By Peter Watts /

Nigel Dawes is part of a wave of top Winnipeg minor hockey products to make it onto hockey’s grandest stage in recent years.

Jonathan Toews in Chicago, Travis Zajac in New Jersey and Cam Barker in Chicago are other current examples  of young players who learned the game in Manitoba and had the drive and the talent to get to the top of the hockey ladder.

And there are many more who are sprinkled through the college and junior ranks.

“We always played against each other when we were growing up in Winnipeg,” Dawes said after a Calgary Flames practice.

“We were never on the same teams, but I think the awareness of each other and the normal push to compete was good for all of us.

“Jonathan went to North Dakota. Cam went to junior. And I did the same thing after thinking briefly about the college route. But I just felt that at 16, the Dub offered the best opportunity for me.”

It worked out well. A fifth-round pick of the Kootenay Ice in the 2000 bantam draft, Dawes played on a Memorial Cup championship team and finished a four-year career in Cranbrook as the career leader in goals with 159.

After spending parts of three seasons in the minors, he made it to the New York Rangers. Traded to Phoenix late last season, he was claimed off waivers by the Flames during 
the summer.

“I’m here to be a top-six forward,” said Dawes, who played in the first two Flames pre-season games.

“I think there’s a plan to play me with Manitoba guys.  The first game I played with Dustin Boyd, who’s from Winnipeg. The second game I played with Theoren Fleury (who was born in Oxbow, Sask., but who grew up in rural Manitoba). Daymond Langkow was our centre that night so we made him an 
honourary Manitoban.”

Whether Dawes will be able to contribute in Calgary is one of the more important questions in the Flames’ camp.

With 39-goal scorer Mike Cammalleri now in Montreal, there’s a lot of offense to be picked up by others.

Flames general manager Darryl Sutter thought enough of Dawes’ abilities to pick him off the waiver wire and sign him to a two-year deal. Yet he has just 25 goals in 133 games in the NHL.

His former bench boss in New York, Tom Renney, says Dawes has the potential to blossom if he continues to work hard. In Calgary, he’ll play for Brent Sutter, a tough taskmaster, who demands good work habits and attention to detail at both ends of the rink.

Sutter coached Dawes at a world junior tournament, and presumably had some input on the decision to acquire Dawes’ services. After all, Sutter had a chance to see what Dawes could do when he was with the Rangers and Sutter was coaching the division rival New Jersey Devils.

The Flames need Dawes to excel.

Perhaps, finally, Dawes will get a chance to establish himself as an offensive force 
in Calgary.

If he can, he’ll join Toews and Zajack as important contributors to the success of 
their teams.

And he’ll be one more player card in the collections of Winnipeg youngsters who dream of someday being in the best hockey league in the world.