Curling Canada confirms pre-qualified teams for Scotties, Brier
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Curling Canada announced the six pre-qualified teams for the 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts and Montana's Brier on Wednesday.
This will be the second year teams can pre-qualify for the national championships via their strong ranking on the the previous season's Canadian Team Ranking System.
For the 2025 Scotties, taking place in Thunder Bay in mid-February, three Manitoba-based rinks will join defending champion Team Rachel Homan of Ontario as the first four teams in the 18-team field.
Two-time Scotties champion Chelsea Carey will compete in her first Canadian women's curling championship since 2022 after taking over for the retiring Jennifer Jones this off-season.
Team Jones have made back-to-back Scotties finals and finished second on the CTRS in 2023-24.
Team Kerri Einarson, winners of four straight Scotties titles from 2020-2023, and Team Kaitlyn Lawes, ranked No. 2 and No. 3 respectively on the CTRS, also pre-qualified.
On the men's side, Alberta's Team Brad Jacobs, Saskatchewan's Team Mike McEwen and Manitoba's Team Matt Dunstone will be in Kelowna for March's Brier alongside three-time defending champion Team Brad Gushue of Newfoundland and Labrador.
In April, Jacobs took over the rink that was previously skipped by Brendan Bottcher after a stunning move which saw the 2021 Brier champion without a team.
Team Jacobs - formerly Team Bottcher - finished second on the CTRS last year, losing in the Brier semifinal the past two seasons.
Team McEwen ranked third on the CTRS after earning silver at the Brier in Regina while Team Dunstone finished fourth.
Earlier this week, Curling Canada also announced Team Homan and Team Gushue would represent Canada at the third annual Pan Continental Curling Championship in the fall.