How the 2025-26 67’s set the standard of future Barber Poles to come
In the game of hockey, it’s easy to write off anything but a championship-winning season as a failure.
“Your ultimate goal is to win the whole thing,” said coach Dave Cameron, who recently inked a two-year extension with the team. “So when you don’t do that, in theory, you haven’t reached what you set out to do.”
But in many ways, the 2025-26 campaign was a success-filled season for the Ottawa 67’s.
Originally pegged as outsiders, the team made the playoffs, hit the 100-point benchmark, and coach Dave Cameron reached the illustrious 1000-game milestone as an OHL head coach.
“We didn’t like how the year before ended,” said Cameron of the 2024-25 season, which saw Ottawa miss the playoffs. “So we knew that we were in for some changes.”
“Any time you have 10 new players, you are not quite sure what level you are going to reach,” said Cameron.
“If you had told me at the start that we were going to reach 100-points, I might not have agreed with you,” he said. “But, I recognized early on that this team was special.”
Special has been a word used to describe this team by numerous people up and down the lineup, the coaching staff, and the organization for months.
Whether it’s get-togethers for home-cooked meals and community events off the ice, to camaraderie, both in practice and during games, on the ice, this team bought in themselves but also each other.
“What separated this group is that this group wanted to be challenged,” said Cameron. “When you challenge a group, you get two outcomes: those who think it’s too hard and those who say to bring it; this group said bring it.”
He was impressed at the buy-in of not only those who started their season in Ottawa, but also those who joined later in the season, including overagers Sam McCue and Nic Sima.
“There’s always an adjustment for players coming into a new organization, especially this one, because it is hard,” said Cameron. “With our program, we come in early in the morning, do a lot of stuff off ice with regards to fitness and community, so to be successful, it’s hard.”
“Sam McCue came in and was a real character for us,” said Cameron. “He fit in very well and was playing his best hockey for us in the playoffs.”
“Nic Sima came in as advertised: high energy, physical player who can play with your top players and add some timely scoring,” he said. “He was a big part of our leadership group, with his enthusiasm every day being really important for us.”
Meanwhile, Cooper Foster remained a trusted leader as the team’s longest-serving veteran on the team.
“Cooper Foster came into this organization as a kid from Sault Ste. Marie and left as a man,” he said. “He’s a quiet leader, but as his game evolved and he became one of our best players, he got more comfortable and accepted that challenge.”
With such key players and people moving on from the club, the challenge then becomes, how can the Ottawa 67’s harness that energy and buy-in to next year’s group?
“Well, there’s no reason to believe that the guys coming back are going to continue to have it, and you have to recognize that anybody you bring in, if they don’t have it, has to be able to show that they can have it,” said Cameron. “And if they don’t, we’re not taking you.”
“That’s our standard now,” said Cameron. “If you aren’t here for the right reasons, we don’t want you.”
Cameron hopes that the returns will take that next step and guide the new group forward.
“We eliminate every excuse for players,” he said. “This organization offers everything that an NHL club would offer: mental health, leadership, medical, and fitness.”
“We lay the plan out for you, you do the work,” he said. “All we ask is for you to have an open mindset, and when you have that mindset, you realize that hard work and fun can be in the same sentence.”
