Cameron returning to Europe next season

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Dave Cameron will not be the next head coach of the Saint John Sea Dogs.

In an interview with Summerside radio station Spud FM Sunday morning, Cameron confirmed he had talks with the Sea Dogs about the position but has decided to return to Austria, where's he's coached the Vienna Capitals for the past two seasons.

"Where I'm at and what I've got going on in Europe, (my wife) Kelly and I basically decided that we were going to go back to Europe," Cameron said from his off-season PEI home.

"(Saint John) contacted me. I was flattered. Had some real good discussions with them and as you know I enjoy talking hockey at all levels. I talked to (Sea Dogs president and general manager Trevor Georgie) numerous times. I really enjoy junior, I really enjoy the kids or young men at that age and working with them and knew that Saint John had a real talented group coming back in there. It was very intriguing and very interesting."

Cameron, a long-time head coach and GM of the St. Michael's Majors OHL franchise, said he had no interest in joining a rebuilding junior club given where he's at in his career. Saint John entering an upswing and possibly hosting the 2022 Memorial Cup made the offer quite interesting.

"That certainly made it a lot more exciting and interesting and led to a lot more talks," said the 61-year-old.

"You still have to develop good players - even though Saint John has some talent they're still young and the big challenge was going to be to bring them in as a team. I always enjoyed that part of the challenge."

In terms of salary, Cameron added that "Saint John made a very fair offer."

Cameron's name began floating around a couple weeks ago as a potential candidate for the Sea Dogs head coach position. The team has made no comments publicly on its coaching situation this off-season. Officially, Jeff Cowan remains the interim head coach of the club at this time.