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CFL Draft April 30, 2024

Stamps Tab Eight In 2024 Draft

The Calgary Stampeders selected eight players in Tuesday’s Canadian Football League draft including a pair of first-round picks – defensive back Ben Labrosse fourth overall and offensive lineman Christy Nkanu eighth overall.

Labrosse was taken with Calgary’s own first-round draft slot while Nkanu was taken with a pick acquired from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. In a draft-day trade, the Stamps received the eighth overall pick as well as the Bombers’ third-round selection (28th overall) in exchange for a pair of second-round picks – Calgary’s own selection at No. 13 as well as the No. 14 overall pick, which was acquired in a 2022 trade with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Ben Labrosse
Defensive back
1st round
Fourth overall

Labrosse, who won finished first in the broad jump at the CFL’s 2024 draft combine, earned U Sports and Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) conference all-star honours in 2022 at McGill University. In eight games for the Redbirds, he had made 35 tackles and had three interceptions and one pass breakup. Labrosse returned the interceptions for a total of 74 yards including a 57-yard return TD against Montreal.

Before enrolling at McGill, he played 10 games over two years (2020-21) at Syracuse and had 14 tackles including one tackle for loss. Labrosse was a three-time all-star during his CEGEP career at Vanier College.

Christy Nkanu
Offensive lineman
1st round
Eighth overall

Nkanu transferred to Washington State for the 2023 season after starting his collegiate career at Southern Utah. He played four games for the Cougars in 2023 and at Southern Utah in 2022, he suited up 12 contests and made eight starts – five at right tackle and one each at left tackle, left guard and left tackle. Nkanu started his career with the Thunderbirds as a defensive lineman before switching to the offensive line for his redshirt freshman campaign in 2019.

Nkanu played high school football in Lachine, Que., at École secondaire Dalbé-Viau, winning a provincial title with the Aigles D’Or, before enrolling at St. Paul High School in Los Angeles.

George Idoko
Defensive lineman
3rd round
28th overall

Idoko is a Calgary product and a graduate of St. Francis High School, where he was the Browns’ defensive lineman of the year on two occasions. He played his university football at Saskatchewan, suiting up for 40 games over four seasons (2019, 2021-23). Idoko had 40 tackles including four tackles for loss and four sacks for the Huskies. He added two forced fumbles and one pass defended.

Idoko was a Canada West all-star in 2023 after accumulating 17 tackles and three sacks in nine games.

Jason Janvier-Messier
Defensive lineman
4th round
33rd overall

Janvier-Messier was an Ontario University Athletics all-star for York in 2022 after recording 20 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, four sacks and one forced fumble in six games. He missed most of the 2023 campaign with an elbow injury, but still managed to collect two sacks in two games before being sidelined.

The Beloeil, Que., product earned an invitation to the CFL combine after distinguishing himself at a regional combine event in Waterloo, Ont.

Paul-Antoine Ouellette
Fullback
5th round
42nd overall

Ouellette played tight end and also did long snapping for the Université de Montréal. He was limited four games in 2023 as he missed the first half of the season with appendicitis. Ouellette was named to the roster for the 2023 East-West Bowl.

Tanner McLachlan
Fullback
6th round
51st overall

McLachlan is a Lethbridge native who earned all-Pac 12 Conference honourable mention honours in 2023 at the University of Arizona. In 25 games over two seasons with the Wildcats, he made 79 catches for 984 yards and six touchdowns. He was a sixth-round selection by the Cincinnati Bengals in the recent National Football League draft.

McLachlan, an alumnus of Lethbridge Collegiate Institute, transferred to Arizona after starting his collegiate career at Southern Utah.

Jackson Sombach
Defensive back
7th round
60th overall

Sombach played five seasons at the University of Regina and was a Canada West all-star in 2022. In 27 career games for the Rams, he recorded 103 tackles, one sack, two interceptions, one fumble recovery and 15 passes defended.

Kaylyn St-Cyr
Defensive back
8th round
69th overall

St-Cyr was a Quebec conference all-star for the Université de Montréal in 2023 after making 15 tackles and adding one interception, four pass breakups and five passes defended in six games. St-Cyr had 2.5 tackles in the Carabins’ Vanier Cup victory over UBC.