CPL season preview: Key storylines to watch in 2025

The Canadian Premier League kicks off its seventh season this weekend, a testament to its lasting power and durability. 

After an impressive inaugural campaign in 2019, the upstart league’s momentum was halted by the global pandemic the following year — the 2020 season was condensed to five weeks and took place behind closed doors in P.E.I. But the CPL came out stronger on the other side and has continued to show steady growth ever since. 

What will this year bring? What storylines will emerge? Who are the key players to watch? 

Here’s what you need to know about the 2025 CPL season.

How the regular season and playoffs work 

The Canadian Premier League is made up of eight teams: Vancouver FC, Pacific FC (Victoria), Cavalry FC (Calgary), Valour FC (Winnipeg), Forge FC (Hamilton), York United, Atlético Ottawa and Halifax Wanderers. 

All eight clubs will compete in a single-table format and will play each other four times (twice at home, twice on the road) for a total of 28 matches. 

The top two teams at the end of the regular season get a bye into the semifinals, with the CPL Shield winner (regular-season champion) earning a bonus in the form of a berth in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup.

The fourth- and fifth-placed teams square off in the first round of the playoffs, and the winner then travels to take on the third-placed team in a quarterfinal. The second-place team plays away to the first-place team in the first semifinal, with the winner getting to host the final.  

The quarterfinal winner then plays the loser of the match between the first and second-placed teams for the right to play in the final. 

Cavalry FC looks to repeat as North Star Cup champions 

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. That pretty much summed up Cavalry FC’s playoff fortunes through its first five years, as the Calgary-based club lost to Forge in the CPL Finals in 2019 and 2023 and bowed out in the semifinals in 2021 and 2022. But last year, coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr.’s team finally got over the hump and earned a 2-1 home win over Forge to win its first CPL championship. 

The good news for Wheeldon Jr. is that he has largely kept last season’s championship squad intact, as 10 of the team’s 11 starters from the 2024 CPL Final are back this year. Foremost among the returnees is German forward Tobias Warschewski, who was the league’s top scorer last season (12 goals) and named the CPL Final MVP. 

The big departure for the Cavs is Dutch centre back Daan Klomp, who was voted CPL’s Defender of the Year in each of the previous two seasons and the league MVP in 2023. Klomp left the Cavs this winter to sign with Belgian outfit La Louvière, leaving a big hole in the team’s back line for Wheeldon Jr. to somehow fill

Forge FC attempting to climb back to the top of the mountain 

Forge FC won the 2024 CPL Shield as regular-season champions thanks to having the league’s best attack (45 goals scored) and second-best defence (31 goals against). Yet, the Steeltown club managed to come up short in the playoffs, losing to Cavalry FC in the final. 

Having played in all six CPL Finals, the Hamiltonians always expect to contend. For Forge, losing simply isn’t an option. With that in mind, coach Bobby Smyrniotis has been busy this off-season, tweaking an already strong squad with a few new faces in the hopes it’ll lead to a fifth league championship in seven years. 

Among the new faces are forwards Brian Wright and Mo Babouli (signed away from provincial rivals York United) and 2023 Defender of the Year nominee Dan Nimick (formerly of Halifax Wanderers). Wright and Babouli combined for 16 goals in 2024, and Wright was named the Player’s Player of the Year winner. 

Marco Bustos comes back to Pacific in CPL return 

After a two-season stint in the Swedish top division with Värnamo, Canadian international Marco Bustos is back in the CPL after joining Pacific FC for his second stint with the club. 

Bustos, with six caps for Canada to his credit, was a member of the Pacific side that were crowned CPL champions in 2021 and was generally recognized as one of the league’s most dynamic players during his tenure with the Tridents. In total, Bustos, now 28, scored 23 goals in 90 appearances for Pacific and Valour FC in the CPL before he left for Sweden. 

His timing is impeccable as he rejoins a Pacific team that scored a league-low 27 goals last year, so the hope is that he can give the Tridents’ attack a major spark with his dynamic and fleet-footed play. 

Capital gains made by Atlético Ottawa with Juan Castro 

Atlético Ottawa finished third and reached the semifinals in the playoffs in 2024, but the season was still viewed as a disappointment after the club made a number of big roster additions prior to the campaign. 

New head coach Diego Mejía promises to have Ottawa play a more aggressive, attacking style this season. Key to that will be newcomer Juan Castro, 33, who has spent the past decade with Atlético San Luis in Mexico’s top two divisions. The Mexican is an experienced box-to-box midfielder known for his quality on the ball, especially when driving the attack forward. 

Player to watch: Shola Jimoh (York United) 

Forward Shola Jimoh caught the attention of CPL fans across the country with an eye-catching rookie season in 2024 for York United. After making his CPL debut on June 9, he scored his first goal on July 13 to become the league’s second-youngest-ever goal-scorer (16 years and 96 days). 

Jimoh ended the year with four goals and two assists in 16 appearances across the regular season and playoffs. Although still a teenager, he impressed in his first season as a professional, so much so that Canadian men’s team coach Jesse Marsch had him participate in a special training camp last November. Now, with a full season ahead of him, it’ll be interesting to see what Jimoh can do to build upon his reputation as one of the league’s top young prospects.

Playoffs the goal for Valour FC, Vancouver FC and Halifax Wanderers 

Of the original six CPL teams that are still around, only Valour FC has failed to ever make the playoffs. It’s been six years of futility for the Winnipeg-based club, who finished dead last in the standings in 2024. Coach Phillip Dos Santos has a deep team, but does it have the overall quality to finally end its playoff jinx? Time will tell. 

Similarly, Vancouver FC has yet to clinch a playoff berth since coming into the league in 2023. Coach Afshin Ghotbi has brought in a pair of former CPL champions in Kunle Dada-Luke and Terran Campbell, and hopes their collective experience can help the team qualify for the post-season after two middling campaigns. 

Halifax Wanderers finished third in 2023, but followed that up with a disappointing sixth-place showing last year, as they failed to qualify for the post-season for the third time in four years. Getting off to a much stronger start to the campaign — Halifax went winless through the first nine matches in 2024 — will be important if coach Patrice Gheisar’s side wants to be back in the playoff mix. 

CPL goes on tour in Quebec City 

The CPL announced earlier this week that it will hold the second edition of its annual “On Tour” series in Quebec City when York United clashes with Halifax Wanderers at Telus Stadium at Laval University on May 31. 

The “On Tour” series allows the CPL to stage a competitive regular season match at a neutral site in order to spread the word about the league as it looks to add expansion clubs in the near future. As of right now, the CPL doesn’t have a team in Quebec, but the league has always said it plans to add a team there as soon as it can. 

“As we look to expand the footprint of the Canadian Premier League, there is no better way to assess the viability of a market than to bring our actual product to a prospective CPL city,” commissioner Mark Noonan said. 

In last year’s “On Tour” series match, Vancouver FC and Cavalry FC battled to a 0-0 draw before an announced crowd of 6,281 fans at the Apple Bowl in Kelowna, B.C.