Rumours confirmed: Hebert, Kennedy to leave Kevin Martin

Like Jeff Stoughton, Kevin Martin is in a curling no man's land.

The decorated skip, flush with four Brier championships, a world title and an Olympic gold medal, has confirmed that he is without a team at the end of this season. The rumours of front-end players Ben Hebert and Marc Kennedy leaving are true. They'll join forces with Martin rival Kevin Koe, whose current team is in Beijing, China, representing Canada at the upcoming World Men's Curling Championship.

"I can't confirm that I'm looking for a new roster but I can confirm that Marc and Ben are going to curl with Kev, yeah. I haven't decided if I'm going to curl again at all," Martin told Canadian Press.

That Martin can't confirm he's looking for a new team will only fuel speculation that he is seriously considering retirement, although he has said recently that he wouldn't mind playing a year or two more.

Hebert and Kennedy's move, as well as vice Dave Nedohin's apparent decision to take some time off from the game, means Martin needs a completely new set of teammates, if he is to end his stellar career with one final hurrah.

With Glenn Howard confirming that his longtime second, Brent Laing, is also joining Koe's rink, there are gale force winds blowing through Canadian curling on both the men's and women's sides.

Yesterday, Rachel Homan announced that her two-time Canadian championship team was parting ways with second Alison Kreviazuk and adding Joanne Courtney to the roster.

Sunday, Stoughton confirmed that his Manitoba championship team was splitting up, leaving him wondering about his future as well.

It's an unprecedented situation, really, with all these big changes being announced while the current season is still underway. It makes last year's bombshell announcement that John Morris was leaving the Martin rink (which was made after the season) seem quaint.

"I sure wish none of this stuff [came] out," Martin told CP. "I'm not exactly sure how it did but it's too bad."

The curling community has always been one filled with idle talk and lots and lots of behind-the-scenes stories, gossip and innuendo.

Still, the amount of chatter this season has been taken to warp speed and announcements that usually come long after the pebbled ice has been shoveled out of the clubs are being made now. That three legendary skips have been affected by these moves and face uncertain futures is a little astounding as well.

And what of Koe's current team?

Halfway around the world, a squad that knows it won't exist in a month is representing Canada at the World Championships. That may not necessarily be a first, but to have it be public knowledge, is. If the team struggles in Beijing, there are those who will question whether their hearts were truly in it and whether their minds might, instead, have been on the next Olympic cycle.

Koe wouldn't comment before he left for Beijing, nor would any of his current teammates. Laing declined comment as did Hebert, according to CP. At the time of this posting, I had not heard back from Kennedy. That their formal announcement was jumped by Howard and Martin may not sit well with them.

Koe already has a hell of a team. With Hebert, Laing and Kennedy he will have another one, that is beyond doubt.

The merging of all that talent will ripple throughout the curling world as Martin and Howard head into the off-season with holes to fill. Combined with Stoughton's unsettled situation, there may never before have been a wind up to a season filled with such intrigue.

With all these teams getting together, in April, in Summerside and with so many of them knowing it will be their last major event together, maybe organizers ought to rename it the "Ex-Players' Championship."

A major Canadian curling sea change is underway.