Jacobs, Koe and Fleury announce their curling teams will disband after season

The curling free-agent frenzy is heating up with a flurry of major teams announcing Wednesday they plan to split up after the season ends.

Team Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., is breaking up with skip Brad Jacobs taking a hiatus from competitive curling. Third Marc Kennedy, second E.J. Harnden and lead Ryan Harnden plan to continue playing next season.

Jacobs joined forces with the Harnden brothers, who are also his cousins, in 2008. Together they have won the 2014 Olympic gold medal, 2013 Brier and seven Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling men's championships. They finished runners-up to Brad Gushue's team at the Olympic trials in the fall.

Kennedy, who captured Olympic gold in 2010 with skip Kevin Martin, linked up with Team Jacobs ahead of the 2019-20 campaign, and the team won three consecutive GSOC titles that season. The St. Albert, Alta., native also served as Gushue's alternate last month at the Beijing Winter Olympics and earned a bronze medal.

"We knew that at some point this time would come and as hard as it is, it is on great terms — our curling journey is ending, but we will always be part of each other's personal journey moving forward and that is most important to us all," the team said in a statement.

Team Koe lead Ben Hebert already indicated his Calgary club planned to amicably break up after the season and they made it official Wednesday.

Skip Kevin Koe and Hebert have played together since 2014. Third B.J. Neufeld, who is from Winnipeg, came on board four years later along with Colton Flasch at second. The team won the Brier and silver at the worlds in 2019 during their first season together.

"It's been an incredible run together," Koe said in a statement. "We've made a ton of memories not just on podiums but off the ice the four of us came into this as friends and we're leaving as friends and that's all you can ask."

John Morris replaced Flasch the following season — throwing second and handling vice skip duties — and the team finished runners-up in back-to-back Briers.

Morris, who is a two-time Olympic gold medallist, also announced he's retiring from men's curling. The 43-year-old from Canmore, Alta., recently represented Canada in mixed doubles with Rachel Homan at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Change is also underway in the women's division with skip Tracy Fleury and her team from East St. Paul, Man., going their separate ways.

Third Selena Njegovan, second Liz Fyfe and lead Kristin MacCuish previously played together with skip Kerri Einarson and linked up with Fleury, from Sudbury, Ont., in 2018. They won the Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling's Masters tournament in 2019 and 2021 and finished runners-up to Jennifer Jones's team from Winnipeg at the Olympic trials in the fall.

"We are so grateful to have played together for the last four years," the team wrote in a statement. "There were a lot of great wins, many laughs and some ups and downs, but we couldn't be more proud of what we accomplished together as a team throughout it all."

The dominoes began falling in the women's division late last month with Ottawa's Team Homan announcing lead Joanne Courtney was stepping back from competitive curling while Team Jones said Monday they'll be parting ways with lead Dawn McEwen retiring.

Meanwhile, Team Gushue is in limbo as second Brett Gallant is planning to move to Alberta with fiancée Jocelyn Peterman, formerly of Team Jones. Lead Geoff Walker, who lives in Alberta, is already the import on Team Gushue and current residency rules prevent clubs from having more than one unless that player was born in the region.

Two Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling events will wrap up the season with the Princess Auto Players' Championship (April 12-17 at Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto) followed by the KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup (May 3-8 at the Olds Sportsplex in Olds, Alta.)