GM Chris Jones continues to solidify the Edmonton Special Teams Unit with the signing of Michael Domagala on February 16th. Let's discuss that;
The 27-year-old Kicker from St. Catherines native will be suiting up for the Green and Gold for the 2023 season. The Do-It-All kicker has had a moderately successful CFL career having played for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for 2 seasons. During that time, Domagala went 19/26 on field goals (73%) and 12/15 on PATs (80%), punted 90 times for an average of 44.4 yards per punt, and kicked off 76 times for an impressive average of 65 yards.
While he struggled as the Tiger-Cats starting Kicker in '22, making just 13 of his 17 attempts, he fared better when made the starting Punter. He punted 65 times for an average of 45 yards per punt but was released by the Tiger-Cats following Week 20 for unknown reasons.
The Elk's decision to sign Domagala makes sense given the team's struggles to find consistency at the punting position. They started the 2022 season with Matt Megel, who is now playing in the USFL. Mengel was released following the signing of Canadian veteran Jon Ryan, who has since retired from professional football. While the Elks currently have 5 Kickers/Punters on their roster, they will likely only be holding tryouts for a starting Punter, as Sergio Castillo was an extremely consistent Kicker in 2022.
With Domagala's experience in all three aspects of the kicking game, the Elks are making a strategic move that will improve their Special Teams Unit. As a Canadian, he also helps the team meet the mandatory Canadia-player ratio. I suspect the Elks will ultimately end up giving Punting duties to Michael for the 2023 season. It will be interesting to see how he performs with the Elks and whether he can revitalize his career with this new Opportunity.
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