Every team's most intriguing pick in the WFG Masters draft

Interesting choices were made when the Grand Slam of Curling staged its first-ever draft for the upcoming WFG Masters.

The top four in the men’s and women’s divisions picked teams seeded No. 5 through No. 16 as their pool opponents for the tournament taking place Jan. 14-19 at the Sleeman Centre in Guelph, Ont.

The draft, held online last month, consisted of three rounds with teams making their picks in a snake order.

As we saw from the draft results, it wasn’t a matter of just selecting the lowest-seeded team available. Let’s take a deep dive into which one stands out as the most intriguing pick for each team.

All head-to-head data courtesy of CurlingZone.

Team Homan: First round, Team Ha (No. 8 seed)

Seventeen-time Grand Slam women’s champion Rachel Homan went off the board right at the start selecting Seung-youn Ha with the first overall pick in the women's draft.

Their teams have met only twice and the one time they faced earlier this season took place in a Grand Slam playoff game. Homan scored three points in the first and fifth ends during a 6-1 win in the Co-op Canadian Open semifinals in November en route to the title.

Homan, who also won the KIOTI National last month, is not only aiming for a third straight Grand Slam title but No. 18 would tie her with Kevin Martin for the most championships in series history.

Team Tirinzoni: Third round, Team Hasselborg (No. 6 seed)

Silvana Tirinzoni has one-sided head-to-head results against her team’s first two picks — 5-0 vs. Danielle Inglis and 15-1 vs. Stefania Constantini — which makes Anna Hasselborg an interesting case.

They’ve faced each other 61 times, including 18 in Grand Slams with Hasselborg holding the advantage in the series. Surprisingly, they've only met in a Grand Slam final once with Hasselborg defeating Tirinzoni to capture the first and only Elite 10 women's title in 2018.

But Tirinzoni has the upper hand in recent matchups, winning eight straight including an 8-4 victory in the European Championships gold-medal game in November.

Hasselborg was the No. 6 seed, although based on recent play, her team could have easily been one of the top four in the draft. Her team missed the playoffs during the HearingLife Tour Challenge (second Agnes Knochenhauer was absent and alternate Johanna Heldin filled in) and the Swedish squad skipped (no pun intended) the Co-op Canadian Open to train for the European Championships. The “real” Team Hasselborg showed up for the KIOTI National and lost just one game all week, falling to Homan in the final.

Team Einarson: Third round, Team Fujisawa (No. 5 seed)

Kerri Einarson held the third pick in the third round, which was the “pick your poison” spot as it was down to either selecting Satsuki Fujisawa or Eun-ji Gim. Who to choose?

Both matches between Einarson and Fujisawa earlier this season were in Grand Slam playoff games. Einarson earned a 6-4 victory in the HearingLife Tour Challenge semifinals and a 12-3 rout in the KIOTI National quarterfinals.

Einarson also defeated Fujisawa 5-3 in last season’s Co-op Canadian Open quarterfinals, making that a three-game head-to-head winning streak.

Their most memorable game against each other in the Grand Slams came during the 2023 Canadian Open final where Team Fujisawa won 5-3 to become the first Japanese club to capture a title in the series.

The case for not picking Gim: Einarson holds a positive head-to-head record (8-5 all-time) but they haven’t faced once this season. Gim has also won four of their last five matchups.

Team Einarson will have a different look as Karlee Burgess has joined for the remainder of the season with second Shannon Birchard recovering from a knee injury. Burgess previously played with skip Chelsea Carey and departed from the team earlier this month.

Team Kim: Third round, Team Gim (No. 7 seed)

This one almost didn’t feel fair to include as Team Kim coach Peter Gallant didn’t so much as select Team Gim as he was stuck with them as the final pick. Don’t call Gim “Ms. Irrelevant” though, as unlike a normal draft, being the last pick here means the other teams don’t want to face you.

Kim and Gim’s pair of matches this season came way back in June at the Korean national curling championship. Kim claimed a 7-6 victory during pool play, but Gim took the rematch in the semifinals 10-4.

Still, Kim has won four of their past six meetings dating back to the Uiseong Korean Cup final in November 2023. That stretch includes one Grand Slam game — an 8-1 rout for Kim during the Players’ Championship round-robin in April.

