How often does someone join two teams during the same week in curling? Just ask Mike McEwen.
The Winnipeg-based skip announced his new tour lineup on Wednesday, linking up with Saskatoon's Rylan Kleiter, Joshua Mattern and Trevor Johnson. McEwen was then named on Friday as the newest member of Maple United in Rock League.
We caught up with McEwen for Eight Ends to discuss his new teams (both of them), navigating free agency, and what the Grand Slam of Curling has meant to his career.
FIRST END: McEwen is one of four replacement players joining Rock League for its inaugural season, taking place April 6-12 at the TMU Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto.
Rosters were initially unveiled in December, and McEwen is taking over for Brier champion Matt Dunstone, who has opted out for an extended break following a busy season.
McEwen is ecstatic to play in a professional league and join Maple United, which features Rachel Homan as captain and Glenn Howard as general manager.
"Oh man, I've been dreaming about something like this since I was throwing rocks in Bantam as a 13-year-old," he said. "Honestly, I never imagined what that would look like, curling in a pro league sense. What's being created, at least what I've seen from the material, for the opening week of Rock League in Toronto, I'm like, wow. As a kid dreaming about something like this in the curling sport world, I'm not even sure that kid imagined what this looks like. I'm very excited."
Consider him a big kid at heart, as the 45-year-old McEwen will be the oldest player in Rock League.
"I'm the old guy getting a chance here, so I'm very grateful for the opportunity to be on the stage of something just starting like this," McEwen said. "I don't think I can overemphasize how thankful I am for this opportunity."
SECOND END: Whenever you watched an event like the Montana's Brier or the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in the past and each curler's occupation was listed, it was usually something like accountant, mortgage broker, or real estate agent. If someone was a "full-time curler," it was really code for "unemployed."
Being a professional curler wasn't considered a full-time occupation, and McEwen recalled a moment like that early in his career.
"I had come out of juniors, you’re full of confidence and bluster when you have a good junior career and enter men's, and I think mused that maybe, hey, I could curl for a living someday. Maybe that would be a reality for the sport, and I remember a few old timers laughing. 'That'll never be possible. No, it can't be done,'" McEwen said.
"Here we are finally on the cusp of maybe a future for the sport and a pathway for the best of our athletes to do that, or just that now we're at the opening stage of that. I don't know where it's going to go. I mean, I'm going to try to be a part of it as long as I can, but … that wasn't something you could put beside your name in the occupation list not too long ago."
THIRD END: Perhaps it's fitting after his close encounter with a bear during the KIOTI GSOC Tahoe event in the fall that McEwen is joining Maple United, as the franchise features a bear in its logo.
When the rosters were announced, McEwen consulted with his oldest daughter, Vienna, on which of his then-teammates he should support: Daniel Marsh on Shield Curling Club or Colton Flasch on Maple United?
"It's funny because I always like to poke fun at Flasch. I'm like, oh, we're going to be all in on Team Shield. We're going to order Team Shield (gear) just to like poke at him a little bit. He and I have a good relationship like that," he said. "Now I'm like, yes! Actually, (Vienna's) favourite logo is the bear."
"I mean, I would have been excited on any team, let's be clear, but I'm very happy it's Maple United," McEwen said, adding with a laugh, "Even if Flasch is on the team, whatever."
Rock League is composed of six franchises, each with five men's curlers and five women's curlers. Round-robin matches during the weekday consist of three games: men's, women's and mixed doubles. The franchise that is victorious in at least two of the three games is declared the winner of the match. The formula changes on Saturday as franchises will play two games of four-player mixed curling. Sunday's semifinals and finals will return to the men's, women's and mixed doubles format.
It's the four-person mixed curling that has McEwen the most intrigued.
"Before I was part of the league, that's what I was actually, as just a curling fan, I was like, oh, I want to watch that," he said. "I want to watch Rachel Homan yell at Colton Flasch to sweep, you know? I mean, that really sounds like great entertainment to me."
FOURTH END: Rock League also presents an opportunity of redemption for McEwen, who has some unfinished business to settle at TMU Mattamy Athletic Centre.
The historic arena formerly known as Maple Leaf Gardens hosted the Grand Slam of Curling's Players' Championship event 10 times between 2013 and 2025. McEwen reached the final on three occasions, with all three coming down to the last rock of the game and resulting in crushing heartbreak.
He almost made it to a fourth final in 2024. McEwen was ahead by two points in the semis against Joël Retornaz, but he said the Italian skip "made one of the greatest doubles I've ever seen" to score three in the eighth end to advance to the final against Brad Gushue.
"Oh, so close," McEwen said. "Maybe I can help my fellow teammates. We can all help each other get this over the line for me so that I can get that final win in that building."
