Carlton football boss Chris Davies has confirmed Adam Saad will not be offered a contract for 2027.
Saad was left in limbo following the club's season ending in the elimination final against Geelong, spending the majority of his year in the VFL as Josh Fraser took over.
"Adam won't be at our club next year," Davies said.
"That decision has been made, and he's thinking about the ramifications for him right now: what he did do for us this year was play some fantastic footy in the VFL and was a great support at the level.
"He's thinking about what he wants to do in the future, and if that is to continue to play on, then we'll obviously try and support him to find a new home given the work he's done for the club over a period of time."
Carlton has made 11 changes to its 2026 list, and is looking to bolster its running defensive stocks after parting ways with Saad, Zac Williams and Jordan Boyd.
Collingwood's Wil Parker (delisted free agent) and contracted Giant Lachie Whitfield are both points of interest, although the latter's dealings will be difficult given he is locked away at GWS until 2027.
"We've got some interest in Lachie. In many respects, that's going to require GWS to let him go - I'm not sure whether that's going to be the case," Davies explained.
"In line with what I said a few weeks back, we identified we want some extra run through our team: Lachie would certainly bring that, but there's a fair bit of water to go under the bridge with that one yet.
"We certainly have some interest in Wil. I had some dealings with him a few years ago when he was thinking about going from cricket to football. Josh Fraser obviously has some background with him. It'll be interesting to see how that transpires in the next period of time."
The Blues have already welcomed Joel Amartey from Sydney as a free agent, signing the papers officially late last week.
Carlton will also need to deal with the trade requests of defensive ruck duo Flynn Riley and Hudson O'Keeffe.
Riley wants to join Collingwood while the Western Bulldogs want to add O'Keeffe.
"We've had some initial discussions with Collingwood in regards to Flynn. Both Flynn and Hudson were players we wanted to keep: on the basis they they want to go, we'll look at what options are there for both of those players, but it's important to highlight that we offered both those guys contracts for the future.
"They've made that decision. Most importantly, we want players that want to be at Carlton."
Davies said the club will look at adding some ruck depth given the expected departures of Riley and O'Keeffe to assist Marc Pittonet and Liam Reidy.
