Out of playoffs, Alouettes trading with eye to future
The Montreal Alouettes’ fire sale has begun.
The Alouettes, who will miss the Canadian Football League playoffs for a fourth straight season, made two deals prior to the Canadian Football League trade deadline Wednesday.
Montreal sent offensive lineman Philip Blake and fullback Patrick Lavoie, both Canadians, to the Saskatchewan Roughriders for Canadian receiver Joshua Stanford and a 2020 second-round pick.
Montreal also dealt Canadian linebacker Chris Ackie to the Ottawa Redblacks for a 2019 second-round selection.
The Als (3-12) are on a bye week. They have dropped four straight games. Blake, Lavoie and Ackie were all veteran players with Montreal.
The six-foot-two, 311-pound Blake, a 32-year-old Toronto native, was selected in the third round, No. 23 overall, in the 2011 CFL draft. He had started all 57 games played through four seasons with the Als.
Lavoie was originally selected by Montreal in the second round, No. 11 overall, in the 2012 CFL draft. After spending two seasons with the Als, he was selected by Ottawa in the 2013 CFL expansion draft. The 30-year-old native of Sainte-Flavie, Que., spent four seasons in Ottawa before being reacquired by Montreal last January. Over seven CFL seasons, Lavoie has 138 receptions for 1,264 yards and seven touchdowns in 115 career regular-season games.
The six-foot-two, 205-pound Ackie, a 26-year-old native of Cambridge, Ont., was in his fourth season with Montreal after being taken in the first round, fourth overall, in the
2015 CFL draft.
The former Wilfrid Laurier star had 81 tackles in 13 games this year while adding a sack, two interceptions, a forced fumble and touchdown.
The six-foot-one, 200-pound Stanford, a native of Mississauga, had 17 catches for 165 yards in 15 games with Saskatchewan. A 2016 eighth-round pick, Stanford has recorded 21 catches for
243 yards in 22 career
CFL games.
“We are very happy to have acquired a promising young receiver like Joshua and are looking forward to seeing him continue to develop within our organization,” Montreal GM Kavis Reed said in a statement.
Ottawa GM Marcel Desjardins said adding Ackie gives the Redblacks roster flexibility.
“Adding a national player with Chris’s skillset makes us a better football team and provides us with ratio flexibility for the remainder of the season,” Desjardins said.