STEINBACH, Man. — It’s only mid-January, but the Grand Slam of Curling season has already wrapped up.
Switzerland’s Team Silvana Tirinzoni and Scotland’s Team Ross Whyte were crowned the champions at the Crown Royal Players’ Championship on Sunday at the Southeast Event Centre.
Tirinzoni topped Canada’s Team Kerri Einarson 6-5 in a thrilling women’s final, while Whyte doubled up on countrymen Team Kyle Waddell 6-3 on the men’s side.
There’s still plenty of curling to come, including the big carrot at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, but that's it for the Grand Slams this quadrennial.
Here are takeaways from the Crown Royal Players’ Championship, while reflecting on the past four seasons as well.
FIRST END: We’ve seen duelling dynasties happen in the Grand Slam of Curling before. For example, teams skipped by Glenn Howard and Kevin Martin combined to win 13 Grand Slam men's titles during the 2006-10 cycle. Both Howard and Martin won multiple Grand Slams before and after that quad, but not at a rate like that simultaneously.
Silvana Tirinzoni and Rachel Homan have dominated women’s curling this cycle, combining for 14 Grand Slam titles and 26 final appearances. Einarson is the only other skip to win multiple women’s titles and make more than two finals.
Multiple Grand Slam women's titles: 2022-26 quadrennial
| Homan | 9 |
| Tirinzoni | 5 |
| Einarson | 2 |
Multiple Grand Slam women's finals: 2022-26 quadrennial
| Homan | 14 |
| Tirinzoni | 12 |
| Einarson | 7 |
| Fujisawa, Wranå and Hasselborg | 2 each |
Tirinzoni and Homan faced off against each other for a title seven times, the most frequent matchup in finals in series history, even before considering that they also met in three finals before this cycle.
Homan raised her career tally to a record-high 20 championships — more than any other skip in either division. The Crown Royal Players’ Championship is the lone Grand Slam missing from Homan’s resume. It would likely be in her possession if not for Tirinzoni, who defeated Homan in the 2024 semifinals and 2025 final.
The jewel of the Grand Slam series has been where Tirinzoni has shone, reaching all four women’s finals during the quad and winning a record three straight. Multiple teams have claimed back-to-back Players’ titles, including Martin and Einarson. Still, no team in either division had completed a three-peat until Tirinzoni accomplished the feat on Sunday.
"I didn't think that's even possible," Tirinzoni said. "The Players’ are the top 12 teams in the world, and you could see it this week. Everyone is beating everyone a little bit, so it's a very tough field, and to win it three times in a row, unreal."
It’s even more glaring how dominant Homan and Tirinzoni have been in the series when you look at just the past three seasons.
Most Grand Slam women's titles since the start of the 2023-24 season
| Homan | 7 |
| Tirinzoni | 4 |
| Everyone else combined | 4 |
Most Grand Slam women's finals since the start of the 2023-24 season
| Homan | 11 |
| Tirinzoni | 10 |
| Everyone else combined | 9 |
Homan played in all five finals last season, a streak that extended to a record eight into the fall. Tirinzoni played in every final this season, and six straight stretching back to last year’s Players’ Championship.
Outside of the Slams, Tirinzoni opened the quad winning the world championship, her fourth in a row. Homan has claimed gold at the past two women’s worlds, defeating Tirinzoni in the final both times.
There’s one thing both skips are missing that they’ll aim for in a few short weeks: an Olympic gold medal.
"All this doesn't really matter when we are there, right? Like we cannot take any wins with us, but it's still good," Tirinzoni said. "You know the team is well prepared. We know we have every shot in our pocket if we need it. We're going to go there with a lot of confidence."
Tirinzoni hinted that the Crown Royal Players’ Championship might have been her last Grand Slam. If so, what a way to end it.
"It's an honour. It's an honour to play with her," said Alina Pätz, who has thrown fourth stones for Tirinzoni since they joined forces in 2018. "She has so much experience. She's the best strategist in the women's game, that's for sure, without a doubt. I'm just happy that I have a leader like her.
"I hope she stays in the game. I hope it's not our last Slam, but we will see at the end of the season."
SECOND END: Scotland’s Ross Whyte pumped his fists and roared when he connected on a double takeout to run Waddell out of rocks in the Crown Royal Players’ Championship men’s final.
After two runner-up results this season, including last month’s HearingLife Canadian Open, Whyte captured his second career Grand Slam title.
Whyte was white-hot through the week, leading all skips in shooting for the second event in a row with an average of 83.06 per cent. Credit also to Team Whyte’s Craig Waddell, who topped all seconds at 84.20 per cent. The younger Waddell was set to play on his brother's team this season until an injury to Duncan McFadzean led to a move over to Team Whyte.
“This is special,” Whyte said. “Really, you want to win every Grand Slam you play in, but to win the Players' Championship, it's quite a feeling. We're so proud of ourselves.
