The 2026-27 curling campaign begins in earnest next week with the opening Grand Slam of the season, the CO-OP Invitational from Oct. 14-18 in Victoria, B.C.
After an off-season of significant change, the road to the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps begins with an intriguing season.
Let’s look at the major storylines for the 2026-27 season.
A New Era
With another Olympic quadrennial ending last season, several modern-day legends decided to retire.
Olympic, world and Brier champion Brad Gushue, arguably the greatest curler in Canadian history, had his swan song at the Montana’s Brier in his hometown of St. John’s, Nfld., while Swedish superstar Niklas Edin called it a career after winning his record-extending eighth World Men’s Curling Championship in Ogden, Utah.
The 46-year-old Gushue now serves as USA Curling’s High Performance Director as well as a broadcaster for the Grand Slam tour.
On the women’s side, Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni, a four-time world champion, had her farewell from competitive curling after earning silver at the Winter Olympics in Italy.
Other notable names to retire included E.J. Harnden and Reid Carruthers while two-time Olympic gold medallist Kaitlyn Lawes announced she would be pausing her career in 2026-27.
In the broadcast booth, TSN’s longtime curling play-by-play announcer Vic Rauter announced his retirement after five decades in the industry. Rob Faulds did the same on the Grand Slam tour.
Despite some major names calling it quits, there’s already a solid crop of young curlers ready to become stars.
Swiss skip Xenia Schwaller, 24, and her young rink from Zurich are already there after winning their first World Women’s Curling Championship last season in Calgary. Expect Team Schwaller, currently ranked No. 2 in the world, to give Canada’s top rink Team Rachel Homan all they can handle over the next four years, both on the Grand Slam tour and possibly at the world championships.
Then there Sweden’s Team Isabella Wrana, led by their 29-year-old energetic skip, as well as a handful of Asian rinks hovering around the top 10 in the world rankings including South Korea’s Team Eunji Gim and Youbeen Park as well as Team Mike Nihira, Team Mina Kobayashi and Team Miyu Ueno, all from Japan.
The young Canadian contingent in women’s curling is strong too with Serena Gray-Withers, 25, Selena Sturmay, 28, and Kayla Skrlik, 29, seemingly primed to clash with each other in Alberta for years to come.
Further West, Taylor Reese-Hansen and Kayla MacMillan, both 28, appear to be the frontrunners in British Columbia.
On the men’s side, Matt Dunstone, 31, could be ready to go on a Gushue-like run after finally ridding himself of his Brier burden last season while the likes of Tyler Tardi, 28, Jordon McDonald, 23, Jayden King, 24, and Sam Mooibroek, 26, will look to take the next step in their curling careers.
How will the new lineups fare in their first season?
A new Olympic quadrennial brings a slew of fresh teams hoping to find the perfect lineup in terms of ability and chemistry.
Despite all the new-look rinks, Canada’s Olympic representatives return after not making a single change.
After winning his second career Olympic gold medal, 41-year-old Brad Jacobs brought back his veteran-laden squad of third Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Hebert.
Time will tell if this older rink is committed to another full four-year run as they may be on a year-by-year basis.
The foursome of Rachel Homan, Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes are entering their second quadrennial after a truly dominating four-year run, highlighted by two Scotties Tournament of Hearts titles, two world championships, nine Grand Slams and an Olympic bronze medal.
It won’t be easy to continue the same dominance over the next quad, but Homan’s rink easily remains Canada’s top contender on the women’s circuit.
Here’s a rundown of some of new teams for this season.
Men’s Teams
Team Tyler Tardi (Saskatchewan)
After spending the last quadrennial on Kevin Koe’s squad, two-time World Junior champion Tyler Tardi has returned to full skip duties, captaining a Saskatoon-basked rink, formerly led by Mike McEwen. Team Tardi have already been busy this season, playing three bonspiels with no final appearances.
Team Tardi will be the hometown team at the 100th Brier in Saskatoon after pre-qualifying from last season’s ranking.
Team Mike McEwen (Saskatchewan)
Mike McEwen, 46, is staying in Saskatchewan as he searches for his first Brier Tankard, now playing alongside a young rink highlighted by former skip Rylan Kleiter.
