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B.C. Lions general manager Ryan Rigmaiden says the team will add new talent, but bringing back players from last season’s run is a priority.
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Published Dec 08, 2025 • 3 minute read
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B.C. Lions’ receiver Keon Hatcher. Photo by DARRYL DYCK /THE CANADIAN PRESSArticle content
If you believe in omens, the B.C. Lions’ re-signing of receiver Keon Hatcher last week certainly seems like a good one.
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Hatcher, 31, inked a two-year extension with the Leos, keeping the CFL’s leading receiver (102 catches, 1,688 yards) from last season from going on the open market when free agency kicks off Feb. 10.
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Hatcher had been No. 4 on the 3DownNation’s list of pending free agents they published on Nov. 26. He would have had plenty of suitors if he hadn’t opted for this latest deal.
He’s a five-year Lions veteran and met his wife Kiran while playing here, which obviously played a major role in him re-upping with the team so quickly.
But there’s also a feeling that the Lions are trending in the right direction after their strong finish last season, which included winning seven games in a row before losing 24-21 to the Saskatchewan Roughriders on the road in a back-and-forth West final.
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Nathan Rourke. “I think everybody wants to play with 12,” Lions general manager Ryan Rigmaiden said, referring to Rourke’s jersey number. Photo by Brian Johnson
There’s the Nathan Rourke factor as well. This remains a quarterback-driven league, and B.C. has the best one going right now in Rourke, 27, the pivot born in Victoria and raised in Oakville, Ont., who won the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player and Most Outstanding Canadian awards this season.
“I think everybody wants to play with 12,” Lions general manager Ryan Rigmaiden said, referring to Rourke’s jersey number. “I think his respect across the league is at an all-time high, as it should be. He had a tremendous year. But he’s also a tremendous person.
“Guys want to play with the best players and … he’s the best player in Canadian football.”
Rigmaiden says that Hatcher re-signing this far ahead of free agency “sends the right message.”
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“We want to bring back players who perform,” he said of that Lions brain trust he heads alongside head coach Buck Pierce. “He’s earned every cent of that contract and we’re happy to pay it.”
Rigmaiden said the Lions plan to make additions in free agency, but his main goal is bringing back players from last year’s team. They like the group they finished with last season that much, and they believe in continuity.
realtimeB.C. Lions GM Ryan Rigmaiden.Rigmaiden didn’t offer names, but the CFL top-30 pending free agents published on the league website Friday had B.C. left tackle Jarell Broxton at No. 14 and running back James Butler at No. 20.
Broxton, 32, made the All-CFL Team this season, while Butler, 30, finished third in the league in rushing (1,213 yards). Butler was representing the Lions at the recent high school provincial finals at B.C. Place. Read into that what you may.
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“Keeping guys in our culture, guys that have bought in, guys that know what Buck expects, is a priority for us,” Rigmaiden explained.
CFL player salaries aren’t widely published. Dan Ralph of The Canadian Press reported that Hatcher’s two-year deal is worth a guaranteed $630,000. Others have confirmed that total, although there’s not been a year-by-year breakdown.
3DownNation had Kenny Lawler of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats as the league’s top earning receiver last season, at $277,200, and Lions receiver Justin McInnis coming in at $250,000. They also had Rourke as the league’s highest paid player, making $624,200, although $200,000 of that was for marketing and didn’t count against the salary cap.
There’s no word on what Rourke and McInnis are making this year, but it’s safe to guess it’s in that same ballpark.
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The salary cap was $6.06 million last season, and Rigmaiden says that B.C. was compliant. The cap is slated to jump to $6.16 million this season. That’s expected to be confirmed early next year.
Rigmaiden admits that staying under the cap is “always difficult,” but appreciates that’s the gig he signed up for, too.
“I’ve been on staffs before where we were under by $400. You have to push it, you have to remain competitive,” he said. “It’s a challenge because you want to sign the best players possible, but this is the business that we are in, so it’s all got to make sense. It’s definitely a jigsaw puzzle.”
The Lions forfeited their first- and second-round picks in the 2025 CFL Draft after going over the salary cap by $347,889 in 2024.
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