Today is a busy day across the Canadian Football League as teams huddle together, not on the field, but in their war rooms for the 2014 CFL Canadian Draft.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders hold the eighth overall pick in the first round heading into the draft on Tuesday night and the goal will be to restock the Canadian talent on the roster after losing a number of key non-imports to free agency.

“We're in pretty good shape, but you can never have enough (Canadian talent),” said Riders general manager Brendan Taman. “We've lost a couple, which means we have to reproduce that. That's why the draft is so important.”

Defensive backs Craig Butler, who split time as a linebacker last season, and Graig Newman are the two biggest hits that the Riders took to their Canadian talent this offseason, but that doesn't mean that the team will be looking to replace them specifically.

The team is entering the draft with no set position that they're targetting.

“There's a number of guys that we're going to look at and I don't think that we have a specific position picked up that we're going to specifically follow,” said Taman. “There's five or six guys that we'd like to look at and if they're there for our picks that would be great.”

There's also the possibility that the Riders trade the pick. Taman said they're exploring their options and that could include moving up or down.

“Every time you have a high pick, it's very valuable, so we've identified certain guys that we'd like to pick if they're there and if they're not, we'll see if we keep it,” said Taman. “For the last four years we've made a trade on draft day. There still might be some activity on draft day again, but it has to make sense.”

Generally outside the first round, the players that are being selected won't have an immediate impact on the team. Last year, Moose Jaw's Levi Steinhauer made the team as a fifth round pick and his impact was felt on special teams. Taman said they will be looking for players in the later rounds that can contribute to more than one area.

“Anytime you go into a draft, you want to be able to have guys that do more than one thing if you can, so special teams will be one thing that we want to look at,” said Taman. “I know Coach Dyce and Corey (Chamblin) have talked over the last while about some skill sets that we're looking at.”

This year's draft doesn't appear as deep as many recent drafts and that is due to a rule change this offseason that limited players eligibility for the draft. Non-imports playing in the NCAA or NAIA are now only eligible to be picked after their senior season.

“That's limited some of our guys that are eligible, so the depth as a whole might not be as good as it use to be,” said Taman. “Your first 10-15 picks are the same as your usual drafts, but where they fall off a little bit is in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh rounds. I don't think it's as deep as usual.”

Laval offensive lineman Pierre Lavertu is expected to be the first overall pick to the Ottawa Redblacks, while the Riders have been linked to many players including Simon Fraser linebacker Casey Chin, who finished with 119 tackles in 2013.

“Anytime you pick anybody at the eighth pick you hope they make your team,” said Taman. “Corey Watman last year, he played X amount of plays, but wasn't an impact player, but I don't think anyone expects that right away.”

The CFL Canadian Draft is being broadcast live on TSN, starting at 5:00pm on Tuesday night.