‘We have the skill to be able to compete at the highest level’

The door is wide open for the next great men’s curling team to emerge out of Manitoba.

With Matt Dunstone pre-qualifying for the Brier on an annual basis, and Reid Carruthers gradually shifting his focus to coaching, the opportunity is there for a rising star out of the Keystone Province.

Enter Jordon McDonald.

Despite being just 22 and fresh out of junior ranks, McDonald and his Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club foursome are ranked ninth in the country.

“Not only is Manitoba opening up a bit, but I’m also kinda thinking to the future as well within Canada,” said Team McDonald third Jacques Gauthier in a phone chat Friday afternoon.

“With Brad Gushue’s retirement announcement, I think that’s going to be the first of many. I think there’s going to be a few of these top guys retiring after this quad. We’ve got our foot in the door here; it’s just about trying to get into that room of elite teams in Canada.”

McDonald, Gauthier, second Elias Huminicki and lead Cameron Olafson are hoping to take a big step towards that this season. They’re currently at the PointsBet Invitational in Calgary where they went 1-1 on Thursday — knocking off Rylan Kleiter 8-3 before falling 8-4 to Mike McEwen — and met fellow Winnipegger Matt Dunstone (2-0) late Friday.

McDonald went on an unexpected run at last year’s PointsBet — when it was a single-game elimination format — by upsetting Dunstone and Kevin Koe before falling to Gushue in the semifinal.

“One of the big things we learned is that we’re good enough to hang with some of the best teams in the world and that we have the skill to be able to compete at the highest level,” said McDonald.

“It was also nice to play some of the best teams and learn from what they do.”

A similar showing would be great, but for McDonald and company, this week is more about tuning up for the upcoming Canadian Pre-Trials in Wolfville, N.S., (Oct. 20-26) where they will battle it out with seven others — including Fort Rouge’s Braden Calvert — for the eighth and final qualifying spot at the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials in Halifax (Nov. 22-30).

McDonald, who won multiple junior provincial titles, is the No. 1 seed at the pre-trials. Assiniboine’s Beth Peterson will also be in Nova Scotia competing on the women’s side.

“We’re not going to put an insane amount of pressure on ourselves. We obviously want to win, but it’s not the end of the world if we don’t,” said McDonald. “It’s our first pre-trials and it’d be really nice to get some trials experience, but we’re still really young, we’ll have a lot of time. We know we’re gonna have more chances, but obviously, we want to play well and we know we can beat every team there.”

To speed up their development, McDonald made the difficult decision in the off-season to let go of former third Dallas Burgess and bring in some more experience in 26-year-old Gauthier.

McDonald finished third at the 2024 Manitoba provincials after losing to Carruthers in the semifinal. He regressed at the 2025 event by failing to reach the championship round.

“It really sucks, for sure,” said McDonald on cutting Burgess loose.

“But we just felt like we ought to try and do what’s best for us and we’re just trying to build a team that we think can be a top team that can stick together for a while and get really good. It’s as simple as that.”

Gauthier, a two-time world junior curling champion, was released by Koe on the eve of last year’s PointsBet tournament. He ended up salvaging his season by throwing together a three-man unit with Derek Samagalski and Tanner Lott and the trio nearly made it to the final four at provincials.

Heading into the last year of a quadrennial isn’t an ideal time to be a free agent, so, Gauthier was planning on building his own team — until he received a call from McDonald.

“A lot of teams that were already in the trials or pre-trials, I figured their lineups would already be solidified. I actually didn’t even think of reaching out to Jordon for that reason,” said Gauthier.

“I’m a pretty energetic guy on the ice, so, playing with these younger guys has been a good fit for me. I feel like it’s a lot more conducive to how I am on the ice, and I’m just having a lot more fun. I’m enjoying the season more, and it’s easier to be good at something when you’re enjoying it.”

The PointsBet Invitational women’s final takes place at 12 p.m. CT followed by the men’s title game at 5 p.m. CT.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca