Fresh looks for top curling rinks

April 27, 2026

Key points from this story:

• Brad Jacobs wins men's world championship
• Kerri Einarson's rink reshuffles lineup
• Brad Gushue retires, shakes up teams
• New teams forming for Olympic cycle
• Val Sweeting joins Kayla MacMillan team
• Year one is experimental for curling lineups

Now that Brad Jacobs and his rink have won the men's world curling championship and Kerri Einarson came up one game short at the women's worlds, Canada's elite curlers are rearranging lineups to begin the next four-year Olympic Games cycle. The main goal, besides efforts to win the Brier, Scotties and world championships each year, is to represent Canada at the Olympics in 2030 in the French Alps. While occasional personnel changes happen from year to year, this year's avalanche of changes was sparked by Brad Gushue's announcement that he was retiring from competitive curling.

With Gushue no longer at the helm of the rink that won six Briers and one world championship, the remaining three members of his rink had decisions to make. Third Brendan Bottcher's decision was to become a skip once again and take lead Geoff Walker with him, adding the Horgan brothers from Northern Ontario, Jacob and Tanner, who had been with John Epping of Ontario. The Horgans' departure left Epping scrambling for replacements, and he wound up forming a Manitoba-based team featuring B.J. Neufeld, Ryan Wiebe and Ian McMillan. Gushue's veteran third, Mark Nichols, will throw second stones for reigning Brier champ Matt Dunstone.

Veteran skip Mike McEwen departed from his Saskatchewan-based rink -- whether he left on his own accord or was pushed is not known -- but it didn't take long for him to find a new rink. He will throw fourth stones for the rink led in recent years by Rylan Kleiter, out of Saskatoon. The shell of the former McEwen rink -- Colton Flasch, Kevin Marsh, Dan Marsh -- remains intact and will now be skipped by Tyler Tardi, who left the Kevin Koe rink, where he was the third.

With Tardi gone, Koe filled the vacated spot with Johnson Tao, joining the front end of Aaron Sluchinski and Karrick Martin.

On the women's side, the major off-season news was the departure -- firing? -- of Val Sweeting from the Scotties' champion Einarson foursome. It didn't take long for Sweeting to find a new landing spot; she'll curl third on the Kayla MacMillan team from Victoria. Meanwhile, Sweeting's position with Einarson was quickly filled by veteran Jocelyn Peterman, who teamed with her husband Brett Gallant to represent Canada in the Olympic Games mixed doubles in February. Peterman will throw lead stones but hold the broom for Einarson while Shannon Birchard moves up to third and Kaylee Burgess takes over at second.

Long-time Manitoba skip Kate Cameron announced she is moving to Quebec to take over the rink formerly skipped by Laurie Ste-Georges, who will drop down to third. And Kaitlyn Lawes' Manitoba team, which finished runner-up at this year's Scotties, is breaking up altogether.

Year One of curling's new lineups will be experimental in nature. The evolution of rink personnel will likely continue until 2029, when the Olympic Trials will determine whether the changes were good, bad or indifferent.

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