.

Seems to me that he’s right, guys. Our pride may be wounded but this is one of the reasons we’ve been losing so much. Now let’s finally develop some. (As to Forde’s list… yeah, I’d shift the order around but that’s just friendly disagreement.)

Why bitch about Peterson being ranked 1? He did win most outstanding canadian last year, did anyone whine about that?

And for those who think we deserved more canuks on the list, who exactly deserves to be there?

Maybe next year Bauman and Barker will be on the list, but as it stands at the moment we definately have a weak group until they prove otherwise

He didnt give us the finger, he just didnt want to sign long term, a 75k one year deal will pay off big time for him if he stays healthy this year and has the bust out year we all know he’s capable of (except alsforever of course lol)

If he has another injury riddled season then he will regret not signing the contract we gave him.

Although I am an optimistic TiCat fan, right now our non import talent for the most part has not been proven or distinguished itself from the rest of the league. Now this could be in part that the team has been underwhelming for the last few seasons, and surrounding talent hasn't been there. If we have a solid year, and some of these guys step forward they could be ranked higher, but right now they haven't proven anything. Although I would debate the rankings from Duane Forde, I still don't know who I would put in the top 25 from the existing TiCat roster.

Mike Labinjo(Stamps) should be in the top 5 without question.

And as much as Kamau Peterson(Esks) has improved, #1 no way. How about #20.

All else being equal, with 8 teams = 3 per team (+ 1 remainder).
I believe it is because our Canadians other than Gauthier and Hage not really established themselves as top-notch players. Maybe changes in the top 25 by end of season?

Forde is out of his mind if he thinks Peterson is a better/more valuable/more productive Canadian than Mike Labigno, Ben Cahoon or Brent Johnson.

or Doug Brown for that matter.

Since Teyo Johnson has retired, I feel he should no longer be ranked #12.

hahaha kamau peterson at #1? what a joke