Pats fire Cameron/Dixon and McGuigan not returning

[chopper]

From the outside, Cameron looked like a good coach, so I'm glad he was let go!

Ouch...LOL ! That hurts but it's the truth. The one thing i've learned from my life's work is that "people don't always mean what they say, and the don't always say what they mean". People often lie about things and when cornered they do the two step, and say their words were taken "out of context".

My take is that everybody capable of counting to 10 knew McGuigan wasn't coming back, and that included the new owners. They also knew long before his resignation date. That left Dixon and Cameron. If you don't want someone back then all you need to do is insult them with an inappropriate raise in a contract offering. That makes it easy now with just Cameron on base. They only had to pay out one salary and viola; a clean slate.

I appreciate there is some disagreement on this point; however I firmly believe that the contracts expiration dates and new recruitment of a/coaches had little to do with this recent development. I listened to Lang's reasoning and it became more outlandish each time I listened. He was very uncomfortable trying to make the excuses. Cameron was his hire and he said his position was to steer the course. He didn't want to get rid of Cameron. I believe this was extremely difficult on him personally.

If a high end young coach was being considered, we had Josh Dixon available who is highly thought of as a brilliant young coaching mind. This however was not what they wanted, and that is very upsetting. We will hear about Dixon in a positive way very soon.

It is my belief that this was a deliberately orchestrated power play to oust the coaching staff. I have a strong held belief that this was planned early and the plan executed by a man in a lame duck position as GM (not his call). It would have been a lesser insult on our intelligence just to man up and say they wanted to start fresh and were relieving everyone of their duties. That's the appropriate and forthright way to do business. All they had to say is they were exercising their prerogative.

I agree with some of the posters who are wary of implementing alumni into senior positions before they are ready. I don't know of any alumni who is a "can't miss" quality applicant. We've tried this before with very limited success. I only hope ability and a proven track record are the criteria used to select the new coach(s). Anything less is a disservice to the fans. After all Cameron did spoil us with exciting winning hockey, a winning record and a pennant. It will be interesting to see the new face who will obviously have some level to equal. After all the bar has risen and been set.

[RWAH]

"Chopper" Well said.

[patsdude114]

Last I checked jays still in 1st so I would say they haven't slipped out of the playoff race. My comments have you read yours ( no sense signing a coach for more than 1 yr ) . Cameron's track record is success, we could have hired any assistant coaches. Yes I know baseball inside and out but I do know a lot about hockey and business too. I think you should phone coach chamblin because he signed a 3 yr extension and his assistants only signed 2 yrs I guess this means he's going to get fired after 2yrs. Ouch. Really

I think you need to go re-read what I put I never once said the bolded area...and what does Chamberlin have anything to do with Cameron? You bounce around more then anybody on here, try to keep on 1 topic are we talking hockey football or baseball here?

Anyways there is my post again about the contract stuff where I said no assistant coach is going to accept a 1yr deal...... and my reason for saying that is they like job security as well

I really don't think it was so much the owners idea from the get go to get rid of the coaching staff. I think the business side of it caught up to the situation more, for whatever reason of Dixon not accepting the offer he was given (maybe the money wasn't up to par) it makes zero sense to keep a coach around with 1yr left in his contract when you have to go out and hire 2 new assistants. No assistant coach is going to sign on with a 1yr contract so they would both be at a 2yr min for a deal then throw in not sure if Cameron would of been offered a contract extension after this season, if he wasn't (for whatever reasons) then you got to fire 2 assistants due to the whoever the new Head Coach may of been wanting his own guys..

[Bighat]

Okay and I say give Cameron an extension like chamblin and then you get assistant coaches. Come on man it's easy to follow. All sports intertwine in ideology. By the way great signing by the blades.

[Trav]

Something smells fishy down in Regina and maybe the truth will never come out as to why the coaching staff resigned and got fired. How hard would it have been to have giten Cameron an extension? Don't think it would've been hard at all. New owners don't appear to have gotten off to a good start there especially since they made themselves disappear on the day it all went down.

They may wanna learn something from the Blades. With the latest hires in Saskatoon, I think the Priestners are earning some points after a first bad impression. True the season hasn't started yet and the Blades might not be a good team again this year but I think they'll be better then most people think. Lang better make a big hire though it seems like the owners will have a big say in who is hred.

[patsdude114]

Okay and I say give Cameron an extension like chamblin and then you get assistant coaches. Come on man it's easy to follow. All sports intertwine in ideology. By the way great signing by the blades.

I know how sports work bighat but why on earth give Cameron an extension due to one season. A season where we had a losing record to teams above .500 if it wasn't for us dominating MJ & Stoon we would of been under .500 even if we would of split those series against them we would of been around the .500 mark. You cant reward for mediocre, yes the hockey was more entertaining and we did see improvements but down the stretch we were not great and in the playoffs we were flat out terrible. You can blame injuries all you want to Wapple and Stevenson but we were not even in one game of the 4 games played. How can you give an extension for that?

This season would of been a make it or break it season for him even with his coaching staff back. The more I think about it the more I think the right move was made, yes last year we had a good season but really at the expense of MJ & Stoon. Our division was by far the weakest in the entire league and we barely won our division with SC right down our throats. We were 5-4-1 to close the season out thank god we played LETH twice and MJ in there to help us clinch.

