LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – Get ready because changes are coming.

With another Olympic quadrennial wrapping up, major lineup alterations to Canada’s top rinks are more than expected. They’re guaranteed.

“I think this year is going to be the most movement you’ll ever see in a quadrennial,” said four-time Brier champion Glenn Howard. “I think you’re going to see a lot of changes – both men and women.”

Looking at the top teams competing at the week’s Tim Hortons Brier, you can’t help but wonder just how many will still be together when the 2022-23 season rolls around.

Changes on the women’s side have already started happening following the conclusion of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Team Rachel Homan lead Joanne Courtney is taking a break from the sport to focus on her career and family, while 2022 Scotties bronze medallist Andrea Crawford added former Nova Scotia skip Jill Brothers to play second on her team.

Keep up with all the player moment with TSN.ca’s roster tracker.

As for the men, we already know the current lineup of Kevin Koe’s Alberta rink is done after this season. The future of Brad Gushue and his St. John’s foursome is very much up in the air after an eight-year run, which included a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics last month.

“You hear a lot of rumours. We’re not really talking about it a whole lot right now. We’re just trying to focus on getting through this week,” said Team Gushue third Mark Nichols. “We really haven’t had a chance to think about a whole lot for the last couple months with going to the Olympics. We’re all thinking about where we want to be. Our focus is here this week.”

Other elite-level rinks could very well make changes of their own, looking to find the mix that gives them the best chance possible to stand atop the podium at the 2026 Winter Games in Milan.

The potential free-agent crop will play a major factor in new teams forming as well.

Three-time Canadian junior champion Tyler Tardi is most likely looking to join an elite-level squad after his British Columbia team disbanded. Colton Lott, 26, should be highly coveted as well after skipping his team to the Manitoba final last month and sparing at the both the Tim Hortons Curling Trials and Brier this season.

“With the Olympics being such the beacon of the sport, everybody has their eye a little bit on what that looks like for themselves and their team,” said Wild Card 3 skip Jason Gunnlaugson, who has skipped his current team at the past three Briers. “I definitely think that is part of this time of year, unfortunately.”

Howard, 59, who has curled competitively for four decades, remembers it didn’t always shake down like this.

“There were always changes, but it was never a quadrennial sort of thing,” Howard said. “It was just a matter of making a couple changes here and there. We didn’t do a lot of it. We kind of liked to stick with the team that we had. Sometimes players had left as well. It seems to be the way of the nation now. They think there’s green pastures and they maybe get stale.”

Howard has made one very notable lineup change in his career, letting go long-time teammate and friend Craig Savill in 2015 for an impossible-to-resist opportunity to play with his son, Scott. A lot of times, the reason for change is to shake things up and try to find some fresh chemistry.   

“A new type of personality, a new dynamic,” said Howard. “Team dynamics is huge in this sport. You really have to get along on and off the ice. You have to want to be with each other and sometimes I think you need a fresh face. Some teams do that for that reason alone.”

The tough part about lineup changes in curling is that it involves cutting a teammate and a friend who has been a big part of each other’s lives.

Lisa Weagle didn’t see it coming when she was let go by Homan in March of 2020 and we all know about the messy public breakup between Darren Moulding and Brendan Bottcher from earlier this season.

“It feels more cutthroat because it’s more direct,” explained Gunnlaugson. “What’s nice is that players make their own decisions, but what’s horrible is that players make their own decisions. It is a tricky thing. It can definitely be very hurtful, but on the other hand, most of the players out here have been through this process for 20-plus years.”

Manitoba third Reid Carruthers, who has played with Mike McEwen this past quad, has been through the roster wringer once or twice in his career and isn’t losing sleep over the process this time around.

“It’s not my first free agency period,” he said. “It’s not something I really get nervous about. What’s meant to be will be.”

Carruthers admits it can be a stressful experience for a player who is not used to the process.

“I can see it being a little tougher for some of the younger guys and girls who are going through this process for the first time,” he said. “But it’s just a matter of being open and honest with some of the people you may or may not want to curl with and just having some honest conversations.”

It can be especially hard for the ones who may find themselves without a chair once the music stops.  

“That’s the really unfortunate part of our game. I believe out of all the teams out here today, a lot of them aren’t going to be the same and there’s going to be people left out on the outside looking in,” explained Howard. “Really good, quality players, who want to be at this level and want to stay on the teams and stay on the top five, six or seven teams in the country and they’re not going to be there. 

“And that’s the sad part because obviously they’re great curlers or they wouldn’t be here.”

For now, the focus is on the Brier Tankard and an opportunity to represent Canada at the World Men’s Curling Championship next month in Las Vegas. But rest assured, the roster frenzy is just around the corner.