CurlingZone: Team Bottcher Calls it a Day

Add Team Bottcher (Picture: Curling Canada) to the long list of rinks splitting up at the conclusion of the 2021-22 curling season.

By: Dylan Chenier

2021 Tim Hortons Brier champions Team Bottcher have announced they are going their separate ways once the 2021-2022 season comes to a close.

"Next season, we will each take our curling careers in new directions," the team confirmed in a statement posted to social media.

The rink, based out of the Saville Centre in Edmonton, has been together in some form since the 2009-2010 season, with Bottcher and Brad Theissen first joining forces in their teens. The team welcomed longtime lead Karrickk Martin to the fold in 2011.

In 2017 the crew qualified for their first-ever Tim Hortons Brier, with Darren Moulding joining the lineup at third. With Moulding onboard, Team Bottcher would make three straight Brier finals from 2018 to 2020, before finally winning the event in 2021.

At the 2021 world championships in Calgary, the rink led Canada to a 9-4 record in the round-robin, before ultimately falling to Team Scotland in the qualification round.

Team Bottcher struggled at the past year's Canadian Olympic Trials, finishing the event in seventh place with a disappointing 3-5 record, well below the expectations of the reigning national champions.

Following the Trials, the team parted ways with Moulding, bringing former alternate Patrick Jansen to the lineup at third for the upcoming Brier.

At the 2022 national championships, Bottcher's rink finished the round-robin at 7-1, before beating Team Gushue 4-3 in the page-playoff qualification round. The team would go on to lose the 1v2 Game to Team Koe, before dropping the semi-final to Wild Card #1, ending the hopes at a fifth straight Brier final.

Today's announcement is just another in a long list of elite Canadian rinks calling it quits after the current season. With a new four-year Olympic cycle on the horizon, the opportunities for new team lineups are endless.

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