FIFTH END: At this point last week, McEwen was looking to land on one team, never mind two.
McEwen dropped a surprise announcement that his Saskatoon-based team — featuring Flasch plus Kevin and Daniel Marsh — had decided to continue without him for next season.
They finished runners-up at the Brier during their first season together in 2024 and reached the semifinal at the Canadian Olympic curling trials this past November. The team had a disappointing early exit at the Brier earlier this month, posting a 5-3 round-robin record, but failed to advance based on last stone draw scores.
The trio added Tyler Tardi, who had parted ways with Kevin Koe's team to return to skipping.
The end of the Olympic cycle typically brings a flurry of free-agent activity. Unlike other sports where athletes are signed for a set number of years, curling can turn into a bit of a free-for-all where anything could happen at any time.
McEwen wasn't on the market for long, though. Kleiter, who had skipped previously, was searching for a new teammate after third Matthew Hall stepped back. McEwen "heard through the grapevine" that Kleiter and co. were wondering how they could gain more experience and reach the next level.
"It's right around that time that I'm kind of going through a roller-coaster of emotions, trying to just figure out what options are out there, what's worthwhile, and I heard about this, that they felt like they needed help to take that next step," McEwen said. "Obviously, Team Kleiter has shown a lot of capability, played in the trials, played in the Brier, played in multiple Grand Slams."
McEwen had Mattern's phone number from numerous chats during last year's Foamgate controversy and reached out. That led to a phone call with Mattern and Kleiter, who then went back to Johnson for a huddle. The four of them then connected over the weekend, with McEwen saying he needed 24 hours to make his decision.
"I just didn't want to make an emotional decision or a reactive decision, for me and for them, too, right? That's not something they'd want for me either," he explained. "If I make a decision to say yes, I'm in, they're going to want me all in."
McEwen not only consulted with his wife, Dawn, but also with several former curlers and teammates who had experience curling with younger players.
"I talked to a lot of people through those number of days and really leaned on Dawn. I mean, she wanted me to play more than even I wanted to play. Pretty sure that's accurate," he said with a laugh. "I had chats with Pat Simmons, Jennifer Jones, David Murdoch, Nolan Thiessen, Reid Carruthers, and there's more. I was just trying to process it all and in a condensed time period. I'm really thankful for those connections."
That all led to McEwen's final answer on Monday night.
"I gave Rylan a call, I gave Josh a call, and basically said, yeah, I'm in. I'm 100 per cent in. Check with Trevor. You guys let me know when you can," he said. "I could tell there was excitement on the other end of the line, and I didn’t have to wait long. They called the next morning, Tuesday morning, that OK, they're all in. Let's do this."
SIXTH END: McEwen recalled it was a different ending but a similar situation to the one he was in four years ago after moving on from Team Carruthers. He joined fellow free agents Ryan Fry, Brent Laing and Jonathan Beuk in Ontario, with Joey Hart coming on board near the end of the season. Although they won provincial playdowns and finished fourth at the Brier, the team lasted just one season.
"Let's be honest, we were a team of misfits, leftovers if you will, and that was rough," McEwen said. "Won provincials, really close to making the semifinal at the Brier, lost the 3-4 game. Yeah, kind of caught fire, still had something to prove, and then more changes came, right? Then I got the opportunity with the Marsh Brothers and Flasch, and that was a great three years with them."
Was McEwen going to have to put together another team of "misfits" this time to remain relevant? Would it be worth his while? Was that even something he wanted to go through again? These were questions McEwen was thinking about during his brief time as a free agent.
"That was really hard, but that's not the case," McEwen said. "This isn't a team of misfits. This is a solid group of young guys. They're eager, they're hungry, they know how to work hard. They're looking for somebody with experience to help them take the next step, and they're close, they're on the edge of that."
McEwen is embracing the mentor role, as he will be playing alongside teammates in their late 20s who can benefit from his guidance.
"I'm at peace with where I'm at in my career, and it's not that my motivation or drive to achieve the same things isn't there," he said. "It's just like this is another level of things to achieve, helping these guys, because they're very talented and they're right there. It's like another layer of achievement that's possible for me outside of those big ones, like winning a Brier or things like that.
"This is where those phone calls to Jennifer Jones and Pat Simmons and people like that, even Dave Murdoch, late in his career, talked about playing with young players and a common theme: very fulfilling, better than they expected. Really hearing Jenn and Pat and Dave say those things like that, those are great storylines to hear, and I'm really looking forward to this next chapter.
"It's going to be great. There's lots to achieve, not just your normal, big championship-type things. There's lots to achieve with this group."
