2021 Tim Hortons Brier

The 2021 Tim Hortons Brier, Canada's national men's curling championship, was held from March 5 to 14 at the Markin MacPhail Centre at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alberta.

In the final, Team Alberta, skipped by Brendan Bottcher defeated Team Wild Card 2, skipped by Kevin Koe in an all-Alberta final, and a re-match of the 2019 Brier final. It was Bottcher's first Brier championship after losing the previous three finals. The first six ends of the final were evenly matched with Koe leading 1–0 heading into the seventh end. In the seventh, Koe's first rock picked, and he missed a double on his second shot, allowing Bottcher a draw for three, to go up 3–1. The two teams exchanged singles in the 8th and 9th ends, and in the 10th end, with just 30 seconds left on their time clock, Koe conceded with one rock left, as his team had no possibilities to score two points to tie the game. As champions, Bottcher and his team went on to represent Canada at the 2021 World Men's Curling Championship, where they finished in sixth place.

The event was originally scheduled to be held in Kelowna, British Columbia. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, it was announced that most Curling Canada championships still being held in the 2020–21 curling season (including the World Men's Curling Championship, which will be held at the same site) would be moved to a centralized "bubble" (similar to that of the NHL as in Edmonton) at Canada Olympic Park. All events will be held behind closed doors with no spectators admitted. In addition, due to COVID-19 restrictions and logistics, many provincial playdowns have been cancelled, with teams being selected by their respective member association instead.

When Ontario played Newfoundland and Labrador in Draw 11, it marked the first time that two openly LGBTQ skips (John Epping and Greg Smith respectively) played against each other at the Brier.

Teams
Source:

CTRS ranking
As of the 2019–20 season, where at least three out of four players remained on the same team for the 2020–21 season.

Wild card selection
In previous years, a wild card game was played between the top two teams on the Canadian Team Ranking System standings who did not win their provincial championship; the winner of this game was usually granted the final spot in the tournament. However, with many provinces cancelling their provincial championships due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, thus not allowing many teams to compete for a chance to play at the Brier, Curling Canada opted to include three wild card teams instead of the usual one. These teams directly qualified and did not participate in a play-in game.

For selection, teams must have 3 of 4 returning players from the previous season.

Round-robin standings
Final round-robin standings

Round-robin results
All draw times are listed in Mountain Standard Time (UTC−07:00).

Draw 1
Friday, March 5, 6:30 pm

Draw 2
Saturday, March 6, 8:30 am

Draw 3
Saturday, March 6, 1:30 pm

Draw 4
Saturday, March 6, 6:30 pm

Draw 5
Sunday, March 7, 8:30 am

Draw 6
Sunday, March 7, 1:30 pm

Draw 7
Sunday, March 7, 6:30 pm

Draw 8
Monday, March 8, 1:30 pm

Draw 9
Monday, March 8, 6:30 pm

Draw 10
Tuesday, March 9, 8:30 am

Draw 11
Tuesday, March 9, 1:30 pm

Draw 12
Tuesday, March 9, 6:30 pm

Draw 13
Wednesday, March 10, 8:30 am

Draw 14
Wednesday, March 10, 1:30 pm

Draw 15
Wednesday, March 10, 6:30 pm

Draw 16
Thursday, March 11, 8:30 am

Draw 17
Thursday, March 11, 1:30 pm

Draw 18
Thursday, March 11, 6:30 pm

Championship pool standings
The top four teams from each pool advance to the championship pool. All wins and losses earned in the round robin were carried forward into the championship pool.

Final Championship Pool Standings

Draw 19
Friday, March 12, 12:30 pm

Draw 20
Friday, March 12, 6:30 pm

Draw 21
Saturday, March 13, 12:30 pm

Draw 22
Saturday, March 13, 6:30 pm

Playoffs
To offset for the extra pool stage games played due to the additional Wild Card teams admitted to the tournament, the playoffs reverted to the former system consisting of only a semi-final and final, with only top three teams qualifying. The "page playoff" 1-2 game and the "quarter-final" 3-4 game were not played.

Semifinal
Sunday, March 14, 12:30 pm

Final
Sunday, March 14, 6:30 pm

Top 5 player percentages
After Championship Pool; minimum 6 games

Perfect games
Round robin and championship pool only; minimum 10 shots thrown

Awards
The awards and all-star teams were as follows:
 * All-Star Teams

First Team
 * Skip: 🇨🇦 Brad Gushue, Team Canada
 * Third: Braeden Moskowy, Saskatchewan
 * Second: Brad Thiessen, Alberta
 * Lead: Ben Hebert, Team Wild Card 2

Second Team
 * Skip: Kevin Koe, Team Wild Card 2
 * Third: B.J. Neufeld, Team Wild Card 2
 * Second: 🇨🇦 Brett Gallant, Team Canada
 * Lead: Ryan Harnden, Northern Ontario


 * Ross Harstone Sportsmanship Award
 * Brendan Bottcher, Alberta Skip


 * Hec Gervais Most Valuable Player Award
 * Brendan Bottcher, Alberta Skip

Provincial and territorial playdowns
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many provincial playdowns were cancelled, with member associations electing to send their 2020 champions to the Brier.


 * Boston Pizza Cup (Alberta): Cancelled
 * BC Men's Curling Championship: Cancelled
 * Viterra Championship (Manitoba): Cancelled
 * New Brunswick Tankard: Cancelled
 * The 2021 Newfoundland and Labrador Tankard was held January 27–31 in St. John's. In the final, Team Greg Smith defeated Team Colin Thomas 9–8 in a double extra end. The event was held in a round robin between eight teams.
 * Northern Ontario Men's Provincial Curling Championship: Cancelled
 * The 2021 Northwest Territories Men's Curling Championship was held January 30–31 in Yellowknife. Team Greg Skauge defeated Team Glen Hudy two games to one in the best of three series. They were the only teams to enter.
 * Deloitte Tankard (Nova Scotia): Cancelled
 * The Nunavut Brier Playdowns were played at the Iqaluit Curling Club in Iqaluit, January 8–10. Team MacKey (Peter Mackey, Jeff Nadeau, Greg Howard, Jeff Chown) defeated Team Kingdon (Wade Kingdon, Hunter Tootoo, Peter Van Strien, Cory Bell) 3 games to 2 in a best of five series. Team MacKey won three straight games after losing their first two.
 * Ontario Tankard: Cancelled
 * The 2021 PEI Tankard was held January 29–30 in O'Leary. Team Eddie MacKenzie defeated Team Blair Jay 3 games to 0 in the best of five series. They were the only two teams to enter the event.
 * Quebec Tankard: Cancelled
 * SaskTel Tankard (Saskatchewan): Cancelled
 * The Yukon Men's Curling Championship was not held, as only one team (Dustin Mikkelsen) entered. The defending Thomas Scoffin rink had been deemed ineligible, as it could not field a full team for the championship due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.