Cameron hired as team's new coach
Veteran bench boss will guide 67's and return to Canadian world junior team
In talking about his previous coaching history in the city Wednesday, incoming Ottawa 67's coach Dave Cameron took the high road.
Rather than dwell on the bitter end to his five-year run as a head coach and an assistant with the Senators — he was behind the bench for the improbable Hamburglar run in 2014-15, but was fired after the 2015-16 season — Cameron stressed the value of his relationship with Andre Tourigny. Tourigny served as his assistant with the Senators in 2015-16.
In a strange but true hockey-isa-small-world story, Cameron is now replacing Tourigny as both the head coach of the 67's and with Canada's world junior team. Earlier this month, Tourigny gave up those positions after being hired as head coach of the Arizona Coyotes.
All the moving parts came together in a hurry: 67's assistant Mario Duhamel, originally on course to take over from Tourigny, is expected to announce a new coaching opportunity of his own in the next few days.
“Your career is built up in chapters,” said Cameron, returning after coaching Vienna of the Austrian Erste Bank Eishockey Liga. “Like every other chapter, there were good times and struggles and disappointments (with the Senators) and at the end of the day, when you move on, you always process that and access that. One of the positives was getting to work with a guy like Andre and there are a lot of people in that Ottawa organization . ... It's going to be nice to get back and see them again.”
As Cameron mulled whether to jump back to Ottawa from Vienna — receiving the world junior job cemented his decision — he leaned on Tourigny for his thoughts.
“It always makes the decision a little easier when the people you trust give it a thumbs up,” he said.
Cameron, 62, isn't like so many other coaches at this level. It's not so much a stepping stone back to the NHL as it is a passion for working with junior-aged players again.
Cameron shouldn't need an introduction to Ottawa's hockey fans, but before joining the Senators, he spent nine years as a head coach in the OHL, seven of those with the St. Michael's Majors. He also spent three years as head coach of the Senators' American Hockey League affiliate, then based in Binghamton, N.Y.
His Hockey Canada background includes a championship game loss to Russia as head coach of the 2011 world junior squad and a 2004 gold medal as bench boss of Canada's U-18 team.
“One advantage of being a little older is you have lots of experiences to draw on,” said Cameron, who also spent two seasons as an assistant with the Calgary Flames immediately following his years in with the Senators. “You're not going to survive in this business if you don't adapt, because the game adapts, the personalities and people adapt and you have to keep up to speed. It's all about adjustments and my passion is still there.” At his core, Cameron is a teacher. “He has a background in education,” said 67's general manager James Boyd, who coached with Cameron while both were with the St. Michael's Majors. “That's what drives him: teaching and building a group together. He had a great job and was living in one of Europe's great cities, but this allows him to get back to the grassroots. He generally cares about how kids are doing in their math class and in life.”