Free Agent Summary

There was a flurry of activity on the opening day of free agency. So for today I’ll just give you a quick rundown of what happened and I’ll be back tomorrow with my patent-pending hilarious and highly biased commentary.

- Maurice Lloyd signs a 2 year deal with the Eskimos worth $165,000 per season plus incentives ($100k up front as a signing bonus) - Riders were at least $30,000 off the mark and were offering nowhere near that kind of bonus which is almost unheard of for a MLB.

- Anton McKenzie signs with the Lions. Surprised to see Anton go but with Renauld Williams set to go it boiled down to BC needing him more than we did and willing to pay him accordingly.

- Joe McGrath signs with Riders. 2 years plus an option

- Jamie “The Juggernaut” Boreham (2+ an option) and Mike McCullough re-sign with the Riders.

- Riders also traded a conditional draft pick to Toronto for non-import MLB Aaron Wagner and cut Matt Dominguez to avoid paying him an upcoming bonus (chance he may return though).

- Rob Murphy and Dominic Picard signs with Toronto. Murphy becomes highest paid OL in the league reportedly making $190K

- Toronto also re-signed Willie Pile and signed OT Shannon Boatman and WR Hank Edwards

- Alexandre Gauthier signs with Hamilton. 1 year plus an option, $150K a season

- Montreal re-signed Brian Bratton and Marc Estelle

- Scott Gordon, Graeme Bell and Kyle Koch signed with Edmonton.

- Edmonton traded Siddeeq Shabaaz to Winnipeg for Kai Ellis

- Glenn January signs with Winnipeg for a 6 figured salary. Wow that’s a lot of coin for a guy we had benched by the end of last season.

- Winnipeg also signed Burke Dales and Steve Morley, re-signed Matt O’Meara and apparently acquired Shawn Gallant (though that has yet to be confirmed and may turn out to be false)

- Calgary re-signed Marcus Howell

And I saved the best news for last…

The Riders traded James Johnson to Winnipeg for a 2011 draft pick!!!
JJ’s gone! WOOOOOOO!! Words can’t express how happy this news made me! Seriously this is like Christmas came early for me.

Check back tomorrow for analysis and continued elation over James Johnson leaving.