Six Carleton Ravens football players were selected in the 2017 CFL Draft, which took place on May 7 in Toronto.
Wide receiver Nate Behar was the first Raven picked, selected fifth overall by the Edmonton Eskimos. Ranked ninth in the CFL Scouting Bureau’s prospect list heading into the draft, Behar was the second receiver taken, only trailing McMaster’s Daniel Vandervoort.
Tunde Adeleke was the next Raven selected, taken by the Calgary Stampeders in the third round. The defensive back made his mark at the 2017 CFL Combine, where he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.58 seconds, the fastest of any participant this year.
Fellow defensive back Nathaniel Hamlin went next to the B.C. Lions in the fourth round, while center Zach Annen was selected in the fifth round by the Montreal Alouettes.
Previously ranked within the CFL Scouting Bureau’s top twenty prospects, offensive linemen Kwabena Asare slid to the sixth round, and will join Behar after being selected by the Eskimos.
Former Raven Malcolm Carter, who played three seasons with at Carleton before joining the Ottawa Sooners of the Canadian Junior Football League, was also selected in the sixth round by Montreal.
Defensive tackle Emmanuel Adusei was the final Raven selected in 2017, taken by the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the seventh round.
It was a big night for Carleton’s football program, which only returned to the school in 2013, following a 15-year hiatus. Before Sunday night, the last Raven to be drafted into the CFL was in 1999, before the program was cut.
