Almost Famous: Calgary's Nigel Dawes Is Finally Emerging as a Bonafied NHLer

The New York Rangers 2003 draft pick Nigel Dawes was truly great in junior while playing for the WHLs Kootenay Ice, scoring 159 goals, and 272 points in 245 games.

He then landed in Hartford playing for the AHLs Wolf Pack, and continued to light the lamp scoring 35 goals, and 32 assists in 77 games as a rookie.

It seemed as though Nigel Dawes's star was prime to shine brighter than the neon lights on Broadway.

But after a little under two season's in the Big Apple, and 24 goals, his star flickered enough to waive him to Phoenix; where he would record just two assists in 12 games.

At times comparing the junior Dawes to that of the one in the NHL has been like listening to Nirvana's follow up to Nevermind, In Utero; it was good not great, and certainly didn't live up to expectations.

It looked like Nigel Dawes was destined to be yet another great junior player thats talents never really bubbled to the surface in the NHL.

Then the Calgary Flames would enter the picture, with little cap room, trying to fill a void left by the departed Mike Cammalleri.

In his time in New York, Dawes had been given chances to succeed, but maybe not quite like this, as the left winger had been penciled in on one of the Flames Top-Two lines since the start of training camp.

In fifteen games so far this season, Calgary's new "little big man" has four goals, and six assists, good for third on the team in scoring. No, not quite Cammalleri's numbers, but the twenty-four-year-old has shown all the tools that he is becoming a bonafied NHLer, at $5 million cheaper, and three years younger than the aforementioned Cammalleri.

Yes, it is all too early to speculate on how Dawes does the rest of the way.

It may be like predicting the weather in Calgary.

But so far there has been consistent flashes of brilliance that makes fans think back to a young Theoren Fleury with the 1989 Flames; a club that finished first overall, and went on to hoist the Stanley Cup.

At 10-4-1, the 2009-10 version of the Calgary Flames may just have the potential, and so far it has been aided by the play of Nigel Dawes, who is quickly becoming almost famous in cowtown.