{"id":736848,"date":"2026-06-14T20:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T20:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/736848\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T20:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T20:21:12","slug":"demski-joins-500-receptions-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/736848\/","title":{"rendered":"Demski joins 500 receptions club"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nic Demski stood alone in front of his locker late Thursday after the Winnipeg Blue Bombers had dropped their home opener, but on a night that saw the gifted receiver quietly join an exclusive Canadian Football League club.<\/p>\n

Demski\u2019s last of his four catches in the 37-27 loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats came on the final play of the night, as he latched onto a Zach Collaros pass for a nine-yard gain.<\/p>\n

And with that the 32-year-old proud product of Winnipeg \u2014 and of the Charleswood Broncos\/Oak Park Raiders\/University of Manitoba Bisons \u2014 became just the 19th Canadian player in the long history of the CFL to record 500 career receptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool. I knew about it coming into the season but honestly didn\u2019t know how many catches I had today,\u201d Demski told bluebombers.com after the game. \u201cMy auntie actually texted me \u2014 shout out to Auntie Kelly \u2014 and told me I had reached 500.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I\u2019d like to have it under different circumstances, but it is a pretty cool milestone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Drafted by the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the first round, 6th overall, in the 2015 CFL Draft, Demski returned to his hometown as a free agent in 2018.<\/p>\n

A multi-faceted receiver\/running back\/returner during his days with the Bisons, Demski has flashed all of those skills with the Blue Bombers.<\/p>\n

He has posted three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons through last year and led the club in receiving in each of the last two campaigns while being named a West All-Star for a fifth straight time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never would have thought about this at all when I was a rookie. Not at all,\u201d Demski admitted. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty crazy to think about 500 catches \u2014 it\u2019s a big number for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly it wasn\u2019t something I thought about until I saw an article earlier this year. I tried not to think about it, about being six catches away heading into the season but when it happens it is now something that will stay with me forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montreal Alouettes\u2019 legend Ben Cahoon tops the list of Canadians in the 500-reception club and the list includes four other players with Blue Bombers connections \u2014 running back Andrew Harris is seventh on the list with 609, with Joe Poplawski 11th at 549, Kamau Peterson 12th at 534, followed by Rick House at 522.<\/p>\n

And with a decent season \u2014 another 54 receptions \u2014 Demski would move into the Top 10 on the following list:<\/p>\n

THE CFL\u2019S CANADIAN 500 CATCHES CLUB<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Joe Poplawski<\/p>\n

Ben Cahoon \u2014 Mtl (1998-2010) \u2014 1,017
\nRay Elgaard \u2014 Sask (1983-96) \u2014 830
\nRocky DiPietro \u2014 Ham (1978-91) \u2014 706
\nAndy Fantuz \u2014 Sask\/Ham (2006-2017) \u2014 637
\nJock Climie \u2014 Tor\/Ott\/Mtl (1990-01) \u2014 627
\nTony Gabriel \u2014 Ham\/Ott (1971-81) \u2014 614
\nAndrew Harris \u2014 BC\/Wpg\/Tor (2009-23) \u2014 609
\nTerry Evanshen \u2014 Mtl\/Cal\/Ham\/Tor (1965-78) \u2014 600
\nPaul Masotti \u2014 Tor (1988-99) \u2014 556
\nTom Forzani \u2014 Cal (1973-83) \u2014 553
\nJoe Poplawski \u2014 Wpg (1978-86) \u2014 549
\nKamau Peterson \u2014 Cal\/Wpg\/Ham\/Edm\/BC (2001-11) \u2014 534
\nJim Young \u2014 BC (1967-79) \u2014 522
\nRick House \u2014 Wpg\/Edm (1979-91) \u2014 522
\nBobby Taylor \u2014 Cal\/Tor\/Ham\/Edm (1961-73) \u2014 521
\nMike Morreale \u2014 Tor\/Ham (1995-06) \u2014 509
\nBrad Sinopoli \u2014 Cal\/Ott (2011-20) \u2014 509
\nJason Clermont \u2014 BC\/Sask (2002-11) \u2014 501
\nNic Demski \u2014 Sask\/Wpg (2015- ) \u2014 500<\/p>\n

Demski is the CFL\u2019s active receptions leader with 500 \u2014 Ottawa\u2019s Eugene Lewis is next at 476 \u2014 and his touchdown against Hamilton in the home opener was his 44th as a Blue Bomber, now just four shy of moving past Jeff Boyd (47) into 10th place on the franchise\u2019s all-time list behind Milt Stegall (147), Charles Roberts (79), Leo Lewis (75), Gerry James (63), James Murphy (62), Ernie Pitts (55), Willard Reaves (53), House (49) and Poplawski (48).<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also now at 5,667 receiving yards as a Blue Bomber, good for seventh place and just 257 yards shy of tying Perry Tuttle for sixth spot at 5,817.<\/p>\n

Now, as mentioned above, Demski was lamenting the fact the feat was accomplished in a loss. Even with that, the veteran receiver sees so much upside in the Blue Bombers new attack.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve said this from Day 1 of training camp \u2014 we\u2019ve just got to learn and grow together,\u201d said Demski. \u201cMe, being an 11-year vet, I\u2019m still learning a new offence.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, this is a familiar setting in a familiar place for me, but it is a new offence with new guys around. We\u2019ve still got to keep learning and growing together and we\u2019ve got to play smarter football as a team.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody in this locker room is committed to being great and we\u2019ll all put the work in to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nic Demski stood alone in front of his locker late Thursday after the Winnipeg Blue Bombers had dropped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-736848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}