The Winnipeg native doesn’t have too many more cracks at reaching the top of the Canadian curling mountain and now leads a group who have yet to find sustained success at the highest levels.
Team Brendan Bottcher (Alberta)
Brendan Bottcher returns to the skip position following a brief and uninspiring run as Brad Gushue’s second after his 2024 dismissal from the squad that won Olympic gold with Brad Jacobs in Italy.
Bottcher skips an intriguing team of third Jacob Horgan, second Tanner Horgan and lead Geoff Walker.
They’ve made the semifinal is all three of their events during the early portion of this season.
Team Matt Dunstone (Manitoba)
With power sweeper E.J. Harnden calling it a career, the defending Brier champions added the highly decorated Mark Nichols to the fold this season.
The 46-year-old Nichols, who lives in St. John’s, Nfld., as the team’s out-of-province curler, won’t bring the same sweeping ability as Harnden, but his experience and shot-making ability will give Dunstone’s rink a good chance at defending their title at the Canadian men’s curling championship.
Team Dunstone were victorious at the Okotoks Classic in late September, beating Switzerland’s Team Marco Hoesli in the final.
Team Kevin Koe (Alberta)
Four-time Brier champ Kevin Koe wasn’t ready to join Gushue and Edin in retirement last season.
The 51-year-old returns with a similar lineup after picking up 23-year-old Johnson Tao to play vice following the departure of Tyler Tardi.
Koe proved he has plenty left in the tank after making the final at last year’s Montana’s Brier.
Tardi was a big part of that squad, but it took a few seasons to find chemistry with Koe after some lean years earlier in the quad. We’ll have to see how Koe and the inexperienced Tao work together in Year One.
Team John Epping (Manitoba)
Veteran skip John Epping, 43, will look to spark some magic in the twilight of his career by playing out of Manitoba alongside vice BJ Neufeld.
Epping has four Brier appearances in his career.
Shakeup in Scotland
Men’s curling in Scotland got far more interesting this past summer after Grant Hardie, the long-time third for Bruce Mouat, joined forces with Ross Whyte.
Robin Brydone, formerly of Team Whyte, replaced Hardie on Mouat’s rink.
Hardie won the Shorty Jenkins Classic in September.
Whyte and Mouat have been major rivals for years on the Grand Slam tour and domestically. This swap will make things even more compelling in 2026-27 and beyond as both sides will look to represent Scotland at the annual World Men’s Curling Championship and 2030 Olympics in France.
Shakeup in Italy
Italian men’s curling will also have a new look this season.
Veteran skip Joel Retornaz, the 43-year-old who has represented Italy at four Olympics and 11 world championships, now captains a young team of third Stefano Gilli, second Andrea Gilli and lead Alberto Pimpini.
2025 World Junior champ Stefano Spiller, 21, now skips third Amos Mosaner and second Sebastiano Arman, formerly of Team Retornaz, as well as lead Cesare Spiller.
Spiller led his side to a playoff appearance at the World Men’s Curling Championship to close last season.
On the women’s side Giulia Zardini Lacedelli, 23, is skipping her own squad after a decade-long run with Stefania Constantini.
Constantini, 27, also has a new team, and already has a bonspiel win under her belt in 2026-27.
Italy’s four-player teams came up short at their home Olympics last winter but now have multiple men’s and women’s teams that could potentially do some damage.
New Skip in Sweden
With Edin retired, long-time vice Oskar Eriksson is now the skip of Sweden’s top men’s curling team.
The 35-year-old Eriksson won eight world titles with Edin dating back to 2013 as well as Olympic gold in 2022.
Eriksson is one of the best curlers in the world and should remain a thorn in the sides of Canadian curlers, especially following his viral confrontation with Marc Kennedy at the Olympics.
Women’s Teams
Team Kerri Einarson (Manitoba)
Team Kerri Einarson made one of the biggest changes this off-season as the 2026 Scotties Tournament of Hearts champions cut third Val Sweeting after eight years together.
