Dave Cameron, a more experienced coach in exchange for the bench of the Canadian junior hockey team | The Canadian News

Ottawa 67 general manager James Boyd was firing potential coach candidates from his old friend Dave Cameron when Boyd took a wheel.

“I suddenly asked the question, ‘Would you ever be interested in this?’” Boyd said. “There was a pause and Dave said, ‘Let me think about it.’ I thought, ‘This could be happening.’

It hadn’t previously occurred to Boyd that Cameron and his wife Kelly would be interested in leaving Vienna, where Cameron had coached the Austrian League capitals for three seasons.

The head coach of the 67 and the Canadian youth men’s hockey team opened simultaneously in the early summer when Andre Tourigny vacated both to get behind the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes bench.

Boyd also leads Hockey Canada’s under-20 management team, which had less than a month between leaving Tourigny and summer evaluation camp to replace him.

Boyd said the antennas were raised at Hockey Canada when he was informed that Cameron could be the coach of the next 67.

Returning to Canada quickly became a package for Cameron with the junior national job offer as well.

“I never asked for it,” Cameron told The Canadian Press. “When they asked me, I made sure to say ‘yes’ before they changed their minds.”

Canada is scheduled to open the 2022 youth world championships on Sunday against the Czechs at Edmonton’s Rogers Place.

Cameron returns as the U-20 Men’s National Head Coach 11 years after supervising him to a silver medal in Buffalo, NY

Canada led 3-0 after two periods, but the Russians scored five in the third period for the title.

The veteran coach of the OHL St. Michael’s Majors accumulated a wealth of experiences ranging from junior professional head coach to NHL head coach and assistant, men’s world championship assistant and head coach of a European club prior to return to junior category.

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“When I started training, I wanted to reach the highest level,” said Cameron. “That’s something he aspired to as a player, something he aspired to as a coach. I was lucky in both cases to do so.

“As long as you are in the best league in the world and you train the best players, as long as you keep an open mind, you will improve.”

The 63-year-old from Kinkora, PEI played center in 168 NHL games with a total of 25 goals and 28 assists for the Colorado Rockies and New Jersey Devils between 1981 and 1983.

In the interval between his playing and coaching careers, Cameron completed his college degrees in business and education.

He worked with young offenders and as a high school guidance counselor in his home province before joining the ranks of coaches.

Cameron, an assistant coach of the Ottawa Senators for four years, was promoted to head coach for a quarter of the season in 2014-15 when Paul McLean was fired.

The senators didn’t get Cameron back after missing the playoffs in 2016, so he headed west to join the Calgary Flames coaching staff.

Cameron accepted the Vienna job after the Flames purged most of their coaching staff in spring 2018.

“Life is tough,” said Cameron. Look at this COVID. Life is going to give you a few kicks in the butt. I don’t think it matters what profession you are in. I think one of the main reasons you survive and succeed is if you have that thick skin.

“Throughout my two experiences with Ottawa and Calgary, I felt like I learned a lot and was very fortunate to be at the highest level.

“If you put your work in, you let your work stand firm and it takes you wherever it takes you.”

While the offer to coach the junior Canadians again was unexpected, there isn’t much in hockey that surprises coach Cameron right now.

Boyd has known Cameron since the latter hired Boyd to the Majors staff in 2005.

“When you put it all out, it’s a wide range of experiences,” Boyd said. “Dave has been taking bits and pieces and what worked from the past and putting those tools in our toolbox.

However, he is still a foreman. Away from the track, Dave is a bit calmer. I wouldn’t say he’s a kinder, gentler Dave, but maybe he’s a wiser and more experienced Dave. “

Connor, Cameron’s son, is CEO of Hockey PEI

Another son, Ben, is a doctor who has served as a doctor for the Canadian hockey team.

Cameron cares about how the players fare off the ice as much as they do, according to Boyd.

“Dave is passionate about juniors. He’s not just interested in player development. He is a fervent defender of education. Are you interested in what the players are doing? All 67 do a lot of community service. Dave is interested in that, ”said the general manager.

“I think it goes back to when I used to work with young offenders and troubled youth on Prince Edward Island. He really believes that with the right support and structure and at the same time demanding, people are at their best. “