2022 Scotties Tournament of Hearts and Tim Hortons Brier will feature 18-team fields

Should the 2022 Scotties Tournament of Hearts proceed as planned, it will feature an expanded 18-team field, it was announced today by Curling Canada.

The event, scheduled at Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, Ont., from Jan. 28-Feb. 6, is still pending approval by Ontario’s Ministry of Health. 

Curling Canada will also use the 18-team field at the 2022 Tim Hortons Brier, presented by AGI, from March 4-13 at ENMAX Centre in Lethbridge, Alta.

“Curling has a time-honoured tradition of teams playing their way into events such as national and world championships. Unfortunately, over the past two years, that’s fallen to the wayside due to the ongoing pandemic,” said Curling Canada CEO Katherine Henderson. “Like last season, some playdown events were played, and others were cancelled leading up to the Scotties and Tim Hortons Brier, and the only thing we can do to ensure equity across the playing field is expanding the field once again. Barring any future setbacks related to the pandemic, we fully intend on returning to the traditional 16-team field and Wild Card play-in game in 2023.”

The top three teams on the Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) that did not qualify for the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and Tim Hortons Brier through a provincial/territorial playdown event or selection will receive invitations to the national championships.

For the Scotties, the 18-team field now includes Team Hollie Duncan representing Ontario, Team Tracy Fleury as Wild Card 1, Team Chelsea Carey as Wild Card 2 and Team Rachel Homan as Wild Card 3.

Homan has been selected to represent Canada in mixed doubles at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games and will not compete in Thunder Bay with her team. However, Team Homan maintains three of four players for the 2022 Scotties Tournament of Hearts and is therefore eligible to compete.

Curling Canada will release more information about ticketing and spectators pending further consultation with the Province of Ontario.