Vaughan has been linked with a big-money move to the St George Illawarra Dragons, despite having a year left to run on his contract with the Raiders.

The front-rower fell down the Green Machine pecking order this year, with coach Ricky Stuart preferring Shannon Boyd, Junior Paulo, Clay Priest and Joe Tapine in the power roles.

Raiders recruitment manager Peter Mulholland said they were still waiting to hear back from Vaughan about what his plans were for next season.

But Mulholland was confident they could cover the NSW Country representative if he did decide to take up the rumoured $1.75 million contract with the Dragons, with Newcastle and Gold Coast also showing interest.

The Raiders also have Jarrad Kennedy, Sia Soliola and Jeff Lima, as well as former Canterbury Bulldog Makahesi Makatoa in the front-row stocks.

"We're keeping an open mind on it all. You don't want to lose a player out of a side that's got to second spot in the competition and one game off the grand final, it's a bit hard, but sometimes you've got to move forward as well," Mulholland said.

"I think Ricky's pretty comfortable with where we are with the roster. We'll have some improvement with [utility] Jordan Turner, Lachlan Croker will be back [from a knee reconstruction].

"We've had a really strong reserve-grade performance … that's the sign of a good club and depth in a club. Our under-20s made the eight so it's all looking good for depth and player progression and that's what we're about."

While there's been talk workhorse Shaun Fensom could also look for opportunities elsewhere, Mulholland was confident the lock would stay with the Green Machine.

Fensom is contracted for next season, but slipped behind Soliola and young-gun Luke Bateman in 2016.

Mulholland said the current squad was pretty stable – a large proportion are locked in until 2018, with back-up hooker Kurt Baptiste having agreed to terms to a new two-year deal and discussions having progressed to extend wingers Jordan Rapana and Edrick Lee beyond 2017.

He said Stuart had created an environment where player managers were now ringing the Raiders with players wanting to come to Canberra.

The Raiders can now supplement their renowned junior development with top-end talent.

Mulholland was expecting the NRL to introduce rules changes for next season that would help the Raiders retain their young talent.

"The game's going to look at development fees so it's not going to be easy for a club to come and poach our best kids now because they'll be paying an enormous development fee on that as well," he said.

The Raiders were linked to several players last week, but Mulholland was quick to pour water on both of them.

Greg Bird is contracted to the Gold Coast Titans until the end of 2017, but he's been linked with a move to several clubs.

Given he's close to Stuart, the Raiders have been mentioned in the conversation.

"Never crossed our minds. Never been a mention of Greg Bird in our club," Mulholland said.

The Green Machine have also been linked to 17-year-old Tyrone Taukamo, but Mulholland said they'd opted against signing him.

"We looked at him, but we didn't go there. He's only a 17-year-old and we thought we had plenty of cover in the outside backs with Nic Cotric, Andre Niko and Sebastian Kris so we don't want to go over the top of those kids," he said.

Who do you think was Canberra's best-performed sportsperson of 2016? Vote now for your people's sporting champion for the inaugural CBR Sport Awards. Entries close Friday.