Ten Sports Predictions for 2025

1. Women’s Pro Sports Leagues Will Explode Across Canada

Riding the wave of last year’s wildly successful Professional Women’s Hockey League launch, women’s sports of all kinds will dominate this year. Two new teams—possibly out of Quebec City and Calgary—will join the league’s 2025–26 season while existing ones will finally get official names. (Toronto Sceptres, anyone?) And basketball fans rejoice: Canada’s first WNBA franchise is set to kick off in 2026. As they wait, Canadian sports junkies can tune into the Northern Super League, the country’s first women’s pro soccer league, as its six clubs duke it out starting in April.

2. The Raptors Will Rebuild

The Raptors’ 2019 championship high feels as distant as the Jurassic era: last season, the team ended in 12th place in the NBA’s Eastern Conference and traded away big names like Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby. Team president Masai Ujiri—whose own contract is up for renewal in 2026—has made it clear his team won’t be championship contenders for the 2024–25 season. Instead, this is a time to rebuild: a year of head-down reconstruction for the team, an unsexy yet necessary investment for better years ahead.

3. A Broadcasting Arms Race Is Coming

TV rights to NHL games will be up for grabs for the first time in 12 years after the 2025–26 season, and the sharks are circling around long-time rights holder Rogers. The league is looking for the highest bidder, and a new player has entered the game: Amazon, which is already frenemies with Rogers. As part of a deal with the telecom, Prime Video began streaming Monday-night NHL games in Canada last October. It’s part of a growing trend of leagues divvying up their rights among multiple platforms to maximize profits. Just ask New York Yankees fans, who now need at least three different subscriptions—including Prime—to catch every game. Hockey night in Canada is about to get a whole lot more complicated.

4. Ottawa Will Regulate Sports Betting Ads…

Sports gambling ads are everywhere—on fields and courts, on commercial breaks and on every web page—but their days may be numbered. A grassroots group, led by former Toronto mayor John Sewell and Olympian-turned-academic Bruce Kidd, has backed a Senate bill that would require Ottawa to regulate such ads, with a focus on protecting minors and those vulnerable to gambling addiction. The bill has cleared its third reading and awaits its debut in the House of Commons. Though no MP has championed it yet—blame it on pre-election jitters—Kidd and Sewell say it has broad, cross-party support.

5. …as Sports Betting Opens Up Shop in Alberta

Alberta is set to follow Ontario as the next province to legalize private sports betting. Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Dale Nally is pushing hard for it, telling a gambling conference last year, “Alberta loves the gambling ads. But we don’t like the disclaimer ‘Ontario only.’ ” He expects the market could open by October, which means legislation will likely be introduced this spring. The grey-market industry in Alberta is already valued at $6.5 billion—money the government hopes to bring into the light of regulation and onto the taxman’s ledger.

6. World Junior Hockey Players Will Go on Trial

Seven years after five junior hockey players allegedly sexually assaulted a young woman in a London, Ontario, hotel room, the case is finally heading to court in September. The saga has rocked the world of junior hockey ever since the accuser, known only as E.M., sued eight players, Hockey Canada and the Canadian Hockey League for over $3.5 million in 2022—a lawsuit that Hockey Canada settled using funds from minor hockey registration fees. Outrage, resignations and reforms followed, but only now will the fate of E.M.’s alleged assaulters—all five of whom have played in the NHL—be determined.

7. Vlad Guerrero Jr.’s Contract Will Expire

The Blue Jays’ first baseman was one of MLB’s hottest hitters last season, but he might not be with Toronto for much longer. Vlad Guerrero Jr. (above), with 160 career home runs under his belt, knows his worth: when he becomes eligible for free agency after the 2025 season, analysts predict that he’ll be looking for a contract worth about $300 million over 10 years. The Jays, desperate to keep their star slugger, will probably try to lock him down with a long-term deal before he becomes a free agent. For his part, Guerrero says he’d like to stay put. “I’d love to be in Toronto,” he told the CBC. “But at the end of the day, it’s all business.”

8. Christine Sinclair Will Go From Player to Owner

At age 41, star forward Christine Sinclair, the all-time top scorer in international soccer—men’s or women’s—is stepping off the field and into the business side of the sport. The Burnaby native, who regretted never playing pro soccer for Vancouver, has bought into Vancouver Rise FC, a new women’s team set to make its debut in the Northern Super League’s inaugural season this year, squaring off against rivals from Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax. If Sinclair does her job right, every girl in the Lower Mainland will want to be part of women’s professional sports.

9. Craig Berube Will Lead a Leafs Comeback

One-time Leafs left-winger Craig Berube knows how to turn a team from underdog to Stanley Cup champion—he did it with the St. Louis Blues in 2019. So, it’s no surprise that Toronto, which continues to flunk the playoffs despite having all-star Auston Matthews, wants Berube’s mojo. As head coach, Berube is set to mould the Leafs in his own image: no-nonsense, low on ego and focused on the win. He’s said he wants a team that can dominate in puck battles, and he’s already brought in key allies, including former Blues coaches Marc Savard and Mike Van Ryn.

10. Alberta Will Ban Trans Women from Women’s Sports

Alberta’s push to bar trans women from women’s sports—by creating “biological female–only” divisions—has reached its second reading. If passed, the law would impact schools, post-secondary institutions and provincial sports bodies. It has drawn sharp backlash from LGTBQ+ advocates, who called it a “gross overreach” that caters to far-right supporters. This latest move is part of a global and escalating culture war over trans inclusion in sports. Just last summer, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif—who was born female—won Olympic gold despite facing intense scrutiny over her eligibility to compete in the women’s category. And in 25 U.S. states, similar laws have already passed.