Sweeting won four Canadian women’s championships with Einarson, but the pair never got over the hump at the world championship leading Einarson to make the difficult decision of adding Jocelyn Peterman to play lead and moving up sharpshooting Shannon Birchard to third. Karlee Burgess will now serve as the team’s second.
Team Einarson will represent Canada at the 2027 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Charlottetown, P.E.I., and will surely need to go through to Team Homan in order to defend their title.
Team Serena Gray-Withers (Alberta)
Serena Gray-Withers added Laura Walker to play second this season as the 25-year-old looks to qualify for her first Tournament of Hearts.
Rounded out by second Catherine Clifford, 26, and lead Zoe Cinnamon, 24, Team Gray-Withers have seen gradual improvement over the last couple seasons and could be ready for a breakout in 2026-27 with Walker now in the fold.
They won the Saville Shootout in September, beating reigning Alberta champion Team Selena Sturmay in the final. Team Gray-Withers also made the final of the Asham Icebreaker.
Team Kayla Skrlik (Alberta)
Kayla Skrlik has a fresh look for this season with the addition of two-time Canadian junior champ Myla Plett to play third as well as second Sarah Koltun and lead Samantha Fisher.
Skrlik and Fisher have each been to three Scotties while Koltun leads the team with 10 appearances. Plett, 21, is looking for her first.
Team Kayla MacMillan (British Columbia)
Following her dismissal from the Canadian champions, Val Sweeting found a new home with Kayla MacMillan in British Columbia.
MacMillan, 28, dropped the 2024 BC final to Corryn Brown and the 2026 semifinal to eventual winner Taylor Reese-Hansen.
Team MacMillan hasn’t made the playoffs in three event this season as they get set to compete in the CO-OP Invitational.
Team Kate Cameron (Quebec)
After several years competing in Manitoba, Kate Cameron teamed up with the animated Laurie St-Georges in Quebec.
St-Georges’ five-year streak of skipping Quebec at the Scotties ended last season as the 29-year-old will now serve as Cameron’s vice.
Cameron has been to eight Scotties, including finishing second in 2017 and skipping her team to a third-place finish in 2024.
Team Cameron will be the major favourites to represent Quebec in Charlottetown.
Team Selena Njegovan (Manitoba)
Selena Njegovan has a new team this season, featuring third Erin Pincott, second Margot Flemming and lead Krysten Karwacki.
However, the 34-year-old Njegovan is currently taking time away from the game to focus on her growing family. Veteran skip Chelsea Carey has filled in for Njegovan so far this season.
Njegovan skipped and threw third stones for Team Kaitlyn Lawes last season as they made the Scotties final where they lost to Team Einarson.
Team Alina Pätz (Switzerland)
Alina Patz is now the shot caller and last rock thrower for her Swiss rink following the retirement of Silvana Tirinzoni.
Playing alongside third Selina Witschonke, second Stefanie Berset and lead Renée Frigo, Patz hasn’t lost a beat so far this season, already winning three events.
Team Patz will likely become significant rivals with Team Xenia Schwaller over the next few years as both sidles look to represent Switzerland at the women’s worlds.
Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Charlottetown
The first Scotties Tournament of Hearts in the new quadrennial will take place from Feb. 12-21 at the Eastlink Centre in Charlottetown, PEI.
“Charlottetown’s rich history of hosting Canada’s best women’s curling teams and delivering world-class events was front of mind throughout this process. The excitement the city, province and curling community showed in the quality of their bid played a significant role in our decision,” said Nolan Thiessen, chief executive officer of Curling Canada. “This will be the first Scotties Tournament of Hearts in the next Olympic quadrennial and it will be exciting to see new lineups starting their journeys together.”
Team Kerri Einarson will represent Canada as the skip looks for her sixth national title. Ottawa’s Team Rachel Homan and Victoria’s Team Reese-Hansen have already booked their spots too thanks to strong seasons last year.
Charlottetown has hosted the Scotties on four previous occasions, most recently in 2011 when Saskatchewan’s Amber Holland beat defending champion Jennifer Jones in the final.