McEwen feels fortunate that he will continue to play out of Saskatchewan. As much as he loves his home province of Manitoba, his biggest takeaway from his three years with Flasch and the Marsh brothers was how much Saskatchewan supports its teams.
"From my experience, and this is no disrespect to my home province or anywhere else, but I think they're the best curling fans in the country, in the world. That's my personal experience from playing in that province and representing the Saskatchewan green," McEwen said. "... To just go into that world and not really expecting to be embraced, either, playing three years there and feeling like that's my second home.
"Really, the fans, the businesses, the curling community, they get behind their teams. That was really cool to experience, so that's my No. 1 takeaway. I think that's why I'm so excited to continue."
There's no hard feelings, as McEwen also praised his former teammates, particularly, "Their work ethic and really being part of a team that puts as much and everything they can into it."
"No regrets, that was a great three years," McEwen said.
SEVENTH END: McEwen acknowledged his new team will have to grind it out to get back into the Grand Slam events, but they could return sooner than later due to the new qualification methods the series announced last week.
The first Grand Slam of the 2026-27 season, the GSOC Invitational, will feature 16 teams each in the men's and women's divisions and will live up to its name. Rather than rely on the world rankings, the GSOC competition committee will invite the first 12 teams. The other four spots will come from tour event winners in the fall at the AMJ Shorty Jenkins Classic in Cornwall, Ont., the Prestige Hotels & Resorts Curling Classic in Vernon, B.C., the Karuizawa International in Japan, and another tournament to be determined.
McEwen was distracted when the announcement dropped last week, understandably, but he had positive things to say about the qualification changes — especially since it might provide an avenue for his new team to get into the Slams quicker.
"My initial take is that having qualifiers in different regions and supporting some of those long-standing tour events, I think, is a long time coming," he said. "I think that The Curling Group integrating that into part of its qualifying is showing really good awareness that the overall health of the tour matters."
"I’ve got to figure out what events we need to play in. I'm sure my teammates have already mapped that out," he added with a laugh. "I’ve got to get up to speed on what that schedule looks like, but I'm excited that The Curling Group and the Slams are sort of taking that step to network with the rest of the tour because that's the underlying health of the sport. You need that sort of grassroots underbelly to support all the layers up top."
Another goal for his new team is to make the Brier. The milestone 100th Canadian men's curling championship will be held right in their backyard in Saskatoon. Although McEwen's former teammates should pre-qualify via the Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS), his new team will have to earn a berth through provincial playdowns.
"We're going to be underdogs, but I played that underdog story, year one Team McEwen with the Marsh brothers and Colton Flasch. We caught fire in provincials. We ran it right through to a Brier final, and were a whisker away from playing in the Players' Championship final against Gushue, so it can be done in year one," McEwen said.
"It sounds lofty when I lay it out like that. I know it could be done. We've got a couple of growth things that we need to do, and then hopefully, we're ready in the back half to make a push into Saskatoon."
EIGHTH END: If McEwen had to sum up what the Grand Slams mean to him in one word, it would be "pivotal."
The series was formed in 2001 with legends of the game like Howard, Kevin Martin and Jeff Stoughton choosing not to compete in playdowns, foregoing the opportunity to play in the Brier and represent Canada at the world championship, to help establish the series.
That also happened to be the first full season in men's curling for McEwen, who went on to become one of the first homegrown stars of the series. McEwen won his first Grand Slam title in 2010, defeating provincial nemesis Stoughton in the final, and captured his second in early 2011 on a thrilling hit-and-stick through a narrow port in an extra end over Howard that was also memorable for delaying CBC's coverage of the NHL All-Star Game.
McEwen was a six-time Grand Slam champion before he even made his first Brier appearance. He added a seventh title in his hometown in 2018, as he and his teammates all brought their daughters onto the ice to celebrate.
"Absolutely pivotal for my curling career, and there are a couple of reasons. I think as a young player coming up, there were limited pathways to the Brier and exposure, depending on your geography. For some of us, if you lived in a really strong curling province, your ability to get that experience on a national stage, on arena ice, was limited. I was one of those players and on one of those teams that had a difficult time getting that experience early enough," McEwen said.
"I can't remember how many finals we lost in Manitoba. I mean, it's a lot, so where did we get that experience? Where do we gain that confidence? Where did curling give us a chance otherwise? It was the Grand Slams, because we didn't have a chance otherwise.
"If the Grand Slams didn’t (exist), I don't know if I'd still be playing. I think that would have been crushing to lose provincial after provincial after provincial and not have something substantial to look forward to. It's probably the reason why I have really good runs at Players' Championships after crushing provincial defeats sometimes. I think it's been pivotal in my career, and why I'm still here, excited about next season."
He added, "I owe the Grand Slams a lot for the length of my career and for giving me a chance to not give up."
