Former Team Carey vice Karlee Burgess bets on herself, looks forward to fresh start with Einarson

With her curling future now uncertain beyond this season, Karlee Burgess still decided it was the right time to bet on herself.

The three-time world junior champion recently left Team Chelsea Carey to fill in as an injury replacement on Team Kerri Einarson for the rest of the 2024-25 campaign.

The move jolted the domestic women's curling scene and came with some risk. But it could also lead to some big rewards.

"Personally for me, I'm just excited to have a little bit of a fresh start and just go out there and be my best self," Burgess said. "[I'll] just be focused on throwing the rock really well this [season] and having fun to finish it off."

Burgess left a struggling team that lost its pre-qualified berths at the national championship and Canadian Curling Trials as a result of her move. She joined a rink that has won four Scotties Tournament of Hearts titles and is expected to contend for a fifth.

The 26-year-old Winnipeg resident will move from third to second as a replacement for Shannon Birchard, who's out for the season with a knee injury. Burgess will make her Team Einarson debut next week at the WFG Masters in Guelph, Ont.

"We all want to get to know each other the best we can in a short amount of time," Burgess said in her first public comments since Friday's announcement. "We want to accomplish some great things."

The next steps for Carey's rink remain unclear. Her team doesn't plan to comment until an announcement on future plans is made, likely over the coming days.

Carey had replaced Jennifer Jones this season on a Winnipeg-based team with Burgess, Emily Zacharias and Lauren Lenentine. The foursome struggled after the change, slipping from second to 10th in the national rankings.

Burgess took a couple weeks