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News December 28, 2025

Year in Review #3 | Two for Trey

Trey Vaval was a shining star for the Blue Bombers in 2025; photos by Cameron Bartlett

@EdTaitWFC

Trey Vaval certainly looked and acted every bit the part of a Canadian Football League star as he ambled up to the stage at the Most Outstanding Player Awards gala during Grey Cup week.

Not once, but twice, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers kick returner/cornerback stepped under the spotlight to accept honours — first as the CFL’s Most Outstanding Special Teams Player, then again as the Most Outstanding Rookie — all while sharply decked out in a white vest accentuated by black and white sunglasses/goggles.

Look good, feel good, right?

Vaval’s season — which was capped by his double-award night at Club Regent Event Centre three nights before the 112th Grey Cup at Princess Auto Stadium — was one of the highlights of championship week and the entire season for the Blue Bombers.

It comes in at #3 as part of our Top 5 stories Year in Review series.

“Last year I wasn’t even on a team,” said Vaval on awards night. “I was just at home with my family working out and waiting on an opportunity. Getting to camp, I was just trying to make the team. So, this happening… this wasn’t my front view. I just wanted to make the team and be a part of the team and just play football and do what I love.

“This wasn’t something I was even looking forward to.”

Signed on Valentine’s Day earlier this year after attending training camp with the Atlanta Falcons in 2024 and then being out of football, Vaval won the hearts of Blue Bombers fans during the season as a returner.

He led the CFL with four kick return touchdowns — two via kickoff returns, one on a punt and a fourth on a missed field goal — while also finishing first in punt return yardage and missed field goal return yardage and fifth in kickoff return yardage.

His 391 yards on missed field goal returns established a new Blue Bombers record in that department and his 128-yard missed field goal return vs. Ottawa in September was the longest in club history. On top of that, in a home win over Toronto on August 1st he became the first player in team history to return a punt and a kickoff for a touchdown in the same game.

And in the process, his double-award night helped him become just the third Blue Bomber to win two CFL Most Outstanding Player Awards in the same season, joining Brady Oliveira from 2024 (Most Outstanding Player/Most Outstanding Canadian) and Albert Johnson III in 2000 (Most Outstanding Rookie/Most Outstanding Special Teams Player).

Vaval was also the eighth Blue Bomber to be named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Rookie, joining Dalton Schoen (2022), Chris Matthews (2012); Gavin Walls (2005), Albert Johnson III (2000), Michael Richardson (1992), William Miller (1980) and Joe Poplawski (1978). And he’s the fifth Blue Bomber to be named the league’s Most Outstanding Special Teams Player, along with Justin Medlock (2016), Keith Stokes (2004), Charles Roberts (2001) and Albert Johnson III (2000).

Truthfully, no one outside of Vaval could have even expected any of this. Vaval entered camp primarily as a cornerback candidate, with some kick return background after flashing those skills during his college days at Minnesota State and Missouri Western State.

Still, the Blue Bombers had also made a splash in free agency by signing Peyton Logan, who had established himself as a dangerous return man during his days with the Calgary Stampeders.

But when Logan was injured early in training camp, that open the door a smidge for Vaval, who promptly busted it off its hinges with his obvious talent and his desire to hone his craft on the fly.

If it was Vaval’s two return touchdown game against Toronto on August 1st that served as his introduction to the CFL, it was the game in Ottawa in September that certainly fuelled his momentum for the double award nominations — and victories.

The Ottawa game was a bizarre one, what with the Blue Bombers only managing 54 yards passing on three completions, but still winning 26-18 on the strength of a +3 turnover differential, 172 yards rushing from Brady Oliveira (100) and Chris Streveler (72) and Vaval’s magical 128-yard return.

“When I caught it, I was actually kinda scared because I was still deep in the end zone,” Vaval told bluebombers.com that day. “I thought, ‘I’m about to get tackled deep in our zone and my coaches and my teammates are going to be f’in pissed.’

“As I got going, I thought, ‘Thank you, God’ and then I just trusted my blockers down the field. I knew I had to do something otherwise everybody was going to be pissed.”

That reaction is a big part of Vaval’s story. He was very open about his initial struggles in making the transition to pro football and the responsibilities that come with that — primarily about the simple desire to not let his teammates down.

Asked on awards night how this all came together so perfectly for him, Vaval leaned into that further with an answer that offered some critical insight as to why his rookie CFL season was so magical.

“It’s the team, the family environment,” said Vaval. “The coaches, the players, all of us, we just love each other. We have fun every day. We didn’t feel like we were going to work — this s–t was fun as hell. We wake up and the first thing I get to do is be in the hot tub. I get to kick it with some of my best friends; the coaches I’m super-cool with… Coach Osh (Mike O’Shea), Coach JY (Jordan Younger), we’re all super cool.

“That environment… you get around a bunch of dudes like that and it’s just easy to play for each other. You’re willing to sacrifice your body, everything for them.”

Next: Onward