Senators Coaching Staff Is Set

Much like former assistant coach Brad Lauer’s jowel, the Ottawa Senators coaching staff has rounded into form. Tasked with filling their respective assistant coaching vacancies, management can consider this a fait accompli and can return their focus to player personnel decisions.

Today’s official announcement that former Owen Sound Attack head coach Mark Reeds and former St. Mike’s Majors head coach Dave Cameron will be joining Paul MacLean’s staff as assistant coaches, shouldn’t be a surprise.

Bruce Garrioch correctly speculated that Reeds was a frontrunner for an assistant position last week while Cameron infamously let the cat out of the bag during the Majors’ award banquet last week.

“It’s just a matter now of crossing some T’s and dotting some I’s,” Cameron told the crowd, according to Mississauga.com. “The one thing I’ve always said is that coaches are no different than players in terms of wanting to get to the National Hockey League.

“I’m really excited and humbled to get the chance to go to the best league in the world. You know, I was fortunate enough to make it as a player and now I’m really excited to be going back as a coach.” ~ Dave Cameron (via Bruce Garrioch, The Ottawa Sun)

As I mentioned shortly after Cameron’s announcement, the optics surrounding his hire will inevitably raise suspicions of Eugene Melnyk’s influence over some hockey ops decisions. Deserved or not, Cameron’s record speaks for itself and he’s more than qualified for an assistant position. Much like a bride would push her fiance to include her brother to be included into the wedding party, as the owner of the Majors, I’d imagine that the Euge went to bat for his junior coach. More importantly, the fact that the organization hired MacLean ahead of Cameron indicates that the management team got the guy that they wanted and not the owner’s first choice.

It should also be noted that Rick Wamsley and Luke Richardson will be retained in their roles from last season as well.

Now if only someone could figure out whether this is the first time that two junior finalist coaches became assistants on the same NHL bench for the following season, we’d be set.