Dave Cameron, next Leafs coach?

I don’t care how viciously Burke denies rumours, if Ron Wilson continues to lose hockey games, he will lose his job. Sure the Leafs have had some sparks of brilliance (ahem, 9-3 win over Atlanta), but they’re going to miss the playoffs again, and we all know what happens when the short-tempered ownership known as MLSE get impatient.

Wilson is currently in his 3rd year as the Leafs head coach, and thus far his accomplishments are not anybody’s finest:

Assuming that the Leafs stop scoring 9 goals a game and miss the playoffs (both extremely likely scenarios), Wilson can’t possibly be coaching for a 4th season next year. He is signed onto a 4-year contract, but how often do coaches these days actually finish contracts?

I’ll admit that Wilson is a good coach, as we saw with the USA Olympic team. He took a team of talented, yet not superstar players and turned them into a very good team. But the Leafs do not have many talented players, and those that have shown talent are young and need to be developed (to use the most popular cliché in sports). Ron Wilson has not shown any ability to develop young talent, and I don’t see the Leafs winning in a salary capped NHL without a coach growing their prospects.

This is why I present the suggestion of Dave Cameron as the next Leafs coach. To start off, everybody needs to excuse the third period disaster from the championship game of the World Juniors. I was yelling for a time out like I’m sure most people were earlier than he called it, but besides that period he turned a team of decent players into a championship-calibre squad.

To start, I think Dave Cameron will tear apart the Toronto media. I love the interviews he did during the tournament and how well he handled all of the pressure. We all know that Toronto is the “Mecca” of the hockey world, and most people leave town in large part due to the media. Here is a snip bit of an interview with Cameron during the tournament. When a reporter asked Canadian head coach Dave Cameron how he thought his goaltender had played.

“Played good,” the coach said.

Could he elaborate?

“Played real good,” Cameron added, helpfully.

Cameron did basically the exact same thing when he was asked about the history of the Canada-Russia matchup, simply shrugging off the reporters’ questions with extremely short answers. He did not at all seem phased by the mass media that surrounded him, and remained calm and cool-faced the entire time.

Secondly, Cameron has successfully built teams with his model of grit and toughness. When discussing the Canadian team, he said: “For your team to win, regardless of makeup, it has to have some grit.” Sounds a lot like Brian Burke.

Cameron also built his team from the backend out, with his team being based around defense. Also sounds like what Burke wants to do. The Leafs have depth on defense and they have goalies that have some potential. What they lack is offense, without any offensive stars besides Kessel and the streaky Grabovski. Sort of sounds like Team Canada at the juniors.

Again, with the exception of the third period, Cameron took a team without stars and turned them into a fundamentally built hockey team. The game against USA was the most fundamental hockey game I’ve seen a team play in a long time. The fore-checking and cycle was unbeatable, and the defensemen didn’t let the speedy American players by them. It also reminds me of the style of hockey the Blackhawks played last year, with their unbelievable fore-check, especially with Big Buff dominating down low.

Lastly, as the Leafs “rebuild on the fly” we need a coach who will develop our players. Cameron is known for his work in the juniors, where he coaches the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors, the hosts of this season’s Memorial Cup. Cameron should be a big help in developing Kadri become a good two-way centre, as well as Schenn as a strong defenseman.

With this style of coaching, I expect Cameron to be a successful coach. Unless Burke and MLSE have some patience, which we all know won’t happen, no coach would last in Toronto. But rumours are that Richard Peddie is near stepping down, which ideally means a more patient MLSE.  But I think Cameron is the ideal coach for Burke and the Leafs, and I’d love to see him coaching the Buds in the fall.

Again, everybody please excuse that third period. Its much less likely for a collapse of that caliber to occur in the NHL where the players are far more experienced, and I don’t think one period should in any way diminish Cameron’s reputation. Had we even won 3-2, people would be hyping Dave Cameron as a coach and he’d be a leading candidate for the hot coaching hire for next season.