Achi news desk-
The so-called free agency period at the start of the Olympic quadrennial is typically the high water mark for curling team adjustments and player movement.
Surprise announcements in recent days and speculation about what’s to come have created a Roaring Game version of the mid-quad trade deadline. Teams want to strike before it’s too late so they can prepare for the final 18-month campaign for the Canadian Curling Trials.
With some big names coming up and a couple of curling legends calling it quits, it’s been a week to remember in the sport.
“Curling fans get their fair share of drama and news and that’s good,” veteran Brad Jacobs said Thursday.
Jacobs was right in the middle of the news cycle as he left Reid Carruthers’ team to join Brendan Bottcher’s previous team.
His new teammates – Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert – had delivered a stunner on Tuesday with word that they were making a change in the skip position.
Bottcher was out and immediately became a top free agent. Jacobs’ jump ended Wednesday night while Carruthers was left to mix options with his front end.
“I didn’t see another opportunity like this coming my way,” said Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. “For me, it was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse.
“I think what I like most about it is that it will be a tough challenge for me and I really welcome that.”
Breaking news from Canada and around the world sent to your email, as it happens.
On the brink of retirement, Jennifer Jones played her final match on Friday at the Players Championship in Toronto. Considered by many to be the greatest women’s skip ever, she announced plans last February to leave the team at the end of the season.
Four-time men’s world champion Glenn Howard, who has battled knee problems in recent years, announced his retirement this week, ending a career that spanned more than 40 years.
“Wayne Middaugh had a saying, ‘To skip, you have to hit-and-wait and take the eight feet,'” said former teammate Brent Laing of Barrie, Ont. ‘ I think Glenn Howard is the best ever to do that.”
There have been many other changes in recent days across the country. After Karsten Sturmay’s team broke up, Kyle Doering – who was fifth for Brad Gushue’s team in the world championship recently – joined Aaron Sluchinski’s rink.
John Epping will skip a new team that includes Jacob and Tanner Horgan. And Kate Cameron’s understudy, Meghan Walter, is stepping away to focus on her studies.
The Canadian Curling Trials are scheduled for late November 2025 in Halifax. The winners will represent Canada at the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan.
If things weren’t quite working over the first half of the quad, the end of the second year can be a popular time to make changes. It allows the new foursome to have a full season together in the effort to qualify for the Trials.
“No one is safe it seems, for better or for worse,” said Laing, who played in the 2018 Olympics with Kevin Koe and coached Mike McEwen’s team this past season. “We talk about how everyone makes the commitment for four years but that’s not the case, as we’ve seen this week. I will say it is interesting.”
Bottcher, meanwhile, said via email that he had nothing to add to his statement from this week when he wished his former teammates well and said he was excited about the “next iteration of Team Bottcher.”
Bottcher was 53-21 on the season but did not win any major titles. The squad finished just behind Gushue in the Canadian standings.
“For what we wanted to do with Team Bottcher, we didn’t accomplish what we set out to do in terms of winning major events,” said the team’s coach, Paul Webster of Calgary.
“The timeline was such that the boys decided they wanted to make a change because they didn’t want to wait and see if that was possible.”
Jacobs, who won an Olympic gold medal in 2014, played with Kennedy from 2019-22. Kennedy and Hebert won an Olympic gold medal with skip Kevin Martin in 2010 while Gallant won bronze with Gushue at the 2022 Games.
Meanwhile, Carruthers finished the campaign sixth in Canada and 11th in the world.
“It’s been an unbelievable week,” he said from Winnipeg. “Our team has been put in a situation that we didn’t really expect. But it’s like the nature of curling. It’s become quite a business.”
& copy 2024 The Canadian Press
