The Alberta curling four went ahead without skipping Brendan Boettcher

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Mark Kennedy calls it the Brad Gushue effect.

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“He was absolutely dominant and the teams under him were going to do everything they could to beat him,” Kennedy, a two-time Olympian, said on Tuesday.

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“We thought we had to do something to make it happen.”

So one of Canada's premier men's curling teams dropped a huge bombshell by announcing that 2021 Brier winner Brendan Boettcher is looking for new teammates just 18 months before the Olympic curling trials.

“Definitely a bomb and a tough couple of days for everybody,” Kennedy said from his home near Edmonton. “Brendan was a fantastic team-mate and a good friend and it was nothing. Not for a moment.

“We put our team together to win big. A couple of us are under some time constraints when it comes to our careers here, and we're asking ourselves, 'Is this the current lineup that's going to go out here and win major championships?' I had to ask. We had some question marks.”

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Gushue, a curler from St. John's, NL, has won the Brier six times in the last eight years and has taken the last three in a row. His team also won the 2021 Olympic Trials.

Team Bottcher finished third at this year's Brier in Regina, Montana, with Kennedy third, Brett Gallant second and Ben Hebert leading. Those three players will move on without Botcher, who along with coach Paul Webster has been one of the top skippers in the country for the past eight years.

Kennedy said the team hopes to announce a new skip within the next 72 hours.

“We knew if we were going to make a change or make a decision on a new lineup, it had to be quick,” Kennedy said. “We've had to have a tough conversation and we're going to try to overcome big things.”

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Several curling sources said the top contender for the job is Brad Jacobs, who has been throwing skip stones for Winnipeg's Reid Carruthers this season. Jacobs won an Olympic gold medal in 2014 and has been a strong contender at the Brier for years, representing mostly Northern Ontario.

There is also uncertainty surrounding the future of 49-year-old Kevin Coe and his Alberta-based team that includes Tyler Tardy, Jacques Gauthier and Carrick Martin. If Coe chooses to back down after his team's disastrous performance at the 2024 Brier, it could be a soft landing for Bottcher.

Alberta's Aaron Sluchinski also took to social media on Tuesday to announce that a player announcement is coming soon. Sluchinski beat Coe in the Alberta provincial championship this season.

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“We're not going to be the only domino to fall,” Kennedy said. “This is the impact of Brad Gushue's team on Canadian curling. Every year it forces teams to rethink where they are, where they're trying to get to, and whether they're willing to make the tough decisions to compete with it.

“It's something unique that we haven't seen before in our sport. That seems to be the case with Roger Federer right now. We don't want to be the status quo and we're not the only team that feels that way right now, so there will be some changes.

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Team Bottcher finished its second season as a top four. The team was formed after the 2022 Olympics with the goal of not only defeating Canada, but also bringing the country to the top of the international curling scene.

With two-time Olympians and 2010 gold medalists Kennedy and Hebert on board, and 2022 Olympic bronze medalist Gallant, the team looked like an absolute powerhouse on paper.

But results on paper don't always translate to results on ice.

“We're not an easy team to manage,” Kennedy said. “That's a big part of it, too. We have great personalities and it takes a special person to lead with what Brett, Ben and I have gone through in our success.

“Brendan is a great curler and he overcomes a lot of things. His trajectory is high and I wouldn't be surprised if he becomes one of the best curlers this country has ever seen. But is it on the timeline for the next 18 months? I do not know. There are things to work on.”

The team won two Grand Slam titles during their time together (2023 Canadian Open, 2023 Champions Cup) and climbed to the top of the CTRS standings this season.

The team earned one of the three wild-card spots at the 2025 Brier in Montana and will retain that spot even if they miss another.

The Olympic Curling Trials are scheduled to be held in Halifax in late November 2025. The winner will represent Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy.

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