Team Mouat: Third round, Team Edin (No. 13 seed)

An Olympic final rematch is set for pool play between Beijing 2022 champion Niklas Edin and runner-up Bruce Mouat.

It’s hard to believe Edin was seeded 13th — his team has missed the playoffs in two of the three Grand Slam events so far — but not surprising he fell to the last round. Even then, Team Mouat second Bobby Lammie and lead Hammy McMillan Jr.’s selection garnered some reaction in the virtual draft room.

Although the teams are tied all-time, Mouat has won eight straight matchups dating back to the European Championships gold medal game in November 2023. That also snapped a six-game winning streak for Edin in their head-to-head meetings.

Their most famous meeting came at the 2022 Olympics. However, they have also had some memorable GSOC encounters including their first way back at the 2016 Champions Cup. Mouat, then 21 years old, was making his Grand Slam series debut as the reigning world junior champion and upset Edin 6-5. They also faced off in the 2022 Players’ Championship final, just two months after the Olympics, with Mouat winning 8-3.

Team Schwaller: Second round, Team Dunstone (No. 5 seed)

Yannick Schwaller and Matt Dunstone have battles since they were in juniors with their first meeting taking place a decade ago.

Ignoring their junior results, Dunstone leads 7-5 all-time although it’s a case of two streaks. Dunstone won their first seven matches in men’s play, but Schwaller is now on a five-game winning run dating back to the Players’ Championship in April 2023.

That includes their one meeting earlier this season. Schwaller defeated Dunstone 8-3 during the triple knockout round of the HearingLife Tour Challenge in October.

The WFG Masters will be Dunstone’s first Grand Slam event since shuffling his lineup, parting ways with third B.J. Neufeld after the KIOTI National. E.J. Harnden, brother of lead Ryan Harnden, has joined at second with Colton Lott moving to third.

Team McEwen: Second round, Team Epping (No. 11 seed)

Mike McEwen edged John Epping 6-5 in an extra end last month during a tour event in Swift Current. Before that matchup, McEwen and Epping hadn’t faced off since the 2023 Ontario provincial playdowns. Neither one plays out of the region now. McEwen linked up with his Saskatchewan-based squad after that season while Epping will look to represent Northern Ontario at the Brier after forming a new team this season.

It’s been even longer since they met in a Grand Slam, the Players’ Championship in April 2022, with McEwen winning 4-3.

Epping will be playing in his first Grand Slam event since joining third Jake Horgan, second Tanner Horgan and lead Ian McMillan. The all-new Team Epping has been hot, winning four titles on tour this fall to climb into the Grand Slam ranks.

Team Gushue: Second round, Team Muskatewitz (No. 6 seed)

Gushue snapped up Marc Muskatewitz with the first pick of the second round. Muskatewitz was the second-highest seed available in the draft after Dunstone, who was also taken in the second round.

The 15-time Grand Slam champion Gushue has won all three meetings against Muskatewitz including a 6-2 victory during the opening night of the KIOTI National. That event took place in Gushue’s hometown of St. John’s, N.L., and a capacity crowd was on hand at the Mary Brown’s Centre.

Muskatewitz, who was making his top-tier series debut, bounced back and qualified for the playoffs with a tiebreaker win over Marco Hösli. His team is ranked highly for a reason having captured gold at the European Championships in November.

Gushue had high praise for Team Muskatewitz after their KIOTI National match: “They’re going to win lots of games in these events over the years, and I’m sure they’ll actually win one of these in the years to come.”

Bonus Round: Homan selects Einarson for crossover game

Teams will play a fourth round-robin game against a crossover pool with top-ranked Homan and Mouat choosing which pools their teams will face.

A little egging on from Einarson led to Homan making this selection and what a tuneup it’ll be for the Scotties Tournament of Hearts with the Canadian women’s championship set to take place next month.

Both of their games this season have come in Grand Slam playoffs. Einarson defeated Homan 5-4 in the HearingLife Tour Challenge women’s final. Homan took the rematch the following month in the Co-op Canadian Open quarterfinals winning 11-5.

The HearingLife Tour Challenge was also the seventh time they’ve met in a Grand Slam final with Homan holding a 4-3 advantage.

Since the HearingLife Tour Challenge final, Homan has won 23 consecutive games and holds an impressive 40-2 record on the season.