The winners will represent Canada at the 2027 World Women’s Curling Championship from March 13-21. World Curling has yet to confirm the location of the women’s worlds despite the major event being just five months away.
100th Montana’s Brier in Saskatoon
One of Canada’s oldest sports championships will reach the century mark in 2027 as the 100th Montana’s Brier is slated to take place in Saskatoon from Feb.26-March 7.
The event will take place at the SaskTel Centre which has a capacity of just over 15,000.
Murray MacNeill and his Nova Scotia rink won the first Canadian men’s curling championship – known at that time as the Macdonald Brier – at Toronto’s Granite Club in 1927.
The three-day event featured just eight teams, 14-end games and no playoffs as Murray’s Halifax-based side claimed victory with a 6-1 round robin record.
The Brier has been held annually every year aside from 1943 to 1945 because of the Second World War.
Today’s Montana’s Brier looks a lot different with each 18 teams competing, including representation from every province and territory.
This marks the seventh time Saskatoon has hosted the Brier and the first since 2012 when Glenn Howard topped Kevin Koe in the championship game. The 75th Brier was also held in Saskatoon, an event capped by Nova Scotia’s Mark Dacey defeating Alberta’s Randy Ferbey in a memorable final at the height of the Ferbey Four’s reign.
“The Montana’s Brier is the epitome of Canadiana. What started as a modest event of goodwill and celebration of the sport of curling has evolved into one of the most recognizable properties in Canadian sport,” said Thiessen. “It reflects our values of teamwork and camaraderie without sacrificing the tension of competition at the highest level and the remarkable feats of the athletes.
“The Montana’s Brier has evolved in format over the years, but it still continues to celebrate every province and territory and brings together athletes and fans from coast-to-coast-to-coast. The 2027 edition, the 100th anniversary of the first Brier, is going to be a special celebration of our past, present and future.”
Matt Dunstone and his Winnipeg rink will represent Canada at this year’s Montana’s Brier as the defending champions. Olympic gold medallists Team Brad Jacobs and Saskatoon’s Team Tyler Tardi will also be there as the pre-qualified rinks.
The winning team will don the Maple Leaf at the 2027 World Men’s Curling Championship in Saint John, N.B., from March 27 to April 4.
Grand Slam schedule change and first full Rock League season
During a typical season, five Grand Slam events have been played from October through April.
With The Curling Group adding Rock League to its repertoire, dubbed as the sport’s first professional curling league, the five Grand Slam events will now be played over a two-month span in the fall.
Here’s a look at how the schedule breaks down:
Invitational — Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre, Victoria (Oct. 13-18)
Masters — Co-op Place, Medicine Hat, Alta. (Nov. 3-8)
National — Centre 200, Sydney, N.S. (Nov. 17-22)
Open — Fort William Gardens, Thunder Bay, Ont. (Dec. 1-6)
Players’ Cup — Slush Puppie Place, Kingston, Ont. (Dec. 15-20)
Additionally, a junior Under-21 Grand Slam event will be played alongside the Masters in early November at the Medicine Hat Curling Club while the 2026 GSOC Wheelchair Invitational will take place during the Players’ Cup in December.
With the Grand Slam season ending before Christmas, the New Year brings the first full season of Rock League.
Shield Curling Club, captained by Olympic champion Brad Jacobs, won the inaugural Rock League competition last April as fans got a taste of the new mixed gender, multiple discipline format that looks to revitalize the Roaring Game.
Rock League will return in early 2027 for a full five-week competition, culminating with the championship in April from Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Here’s how the full schedule breaks down:
Week 1: Jan. 7-10, 2027 - Temple Gardens Centre in Moose Jaw, SK
Week 2: Jan. 28-31, 2027 - NBT Bank Arena in Utica, NY
Week 3: Feb. 4-7, 2027 - TD Place in Ottawa
Week 4: April 8-11 – Servus Arena in Red Deer, AB
Playoffs and Championship: April 15-18, 2027 - Wings Event Center in Kalamazoo, MI
The full rules and regulations for the 2027 Rock league have yet to be released.
The inaugural Rock League received positive reviews from its players last year, so we’ll have to see what season two has in store.