EDMONTON – Now that the Elks 2025 season has officially come to a close, the team can be proud of the foundation they have laid moving forward.
Last year it was an offseason of change, as the organization was essentially ripped down to its studs. Nearly a year ago to the day, the Elks named three-time Grey Cup Champion Chris Morris their new President and CEO. On Nov. 19, 2024, Ed Hervey returned to the club as VP of Football Operations and General Manager – coming back to the place where he bled green and Gold for 16 seasons as both a player and an executive.
His first major move was the hiring of Mark Kilam as the club’s 25th head coach in franchise history. Since then, the trio of leaders have set the Double E on a path towards long term and sustainable success.
“I feel very good about the direction that we’re headed,” Hervey said. “I think more importantly, there’s a plan. I think that’s kind of the thing that we want our fans and our players and the people that are associated with us to understand is that we have a clear direction on where we’re trying to go and where we’re headed as a football team and a department.”
“I think we established who we want to be,” Kilam said. “I think the foundation is in place here to be able to build on it next year and really hit the ground running. We established that we want to be a team that prepares the right way, and we did that. We wanted it to be a connected football team, and they are. We wanted to be a team that believes they can win every game and believes they can come back when mistakes happen on the field, and I think that those are things that we had to go through our experiences to find out and believe.”
As alluded to by Kilam, there were some growing pains along the Elks 2025 journey. When you tear an organization down to its bare bones there are bound to be a few messes. Edmonton started the season much like they had many other recent campaigns. The club stumbled out of the gate with a 1-6 record and sported a defence that had allowed at least 30 points in all but one of those games.
As the unit started to turn it around, it was a lot of young players doing the heavy lifting. Defenders like Joel Dublanko, J.J. Ross, Kenny Logan Jr, and Chelen Garnes were all thrust into starting roles – while Bock Mogensen, Tyreek Johnson, and Noah Taylor also truly established themselves in the defensive rotation.
“There were some challenges at the start, but again, those are things that we kind of anticipated,” Hervey said. “When you turn over a roster, you can go in and say, ‘we’re going to go and grab the oldest players out there and grab all the experience and hope that it works’, or you can grab the young players and give them a chance to gel. And in their gelling, there was some opportunities to get better.”
“Some guys got hurt and some young players had a chance to step up and we start to see the team turn,” Hervey added. “The guys started believing in one another and they became a team. I watched an opportunity for some young guys to go from a band of guys playing together, working together, to actually becoming a team and hanging out together. And that’s what I’m most pleased with and most optimistic about heading into this off season.”
Edmonton went from averaging 34.0 points against per game in their first five games to 22.1 points per game in the final 13 contests, even as their six-game injured list piled up. The credit for the turnaround was laid upon the team’s coaching staff by Hervey, who said Mark Kilam and his staff were able to shuck the trend of coaches relying on older, more experienced veterans to drive the club forward.
“You have to give the coaches credit for getting these young guys ready,” Hervey said. “I want to make sure I shift this focus towards them as well, because they’re able to take the young guys. Most coaches don’t like young players. I’ve been places where they just complain and complain (about playing young players) and now, they’re enjoying them.”
“This staff has embraced young players, and has not only embraced them, but has gotten them ready. And whenever (a young player’s) number was called, those guys were out there.”
Going into 2026, the Elks believe they will reap the fruit of their labours. The team’s young defence will come in familiar with the both each other and the defensive system they have been playing within. Maybe more importantly, they have broken some narratives that have plagued the club over the last few years.
The Elks made Commonwealth Stadium a tough place to play at once again. The Green and Gold finished the year with a winning record at Play Alberta Field for the first time since 2019, including a four-game win streak with three of those wins coming against West Division opponents. In that streak, Edmonton also snapped a 13-game skid against the veteran laden Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who were desperate to cling on to their playoff position.
The Edmonton Elks renovation isn’t complete, but much of the heavy lifting has been taken care of. As the club heads into another long offseason, the optimism around where this team stands, and is going, is the highest it has been in years.
“Speaking with the guys, I told them this isn’t the end of the season, this is the beginning,” Hervey said. “This is the beginning of what next year will look like for us as we continue to evaluate our roster and evaluate what we’re doing. We had a chance to really get to know the guys and see them and their work ethic and I’m very excited about the path that we’re on.”