Jacobs joins forces with Kennedy, Gallant and Hebert for next season
Skip Brad Jacobs has linked up with Brendan Bottcher’s former teammates based in Alberta for next season to form a powerhouse crew.
The new Team Jacobs — featuring third Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Hebert — made the announcement Wednesday on social media.
The trio released a statement Tuesday saying they had parted ways with Bottcher and were moving in a different direction. That was followed by an announcement earlier Wednesday from Team Reid Carruthers saying Jacobs was leaving their club.
All four members the new Team Jacobs have represented Canada at the Olympic Winter Games. Jacobs skipped Canada to gold in 2014 while Kennedy and Hebert earn gold on home ice with skip Kevin Martin at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games. Kennedy and Hebert returned in 2018 with skip Kevin Koe and finished fourth. Gallant claimed bronze with skip Brad Gushue in 2022 and Kennedy also earned another Olympic medal as their alternate.
Jacobs has captured the Brier once, Kennedy is a three-time Canadian champion, Gallant and Hebert have won four apiece.
They have also earned a combined 52 Grand Slam of Curling titles. Kennedy leads the pack with 17, Jacobs has seven while both Gallant and Hebert hold 14.
Jacobs and Kennedy previously played together from 2019-22 and won three consecutive Grand Slam titles during their first season as teammates.
Although both Team Carruthers and Team Bottcher had found success on tour since the start of the Olympic cycle last season, Brad Gushue and his St. John’s, N.L., team remain at the top of Canada’s curling mountain with back-to-back Brier wins.
Team Bottcher won Grand Slam of Curling titles last year at the Co-op Canadian Open and Champions Cup. They were runners-up in two events on the elite circuit this season and spent four weeks in the fall as the No. 1 ranked team in the world. The group finished the year ranked No. 4 in the world, second among Canada clubs, and Team Jacobs will retain a pre-qualifier berth to next year’s Montana’s Brier.
Carruthers, No. 11 in the world and sixth in Canada, has won Curling Canada’s PointsBet Invitational single knockout tournament both times during the past two seasons.
Carruthers, second Derek Samagalski and lead Connor Njegovan are now exploring their options.