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Published Nov 02, 2025 • 3 minute read
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Winnipeg Blue Bombers wide receiver Nic Demski. Photo by Kevin King /Winnipeg SunArticle content
Winnipeg Blue Bombers receiver Nic Demski can’t help but wonder if he could have been the difference in Saturday’s East Division semifinal in Montreal.
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The team’s leading pass catcher tested his injured hamstring before the game, though, and made the agonizing decision he wouldn’t be able to help.
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“I was close, man. Super close,” Demski said on Sunday. “It felt good enough to travel, good enough to go out there and warm up and try to see how it was. And then it was to the point of if I could sprint or not.”
Put to that test, his leg failed.
“It kills me, just looking back,” he said. “You think about the what-ifs and all that. I was pretty confident that I was not going to be in a place to help this team. So it sucks.”
The Bombers put up 33 points without Demski but gave up 42, ending a run of five straight trips to the Grey Cup.
Given the team’s decline to a 10-8 record and crossover playoff spot, some see it as the end of an era.
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Not Demski.
“I feel like we hear that every year, these last three years,” he said. “Do I believe that? No. I don’t really know what’s going to happen with all the change or if there is change or what the next five, six months are going to look like. But… I want to be here. I love it here, this is home to me.”
While both head coach Mike O’Shea and GM Kyle Walters don’t have contracts for next year, Demski is happy to see one key part of Winnipeg’s recent success already signed up: Quarterback Zach Collaros.
“Zach’s signed for next year so that’s great,” he said. “That’s my quarterback. I don’t want to play with another quarterback. That’s huge.”
Thomas: Cup window still open
D-lineman Jake Thomas has been part of the last couple of Bomber eras, the losing one his first few years and the one that produced two championships and three failed Cup trips over the last five.
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The team’s longest-serving player — he came to Winnipeg in 2012 — doesn’t see this latest setback as a sign of things to come.
“I don’t think the window here is closed, by any means,” Thomas said. “The streak of going to Grey Cups is over. But I don’t think anyone was satisfied with the way the last three Grey Cups ended, anyway. But the expectation here is to go to Grey Cups every year, and win Grey Cups. That is a privilege.”
Thomas says he thought they had the team to make another run.
Having it end abruptly still stung, 24 hours later.
“The one positive: It’s not like a last-second field goal block to lose a Grey Cup. But yeah, I don’t think anyone’s satisfied.”
With a wife and son back in New Brunswick, Thomas, 34, will weigh his own plans over the next month or so.
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He’ll try not to think about a player from another team moving into his locker for Grey Cup week.
“You don’t want anyone to win the Grey Cup in your locker-room and get the party in there,” he said. “We had the luxury to do that a couple times, which is nice. It definitely sucks. For some guys it’ll be the first time they’ve had to clean out their locker fully in a decade.”
Vaval loving the ’Peg
One player the Bombers will definitely want back is kick returner Trey Vaval.
The 25-year-old will be staying in Winnipeg for a while, still, as he’s up for two CFL player awards: Top rookie and top special-teams player, to be handed out the Thursday of Grey Cup week.
“It’s a blessing. An honour,” Vaval said. “A lot of rookies don’t get to experience nothing like that. I honestly didn’t think I would get to experience nothing like that. Without my teammates that’s just not going to happen.”
Vaval returned four kicks for touchdowns — two kickoffs, a punt and a missed field goal — while playing a little defence, too.
His next contract should include a nice raise.
“That’s not for me to discuss,” he said. “I love this organization, the coaches and players — they’re amazing. They welcomed me so much. The fans here, the city, just everything about Winnipeg, I love it. So if they want me here, I’d love to be here.”
paul.friesen@kleinmedia.ca
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