"We battled a lot this year and it's been a lot of tough situations. We had injuries. We had different players coming in, and Craig himself has fit in great. He's made it seem seamless. It’s feeling brilliant to finish off a Grand Slam."
The title win also came just eight days shy of the first anniversary of Whyte's maiden Grand Slam victory during last season’s Masters.
Early prediction for January 2027? Whyte will absolutely dominate Rock League.
With Mouat heading to the Winter Olympics (and Kyle Waddell tagging along as the alternate), Whyte’s focus is now on the Scottish curling championship as the two-time reigning champ hopes to defend the title once more and possibly be selected for the world championship. One thing that will help his case: the Olympic team (i.e. Mouat) is not in the running.
THIRD END: And Waddell makes three. Scotland now has a triple threat on its hands with Whyte, Waddell and Team Bruce Mouat.
It's not a team but rather a country that has dominated the men's division in the Grand Slams during this quad, particularly over the past three seasons.
Most Grand Slam men's titles since the start of the 2023-24 season by country
| Scotland (Mouat, Whyte) | 9 |
| Italy (Retornaz) | 3 |
| Canada (Gushue, Dunstone) | 2 |
| Switzerland (Y. Schwaller) | 1 |
Mouat set a record in 2024-25 by becoming the first to win four Grand Slams in a single season.
Not only was the Crown Royal Players’ Championship the second-ever all-Scottish final in the series, but it was also the 10th consecutive Grand Slam men’s final with at least one Scottish team.
"It's amazing," Whyte said. "Team Mouat has been doing a lot of that. They've been doing a lot of the heavy lifting for making Grand Slam finals, but three in one season for us, unfortunately, didn't get over the line two of them. But it's starting to pay off that we're starting to get to these higher-up moments. But impressive that Waddell got there as well this week. It's nice to be us this time."
The final was the lone loss of the week for Waddell, who reached his first Grand Slam final as a skip. He finished runner-up in the 2016 Tour Challenge while playing second for skip Kyle Smith and captured the 2018 National while playing third for skip Ross Paterson, who beat Mouat in the first all-Scottish final in a Grand Slam.
“That just shows the strength and depth,” Whyte said. “I think people were maybe expecting an all-Scotland final at some point. I think they were expecting Team Mouat in it, but Team Waddell came out this week and, I mean, undefeated going into the final. It's pretty impressive with who they've played. We're obviously there and thereabouts, but to put in that sort of performance is very impressive from all the countrymen.”
FOURTH END: Kerri Einarson had been waiting for this moment all her life, or for at least 12 years.
Einarson was a fan in the stands during the 2014 Masters in Selkirk, Man., the most recent time the series held a tournament featuring both men’s and women’s divisions in the province.
“Oh yeah, definitely been worth it,” Einarson said after her semifinal win over Homan. “I’ve definitely given the crowd something to cheer about this week.”
(Winnipeg fans needed it too with the Jets sitting in last place in the NHL’s Central Division.)
Shannon Birchard, who throws second stones for Einarson, also attended the 2014 Masters as a fan, back when she was still in juniors.
"It's so fun. We've got so many family and friends that have come out, and then people that we've known for years and years haven't seen coming out watching curling, familiar faces in every corner," Birchard said. "It's just been awesome. The crowd's been so lively and so positive and cheering for all good shots, but especially loud for ours, and so it's pretty nice."
Einarson fell behind 3-0 early in the final, but held the hammer coming home down by two in a crazy eighth end. Team Tirinzoni nearly ran out of thinking time, with Pätz releasing her final stone with only eight seconds left on the clock. With a quarry of granite cluttering up the house and no guaranteed shot other than blasting the pile. It could have gone either way, but once the dust settled, it was just a single for Einarson.
Oddly enough, the quad was bookended with the same result as it started: Tirinzoni also defeated Einarson to win the National in October 2022.
FIFTH END: Steinbach was going bananas (literally for those who dressed up in costume) and was the second-best Grand Slam of Curling event ever for ticket sales.
“Yeah, it was brilliant. I tell you what, the crowds, they came out. When we can get crowds like that, it just makes our week so much more enjoyable,” Whyte said. “We really appreciate everyone that came out. The arena's amazing. … Ice was perfect, which is credit to the arena, because if you can't get that, then it's going to be a tough week for everyone. Steinbach was lovely, and we had a great week.”
It shouldn’t be a surprise to hear The Curling Group CEO and co-founder Nic Sulsky saying that the company wants to hold another event at the venue “as quickly as possible.” Finding the right venue in Manitoba has proven to be tricky over the years, but the relatively new Southeast Event Centre was the perfect fit with a capacity crowd on hand through the weekend games.
If not for another Grand Slam, Steinbach could also be a suitable host for Rock League as well.
