Kevin Koe recruits skip Aaron Sluchinski to join men's curling team

Kevin Koe recruited established skip Aaron Sluchinski to join his short-handed curling team.

Koe, a four-time Canadian and two-time world champion, has played with a three-man lineup through two events since he fired second Jacques Gauthier in September.

Sluchinski, from Airdrie, Alta., skipped a team that defeated Koe in the Alberta provincial men's final last season and also beat Koe to open the Montana's Brier in Regina.

Koe denied his prime reason for recruiting Sluchinski was to avoid him in big games.

"The reason we asked Aaron is because he's a really good curler," Koe said Tuesday. "Him being in Alberta, it's really good for practising, which I think is a bit of an underrated thing, and will be really, really good for us.

"As far as not having to play him, that's a bonus. I like that too."