Dave Cameron is closing on his own deal and completing his coaching staff.

The Senators’ coach has virtually agreed to a two-year extension that GM Bryan Murray put on the table at the end of the season and Cameron may have identified the man who will take over the vacant spot on his staff after the club lost assistant Mark Reeds to a battle with cancer in mid-April.

League sources told the Sun Monday Andre Tourigny, who resigned from his post on Patrick Roy’s staff after two seasons with the Colorado Avalanche last month, has emerged as the frontrunner. He spent 11 seasons with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies before accepting the assistant’s post with the Avs.

Tourigny served as an assistant on Cameron’s coaching staff when Team Canada won silver at the world junior championship’s in 2011. He will join a staff that includes former Senators defenceman Jason Smith, goalie coach Rick Wamsley, strength coach Chris Schwarz and video coach Tim Pattyson.

It’s believed Cameron has deep respect for Tourigny and as long as there are no snags getting the contract done then they should be able to complete a deal.

And, Murray has deep respect for the job Cameron did when he took over.

The 56-year-old Cameron, who took over Dec. 8 after coach Paul MacLean was fired with the club sitting at 11-11-5, was able to get the Senators back on track and played a big role in the historic run down the stretch to get to the post-season before losing to the Montreal Canadiens in Round 1 in six games.

While Cameron told reporters after the Montreal series he had the extension offer on his kitchen table, hadn’t opened the envelope and didn’t expect a problem, he has held more talks with the Murray in the last month because the organization feels he should be rewarded for the success the club had.

Though Cameron already had two years left on his deal, the contract he’ll sign with the Senators will be reworked with a considerable bump in his salary from what he was making as an assistant under MacLean. His deal was reworked by Murray when Cameron took over but this contract will reflect the success.

Under MacLean, the message had gotten stale and it wasn’t getting through anymore. Though Cameron didn’t have success immediately, the Senators were able to get it turned around at the right time and the Senators went 20-1-2 down the stretch to make the playoffs on the last day of the season.

The biggest change Cameron made was opening up the lines of communication and getting the players to buy into to the message he was selling. It only made sense for the Senators to offer him a new contract and both sides just needed time to hold more talks to get a deal in place.

The Senators are also closing in on a deal with Binghamton coach Luke Richardson to remain with the club’s AHL affiliate next season.

Murray offered Richardson, 46, an extension at the end of the year but he wanted to wait before signing the deal. He was considered a top candidate for the vacant head coaching job with the Buffalo Sabres because of the success he had with the Baby Sens and his relationship with GM Tim Murray.

After Mike Babcock took a pass on the Buffalo coaching job to sign a massive deal with Maple Leafs, the Sabres signed Dan Bylsma to a five-year deal last week, which means Richardson will likely stay in Binghamton. The Senators don’t want to lose him to another organization because he’s done a good job.

With the staff in place, the focus can turn to what’s happening on the ice.

Contract talks are continuing with restricted free agents Alex Chiasson, Mike Hoffman, Mark Stone, Mika Zibanejad and Jean-Gabriel Pageau. The Senators haven’t made a decision on whether they’re going to keep UFA winger Erik Condra but it’s doubtful he’ll be back with free agency set for July 1.

The Senators also have to decide what to do with winger Colin Greening and forward David Legwand. Greening has two years left on his contract at $2.65 million and the Senators have held talks with the teams about the possibility of making a deal but may have to pick up part of the salary to make that happen.

As for Legwand, he has a year left at $3 million and should be able to help somebody. He didn’t play regularly at the end of the season but there’s a strong possibility he could be moved to a team looking for a veteran that can still chip in or they need the cap hit to get to the salary floor.

The draft is just around the corner but the Senators are getting their business done.

Twitter: @sungarrioch