The 2026 Montana's Brier, Canada's national men's curling championship, opened on February 27 in St. John's, Newfoundland, with 18 teams competing for a spot at the world championships. Hometown skip Brad Gushue enters his 23rd and final Brier, aiming for a record seventh title after six previous wins. Defending champions Team Canada, fresh off Olympic gold, face stiff competition in the week-long tournament at Mary Brown's Centre.
The Brier features two pools of nine teams each, with round-robin play running through March 5 before playoffs. In Pool A, Team Newfoundland skipped by Gushue includes Brendan Bottcher at third, Mark Nichols and Geoff Walker, who are each seeking a seventh national title. Gushue, a 2006 Olympic gold medallist, called the week emotional ahead of his retirement. His team pre-qualified based on rankings and faces a challenging field, with six teams ranked higher globally.
Pool A also includes Team Canada, skipped by Brad Jacobs, who won Olympic gold in Milan earlier in 2026, marking his second career Olympic victory after 2014. Jacobs' lineup features Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert. Other Pool A teams are Ontario (Jayden King), Saskatchewan (Kelly Knapp), Quebec (Jean-Michel Ménard), Nova Scotia (Kendal Thompson), Prince Edward Island (Tyler Smith), another Newfoundland team (Nathan Young) and Nunavut (Derek Samagalski).
In Pool B, Manitoba's Matt Dunstone, ranked fifth worldwide, seeks his first national title after runner-up finishes in 2025 and 2023. Saskatchewan's Mike McEwen, Alberta's Kevin Koe and other teams round out the group, including New Brunswick (James Grattan), British Columbia (Cody Tanaka), Northern Ontario (Dustin Montpellier), Yukon (Thomas Scoffin) and Northwest Territories (Jamie Koe).
Draw 1 results saw Newfoundland (Young) defeat Nunavut 8-4, Gushue beat Quebec 10-2, Ontario top Nova Scotia 11-4 and Canada win 8-3 over Prince Edward Island. The event, last held in St. John's in 2017 when Gushue claimed his first Brier, expects 130,000 attendees and a $10-12 million economic boost. Volunteers prepared the ice at Mary Brown's Centre, converting from hockey amid recent snow challenges. Coverage airs on TSN networks, with the final scheduled for March 8.
