'I'm really humbled': veteran coach Dave Cameron set to lead Canada at world juniors

Team Canada head coach Dave Cameron speaks to the media following the first day of the Canadian World Junior Hockey Championships selection camp in Ottawa on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Dave Cameron had just hung up his skates.

It was 1985 and he needed a new job after 168 NHL games, plus plenty more in the minors.

He found his place working at a young offenders' facility and as a high-school guidance counsellor. There was passion for the craft — equalled only by what he felt for the sport ingrained in his soul.

A plan was hatched.

"Coaching combined them both," Cameron explained. "My love of hockey and my love of teaching."

The product of Kinkora, P.E.I., coached junior A part-time for nearly a decade after retiring as a player until he made life behind the bench his full-time gig.

It's been a winding road ever since with stops across North America — including seven seasons in the NHL — along with a stint in Austria and success on the international stage.

Almost 40 years into that journey, Cameron wouldn't have it any other way as he prepares to lead Canada into the 2025 world junior hockey championship in Ottawa.

"You bounce around a little bit and you have to accept the challenge," Cameron said. "I started in what we would call 'old-school hockey' and 'old-school coaching.' I've been able to adapt and keep up with the changing game.

"That's probably the thing I'm most proud of."

Hockey Canada reached out to Cameron following last year's disastrous fifth-place finish in Sweden that saw the powerhouse nation meekly bounced at the quarterfinal stage in stunning fashion.

The team sporting the nation's red Maple Leaf never got going in Gothenburg, unable or unwilling to do what was required in tough moments.

The organization's brain trust — the need to be more "competitive" was on almost everyone's lips at selection camp — is confident Cameron will push this iteration further.

"Dave is of a vintage where his expectations in the way that he holds players accountable is very clear," said Scott Salmond, Hockey Canada's senior vice president of high performance. "A proven track record with us and in other places to get the very best out of players and teams."

Cameron previously captured world junior silver in 2011 and gold in 2022 as head coach to go along with two tournaments as an assistant, including in 2009 when Canada topped the podium in the nation's capital.

He will be on home turf at this edition of the showcase that runs Boxing Day through Jan. 5. In his fourth season as head coach of the Ontario Hockey League's Ottawa 67's, the 66-year-old also guided the NHL's Senators for 143 regular-season and playoff games from late 2014 through 2016.

"Maybe it's the Maritimer in him, but he has a real nice combination of hardness and yet can lighten the moment," said Hockey Canada's Peter Anholt, who leads the country's under-20 program. "His personality is just perfect for what we're going into."

Cameron saw a world junior team come together in Ottawa some 16 years ago working alongside the late Pat Quinn.

"One of the highlights of my hockey career," he said. "The thing I took most from it is how smart a man he was and the way he treated people.

"I can't put in words what this means to me in terms of getting another opportunity,"

Cameron has had to repeatedly reimagine and reinvent himself over the course of a career that's seen drastic shifts in athletes and expectations.

"It's a kinder, gentler world, that's for darn sure," he said with a laugh. "It's about communication, it's about relationships. When you coach at the junior level, for the most part, the big change is that because of the elite youth programs, this is the first time kids have any obstacles in terms of their ice time.

"You have to convince them it's OK to earn things."

Canadian winger Porter Martone, who plays for the OHL's Brampton Steelheads and is expected to be a high pick at the 2025 NHL draft, has seen Cameron-coached teams up close.

"They're very hard to play against," said the 18-year-old. "They play the right way."

Cameron will also have to manage youngsters under an intense spotlight on home soil as the country goes for its 21st gold medal.

"It's not much of a pressure," he said. "It's about opportunity."

Cameron's path will bring him to the Canadian Tire Centre next Thursday when the tournament hosts open against Finland in front of a sold-out crowd and a national TV audience.

It's not a moment he will take for granted.

"I'm really humbled," Cameron said. "I'm very fortunate to be able to do something I love."

All that teaching — he hopes — will end in more hockey glory.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 20, 2024.