SIXTH END: No, Canada? The HearingLife Canadian Open was the first Grand Slam event without any Canadian men’s teams in the semifinals. The Crown Royal Players’ Championship took that one step further as no Canadian men’s teams even qualified for the playoffs, with teams skipped by Matt Dunstone, Brad Jacobs and Mike McEwen all missing the cut.
As we discussed after the HearingLife Canadian Open, coming off the Olympic Trials can be deflating, but the root problem is that there just aren’t as many Canadian men’s teams competing in the Grand Slams, period. Canadian teams qualifying for the playoffs and reaching the semifinals used to be a given simply because it was a numbers game. The 2016 Players’ Championship featured nine Canadian men’s teams and seven Canadian women’s teams. There weren’t even seven combined this year, with just five total. Homan and Einarson were the only teams on the women’s side for the second year in a row.
Two teams were missing this year from last season's Players’ Championship on the men’s side: John Epping, who declined an invitation to compete in Northern Ontario playdowns, and Brad Gushue, who was nowhere near receiving an invite for the 12-team event as his club was No. 43 in the year-to-date rankings at the qualification cutoff date.
You could attribute it to the rise of teams from Europe, Asia and the United States, but also look at the Canadian teams that were in the Players’ Championship just a few years ago. Kevin Koe captured the Players’ Championship in 2023, but went on a playoff drought in the series and slipped out of the top tier. Reid Carruthers also slid into the Tier 2 territory after Jacobs left to take over Brendan Bottcher’s former team ahead of last season.
It's also a bit of quality over quantity. Tracy Fleury and Val Sweeting skipped teams that competed in the Players' Championship in 2016. Now, both play third with Fleury on Team Homan and Sweeting on Team Einarson.
We’ll have to wait and see what next season brings, as the end of the Olympic cycle signals a changing of the guard with teams breaking up and reconfiguring for the 2030 Winter Games.
SEVENTH END: John Shuster's team has been on an incredible run on tour this season, reaching at least the semifinals in every event they played in until the Crown Royal Players’ Championship. Even then, Shuster stunned world No. 1 Mouat in a tiebreaker to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in the Players’ Championship as a skip.
"It’s crazy. It was nice to get through the tiebreaker and get to play one more game in these things," Team Shuster third Chris Plys said. "They've been very special. We've seen a lot of Canada because of them and made a lot of friends because of them. I'm going to miss it for sure. I think all of us are."
The team looked like they were playing relaxed and having fun, like they had nothing to lose during the last two days, which probably contributed to why they didn’t lose until running into eventual champ Whyte in the quarterfinals.
Plys, Colin Hufman and Matt Hamilton all cut the sleeves off of their jerseys, with bare arms and tattoos on full display.
The team was having fun, and isn’t that what sports are all about?
“Yeah, we're having a blast, man. I hope when people look back on our team at the Grand Slams that they remember us as a team that just had a lot of fun along the way,” Plys said. “At the end of the day, it's just a game. I think we made the most of the opportunities that we had. We would have loved to get a title at one point along the line, but even still, it's just a fantastic experience. We'll all be remembering these Slams for a long, long time.”
We’ve already seen a couple of curlers announce they’ll be stepping back at the end of the season (no one really “retires” in curling), and the Crown Royal Players’ Championship was the final Grand Slam for Plys. The two-time Olympian and four-time U.S. champion is hoping to follow the likes of Glenn Howard and Ryan Fry into coaching, and he will also serve as the GM for Pioneer Curling Club during the inaugural season of Rock League in April.
“There's just something about getting to play in front of fans and stuff, and the Grand Slams gave people an opportunity to do that on a regular basis,” Plys said. “Hopefully, I get to be there and just watch it grow from the other side of the bench.”
EIGHTH END: The Grand Slam of Curling used to award a bonus to the top four men’s and women’s teams with the best combined results from the season. The bonus cup was discontinued a couple of years ago, with the payouts added to the event prize purses instead.
Teams were awarded 12 points for winning an event, nine for finishing runner-up, seven for reaching the semifinals and five for reaching the quarterfinals. Teams that missed the playoffs received one point per win from the preliminary round. Points were roughly doubled for the Players’ Championship — 25-19-15-11, and two points per win for non-playoff teams — giving the prestigious event extra cachet.
Just for fun, here’s how the top four would look like if the cups were awarded this season.
Men's Division
| Rank | Team | Points |
| 1. | Whyte | 49 |
| 2. | Mouat | 44 |
| 3. | Y. Schwaller | 44 |
| 4. | Dunstone | 36 |
Mouat finishes ahead of Schwaller on countback, ala Formula 1, with two title wins to one.
Women's Division
| Rank | Team | Points |
| 1. | Tirinzoni | 64 |
| 2. | Homan | 56 |
| 3. | Gim | 33 |
| 4. | Einarson | 32 |