Let's see who we hire and go from there maybe we get a better name and all around head coach then Cameron then none of us will care that Cameron was let go (or at least I wont)... I do think Cameron is a good coach don't get me wrong but with that said he benefitted from being in a weak division and imo that does not warrant a contract extension after 1 season of being the Head Coach

[RWAH]

PD114 I agree with the right hire and a on ice improvement we may soon forget Malchom, but give the man his dues. All year lots of posts on the board were how the team lacked talent in every age group. The just completed NHL draft and every team in the east division had one or more player drafted except the Pats (zero). You have posted that you see some of the veterans not making the team this year because the 16 year old rookies have more skill. Hockey Canada has both Malchom and Josh on there radar as elite coaches. It was the coaching this past season that earned the division pennant. (I agree the division was very weak) but for all the teams. The Pats were the only east division team to boast a winning record on the US swing. Coach Cameron has a winning record at all the levels he's coached. IMO he should have been given a contract extension.

My worry is the management structure, that the GM will short list candidates and the GM and multiple owners will be the decision makers. My fear is that alumni and past friendship are weighted more than experience, past record, coaching style and connections in the hockey community. The things that should be considered when hiring a head coach

As I started this post "the right hire and all will be forgotten

[chopper]

You ask a HC to primarily do one thing; WIN; and Cameron did just that. He was a rookie HC in the WHL and won nearly 40 games, a pennant, and brought back an exciting on-ice product long missing in these parts. It had been nearly a decade since our last pennant.

Last year Cameron had been selected to coach Team West with Dixon being his assistant. Hockey Canada has recognized these guys. Dixon was supposed to coach Team Saskatchewan and will be coaching with Canada's U18. Winners and recognized coaches. How freakin much more do you want? If you read the LP article Dixon didn't want to go and was blindsided by his treatment. He had obviously been expecting a better (and deserved) contract to stay with Cameron. They screwed him over and then did so to Cameron.

Regina is a coaches graveyard and now add two more casualties. It appears Cameron and Dixon didn't golf and coffee enough with the owners to suit their liking. Effort and performance don't appear to be criteria enough with this group. It looks like Parker's 2.0

To repeat myself this had nothing to do with contracts but everything to do with who the new group wanted and didn't want. They didn't have the stones to do what the Priestner's did in Saskatoon. Terminate everyone and start fresh, regardless of record and results.

There are some good candidates out there but there are also two other teams needing coaches. Both Portland and Vancouver are much more desirable spots, especially in light of Regina's history of treating their coaches shabbily. The names read like a litany of who's who. Make no mistake and I know this for a fact, many coaches have refused to come here simply based on that fact alone. There have been front line guys who wouldn't work for the Parker's. Recent actions put the new regime at risk of being viewed the same way.

I worry that Marquardt and Lumbard have solicited too much advice from local segments of Pats Alumni. Most of whom are self serving and nothing invested. I might add none of whom have won a pennant recently. There are a number of good candidates with a winning resume who would be a good fit. In light of the team's reputation handling coaches, it might be tough to attract them. After all we couldn't seem to find the money to retain one of the brightest young coaches around, could we? Will we settle for second best?

Now what? Recent new names that have surfaced with other teams are Perry Pearn, Glen Gulitzan, Tim Hunter, Jim Hiller and couple others. Then there are the recycles like Habscheid, Clark, Young, Hunchak, Dyck, and how could we forget Lorne Molleken. I for one don't see where any of the aforementioned are better than what we had! My dark horse in the race is Molleken who could handle GM duties, which I'm sure will be needed soon. If ownerships lives and dies by the word of the alumni, they will have a rough losing ride.

[Bighat]

Very good posts rwah and chopper, I just think we lost 2 of the brighter young minds in the game. Good coaching is beating the teams your suppose too, when you loose to the lesser teams that's what determines your season. In any SPORT.

[patsdude114]

The comments about the Hockey Canada thing... do we not forget that a guy by the name of Curtis Hunt was once on the Hockey Canada radar as well....once his pro stint was over he came back then was never offered a new contract and hasn't found a coaching job since.

We can say all we want about Cameron won during his time here as a HC but there was also a lot of you who were hard on him as well due to our terrible record against teams over .500 (which was a losing record). The pennant basically came down to the Pats having a better record then the Broncos against MJ & Stoon as the Broncos if I recall correctly lost 2 to MJ and 1 to Stoon (without checking but I do remember they lost a couple games to them)....also we couldn't play defense for the life of us as well as couldn't stay out of the box which is not a way to be a successful team or HC

Its been a very fun debate about how we all seen Cameron as a HC everyone has made valid points. I for one wish he wasn't fired as I did enjoy his brand of hockey being played but with that said the more I look into it im also fine with them firing him as well.

I think it comes down to more giving it a fresh start with the coaching staff, and Lang im sure will be on a short leash but we all know that Lang really wasn't pulling the strings under the Parker's cause all they cared about was 1 round of playoff money. Lang has been forced to rebuild souly threw the draft with no help of being allowed to trade stars for the right pieces (high draft picks and quality prospects) which leads me to believe that he will not waste a lot of time once the season gets going to move Klimchuk to prove to the owners that he isn't afraid to trade a star but just wasn't allowed too before. I think Klimchuk will end up in CGY with the Hitmen as they will be the top of the class in the Central Division lead by Virtanen, Lang, Chase, Rankin, Sanheim, & Thomas there is also reports that Tambellini will be back in junior as well.

I would think we will hear what coach we are hiring by Thursday or Friday after the euro draft on Wednesday