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2025 Montana’s Brier – Meet the Teams #1
Meet the teams competing at the 2025 Montana’s Brier
The 2025 Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI, is slated for Feb. 28 to March 9 at Prospera Place in Kelowna, B.C. Eighteen men’s teams will compete in the national curling championship. Meet the teams:
Team Canada
Team Brad Gushue looks to win its fourth straight championship, but with some fresh blood on the team as former Montana’s Brier champion skip Brendan Bottcher joined the team late in the season, replacing E.J. Harnden at second.
Bottcher, the 2021 champion skip, joins six-time Brier winners Gushue, Mark Nichols at vice-skip and lead Geoff Walker of Newfoundland and Labrador for the 2025 event. Team Gushue has won six of the past eight men’s national championships.
Gushue has the six Montana’s Brier titles to his name – first place all-time as a skip with two more than Kevin Koe, Ernie Richardson, Randy Ferbey and Kevin Martin. He is always a formidable opponent at nationals where he will make his 22nd appearance and 19th straight, an incredible run that includes two runner-up finishes and one bronze medal to go with the six titles.
Gushue’s Montana’s Brier championships were back-to-back crowns in 2017-18, 2020 and the current 2022-24 run. He also competed at five World Championships (the 2020 event was cancelled due to COVID-19), winning once and finishing second four times. Gushue has two Olympic medals, gold in 2006 in Turin with Russ Howard, Nichols, Jamie Korab and Mike Adam and bronze in 2022 with Nichols, Brett Gallant and Walker. He was also a World Junior champion in 1998 and 2001.
Nichols was part of the 2001 World Junior gold medallist team and makes his 21st appearance at nationals and 13th straight. He also has six gold medals, two silver and a bronze from his Montana’s Brier battles, as well as matching Gushue’s World accomplishments.
Walker makes his 14th trip to nationals where he, too, is a six-time gold medallist; World champion; and twice a World Junior champion (once as an alternate).
Bottcher will appear in his ninth-straight Montana’s Brier, having won the title as skip of his Alberta team in 2021after finishing as a runner-up the previous three years. He also finished third in 2022 and 2023 and was the World Junior champion in 2012.
The team is coached by Jeff Hoffart and has Adam Casey as its alternate, making his 10th appearance.
Purchase your tickets for the 2025 Montana’s Brier in Kelowna at https://www.curling.ca/2025brier/tickets/
Team Yukon
Thomas Scoffin will wear the territory’s colours for a sixth time at the 2025 Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI, including a fourth straight trip to nationals.
Scoffin this time leads teammates Kerr Drummond at vice-skip, second Trygg Jensen and lead Joe Wallingham into the prestigious event.
Scoffin finished 2-6 in 2024, matching his record from the year previous. This time Drummond joins the team, joining Scoffin after competing as a second at the 2024 Montana’s Brier with Alberta skip Aaron Sluchinski.
Drummond is a native of Scotland and collected silver and bronze medals, respectively, at the 2010 and 2012 World Junior Championships. Drummond played lead with skips Ally Fraser and Kyle Smith, respectively, at those events.
All four team members have previous men’s national’s experience. Scoffin competed in seven straight New Holland Canadian U-20 Championships, finishing as a runner-up to Matt Dunstone in his final junior event in 2013. Scoffin also competed in three U SPORTS championships for the University of Alberta, winning gold and two silver medals.
He was also an alternate for Brendan Bottcher in a fourth U SPORTS championship, also earning silver. He has competed in a Canadian Mixed Curling Championship; earned bronze at the 2012 Youth Olympic Games in Austria; and twice appeared at the Canada Winter Games.
Jensen and Wallingham are both entering their fifth Montana’s Brier and both have experienced New Holland Canadian U-21 Curling Championships. Jensen also competed in the Canada Winter Games in 2015 and twice appeared at the Canadian Colleges Curling Championships.
Darren Moulding is the team’s coach and this season was an alternate with Alberta runner-up, Team Evan van Amsterdam. He has six Montana’s Brier appearances as a player, winning gold with Brendan Bottcher and finishing second three times.
Purchase your tickets for the 2025 Montana’s Brier in Kelowna at https://www.curling.ca/2025brier/tickets/
Team Quebec
After a dropping a tight 7-6 setback in last year’s provincial final, Félix Asselin will lead his team back to the Montana’s Brier presented by AGI.
