Demski: “We have a lot of good football left in Winnipeg and we know it.”

There’s an old cliché in sports about the relatively small window for athletes to make a living before age catches up to them. And it boldly declares: ‘Father Time is undefeated.’

Well, here’s an update on the occasion of Nic Demski having signed a two-year contract extension with Winnipeg Blue Bombers and as the veteran receiver continues to play the best ball in the third and fourth quarters of his career…

Yes, this just in: the 32-year-old Winnipegger is still kicking Father Time’s ass.

Consider this: Demski — who called his new deal with the club an ‘early Christmas gift’ — just finished his 10th Canadian Football League season in a career that began as a first-round draft pick of the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2015 and then saw him join his hometown team as a free agent in 2018.

And it was in his fifth year in Winnipeg, 2023, where the University of Manitoba/Oak Park product first cracked the 1,000-yard receiving mark — a total he has now hit in each of the last three years while leading the club in each of the last two seasons.

Those numbers are the byproduct of experience, no doubt, but also due to his increased attention to diet, exercise and diligently following a routine later into his career.

“Early on in my career, I was always athletic enough and being able to be a playmaker and all that good stuff, but I never was a holistic pro,” he said Friday in a conference call with local media. “Being in the film room, being in the weight room, taking care of my body, getting extra treatment, all that good stuff.

“Honestly, until I came to Winnipeg and kind of saw how everyone else was doing it in front of me, to see them get into their routines and see how they handled their bodies and kind of expanded their football IQ, they definitely led the way for me for that. I followed the path and it’s brought me here.

“To me, just to see the success that I’ve had, the relationship with Zach (Collaros), and the relationship with the different coaches that have been around me and everybody giving me their wisdom and whatnot I feel like I can even take my game to a higher level. I’m really excited about that.”

Demski’s 2025 season saw him finish with 67 receptions for 1,001 yards and seven touchdowns in 16 regular-season games, earning him a spot on the CFL West Division All-Star Team for a fifth straight year. In the process, he moved into seventh place on the club’s all-time receiving yardage list and now sits at 5,560 as a Blue Bomber – trailing only Milt Stegall (15,153), James Murphy (9,036), Joe Poplawski (8,341), Terrence Edwards (7,200), Rick House (6,266) and Perry Tuttle (5.817). And of that total as a Blue Bomber, 3,037 yards have come over the last three years, along with 19 touchdowns.

Demski credits the influence of Weston Dressler — both during his days in Saskatchewan and again when they were teammates here in Winnipeg — for helping him make the transition from pure athlete to pure athlete with a gameplan/routine on and off the field.

“It’s funny, because I had him there in my locker-room my rookie year, but I was probably too young and dumb to really get under his wing,” Demski said. “But Weston Dressler, I’ve never seen somebody work so hard off the field as they do on the field. I remember as soon as I signed a contract (in Winnipeg), Lapo (Paul LaPolice, then the Blue Bombers offensive coordinator) told me, ‘You’ve got to follow Dressler everywhere you go. Wherever Dress goes, follow. Do what he does. Mimic everything he does.'”

Demski ended his 2025 season in frustrating fashion after busting his backside to try and return from injury for the Eastern Semi-Final in Montreal but ultimately not being able to go, with the decision made in the pre-game warmup.

The frustration in that moment compounded what was a frustrating season all round for the offence, which finished seventh in scoring and dead last in passing yardage. But changes are coming and with quarterback Zach Collaros under contract for 2026 and teammates like Brady Oliveira and Pokey Wilson having recently signed extensions as well — along with head coach Mike O’Shea and GM Kyle Walters — that frustration is slowly morphing into excitement already for next season.

“You know Winnipeg always loves to bring back guys — we don’t have a lot of turnover, ever,” Demski said. “So, when you see the boys signing back and knowing Zach is here, too, this was just something I wanted to get done. You can’t stick on frustration and what happened last year too much. At the end of the day that means you’ll just get lost in the past. Now that we’ve got this deal done and a lot of the gang is signing back, it’s definitely motivation to get back and get this thing going.

“It’s unfinished business, for me,” he added. “What was it, five years (of Grey Cup appearances)? We’ve been having a lot of success going to the Grey Cup — obviously, the last three we went to didn’t go in our favour but at the end of the day we have a lot of good football left in Winnipeg and we know it.

“You see management getting on guys fast to get back here and, as you can see, guys want to come back. We have a lot of good football left to be played and a lot of guys are going to be motivated to fix what happened last year and not try to get stuck in the past, but there’s a lot of positives that can come in the future and we all know it. We’re all going to be working hard for it. All of us are still very close-knit; we all keep in contact throughout this process as well, so we can’t wait to get back to it and get this thing going here.”