News Players' Championship

TORONTO — Brad Gushue said you shouldn’t read too much into a comment he made that may have hinted at his future in curling beyond next season.

Gushue was asked Tuesday about playing in this week’s AMJ Players’ Championship, specifically at the Mattamy Athletic Centre, where he has so many memories from winning the event twice to clinching the former season championship known as the Rogers Cup on three occasions.

This year marks the 10th time the venue has hosted the event since 2013. With the AMJ Players’ Championship on the move next season — heading to Steinbach, Man., Jan. 6-11, 2026 — Gushue reflected on his time playing in the historic venue formerly known as Maple Leaf Gardens.

“This has always been my favourite event to play, the Players’ Championship in Toronto, in this building. I’ve always enjoyed it,” Gushue said. “If it’s going to be a while until we come back, I’m certainly on the older side here, so this is a good chance that this might be my last one in this building unless it comes back in the next four or five years.”

Gushue elaborated Wednesday in an interview with The Curling Group’s Devin Heroux as it may have been interpreted as a sign that he’s already committed to play for another Olympic cycle.

“The only thing to read into it is, just what I’ve heard is it’s going to be a number of years before this event is back,” Gushue said. “I could say with a lot of certainty that I don’t think I’ll play past the next quad. I’ll be 50 years old, I’ll be looking to play seniors at that point. That was kind of what I was alluding to is if it’s not here in the next five years, I doubt I’ll get a chance to play in this building again.

“I’m trying to relish it. This is a great building, I’ve had success here, I’ve had fun here, but I don’t think you need to read too much into that. It’s just more about what I’ve heard about this event playing here in Toronto.”

Gushue has competed for Canada twice at the Olympics, capturing gold in 2006 and bronze in 2022. He’s also earned one gold and four silver medals at the world championship, a record six Brier titles as a skip, and 15 Grand Slam of Curling championships to sit second behind only Kevin Martin (18) on the all-time men’s skips wins list in the series.

The St. John’s native will be 46 years old when the next quadrennial starts and the road to the 2030 Olympics in the French Alps begins.

Gushue said there could “absolutely” be another cycle for him, however, he’s probably not going to make that decision until after this Olympic Trials in November to determine who will represent Canada next year in Italy.

“At that point, everybody thinks about what’s going to happen in the next quad, whether you make team changes, whether you decide to continue to play,” Gushue said. “I think that’s a decision that if you’re successful at the Trials, you make after the Olympics. If you’re not successful, you generally make right after the Olympic Trials.

“I’m not thinking about this at this point. I’ve still got a full year. I still want to get back to the Olympics. I still want to win another Brier. A lot of goals that I want to achieve, so it makes no sense to think about it at this point.”

If Gushue decides to give it another go after 2026, it’ll be for a four-year run and not on a year-by-year basis.

“You can’t make a one-year commitment anymore because everybody’s looking for a four-year commitment,” Gushue said. “I think that’s the basis that all of us are going to have to make the decision on: Do we want to commit to another four years?

“It’s a good thing about our sport being so focused on the Olympics, but that’s a bad thing where you can’t take it year by year. If you know you’ve got a year or two left in you, you probably want to continue to play, but nobody’s going to want to play with you because they’re going to want four years.”