It will be Asselin’s fifth trip – and fourth in five years – to the men’s national championship after the Montreal-based fourth and his team of vice-skip Jean-Michel Ménard (who calls the game), second Martin Crête and lead Jean-François Trépanier defeated Robert Desjardins 9-3 in the provincial final. Team Asselin recorded deuces in each of the sixth, eighth and ninth ends to break open the game.
Asselin is accustomed to not calling the game, after previously playing second for skip Mike Fournier, but throwing final stones. Asselin’s team was 5-3 at the 2023 Montana’s Brier and he is 16-16 overall at nationals.
Ménard – who initially played third when joining Asselin this season but now calls the game – is a former Brier champion, claiming the title back in 2006. It was the second Quebec team to win a Montana’s Brier. This will be his 12th trip to nationals.
Crête and Trépanier were also members of Fournier’s Brier teams in 2021 and 2022 that were selected to play at nationals after provincial playdowns were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Crête will mark his 12th appearance at the 2025 Montana’s Brier, but along with Asselin, is looking for his first medal.
Trépanier will be making his fifth trip to the Montana’s Brier, his first was in 2018 and all came along with Fournier and Félix Asselin.
Pierre Charette is the team coach.
Purchase your tickets for the 2025 Montana’s Brier in Kelowna at https://www.curling.ca/2025brier/tickets/
Team Nova Scotia
At the age of 24, Owen Purcell – who earned a bronze medal for Canada at the 2022 World Junior Curling Championship – will make his first trip to the Montana’s Brier after defeating Kendal Thompson 8-5 in the 2025 provincial final.
Purcell, who lost three straight games against eventual champion Matthew Manuel at last year’s Nova Scotia Tankard, leads his team of vice-skip Luke Saunders, second Scott Saccary and lead Ryan Abraham into the national championship after posting a 7-1 record at provincials. His only loss came during round-robin play to Thompson.
Purcell is also a former Canadian U-18 champion while playing third for skip Graeme Weagle and skipped the Dalhousie Tigers at the 2022 FISU World University Games qualifier and later won bronze for Canada at the 2023 Winter World University Games.
Purcell made the trip to the 2022 World Junior after the 2021 Canadian Junior was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and replaced by the World Junior Qualification event in the fall.
Saunders will make his third-straight appearance at the Montana’s Brier, the first two with Manuel, who defeated Purcell in the 2023 provincial final. Saunders is the son of six-time Canadian and two-time world champion Colleen Jones, who coaches this team.
Saccary has the most Montana’s Brier experience of the team, making his seventh trip to the national championship. He is a former member of both Jamie Murphy and Paul Flemming’s teams, where he was slotted in at second and vice-skip, respectively.
He did skip his own team to two Canadian Junior championships in 2002 and 2003, finishing 5-7 and 6-6, respectively.
Abraham will make his third trip in four years to the Montana’s Brier, having played second for Flemming in 2022 and 2023 before joining Purcell as vice-skip in 2024 and moving to lead this season after Saunders joined the team. He was also a member of Manuel’s two-time Nova Scotia junior championship team.
Purcell’s alternate is Calan MacIsaac.
Purchase your tickets for the 2025 Montana’s Brier in Kelowna at https://www.curling.ca/2025brier/tickets/
Team Nunavut
Skip Shane Latimer will represent Nunavut a second straight year after beating Peter Mackey in three straight games of a best-of-five series.
It’s a different looking team as Justin McDonell steps in at the second position and Peter Van Strien moves from the 2024 team alternate to lead. Sheldon Wettig remains at vice-skip for the Territorial champions who defeated Team Macey 9-3, 8-3 and 8-2.
Latimer went 1-7 in his Brier debut last year in Regina with the lone win over Nova Scotia. It was just Nunavut’s second ever win at the national men’s championship as Jake Higgs defeated Newfoundland and Labrador in 2023. Latimer is also the coach of the Western Ontario University Mustangs.
Wettig competed in both the 2023 and 2024 Montana’s Briers, but also appeared in five games at the 2020 national championship as the alternate for Nunavut, one as the second and four as the vice-skip.
“Any time you put so much time into something that you get to go to the big stage you never take that for granted,” Wettig told the Brandon Sun of his upcoming fourth appearance.
McDonell and Van Strein both represented Nunavut at the 2023 Everest Curling Club Championship where the team finished 3-3 in pool play.
Katie Brooks is the team coach.
Purchase your tickets for the 2025 Montana’s Brier in Kelowna at https://www.curling.ca/2025brier/tickets/