Hockey player Nigel Daws is well known to many sports fans from the CIS countries. From 2011 to 2018, he played in the Kazakhstan club "Barys", and now stands for the Yekaterinburg team "Motorist". Nigel Daws is a native of Canada. However, in 2016, he received a Kazakhstan passport and the opportunity to represent the hockey team of this country at international tournaments.
Early biography and career in North America
Nigel Dawes's date of birth is February 9, 1985, and his birthplace is Winnipeg, Canada. It is known that his mother (her name Barbara) was an athlete, she was engaged in speed skating. And it was she who taught her son to skate when he was only three years old.
In 2001, Nigel became a member of the Kootenay Ice Club, playing for the WHL (this is one of the three major hockey leagues for juniors in Canada). For three seasons (2001/2002, 2002/2003 and 2003/2004) Nigel Daws played 219 games for this club, scored 123 goals and made 103 assists. Such results allowed him to achieve the title of best sniper "Kuteney Ice." Not only that, with this club he became the champion of the WHL League.
At some point, the NHL scouts turned their attention to the talented guy, and ultimately Daws was drafted by the New York Rangers. However, at first he was sent to the Rangers farm club - Hartford Wolf Pack, who plays not in the NHL, but in another, less prestigious North American league - the AHL.
And it was the management of Hartford Wolf Pack after four test matches that offered Dawes the first professional contract in his life. It was signed on September 1, 2004.
It was only after a couple of seasons at Hartford that Nigel was given a real chance to make his debut in the NHL as part of the Rangers. And he scored the first goal for this club on October 21, 2006 in a meeting with the “Toronto Maple Leafs” (the meeting, by the way, ended in a victory for the New York Rangers - 5: 4). But in total that season Nigel played for the “Rangers” not so much - only 8 games. In particular, he went on the ice in the sixth match of the Eastern Conference semifinal, in which the “rangers” fought with “Buffalo Sabers”. But this match did not work out very well for Dawes: one of the pucks was in the gates of the “New York Rangers” precisely after a rebound from him (he tried to block the opponent’s throw). As a result, the Rangers lost in this meeting.
After that, Daws was sent for a while to the farm team. But then he still was able to return to the Rangers. In the regular season 2007/2008, he played 61 matches for this New York club and became the author of 14 goals. And 4 of them - at the gate of Martin Broder, the goalkeeper of “New Jersey Devils”. In addition, that season, Dawes was one of the key shooter experts for New York. Four of the seven shootouts he played ended in a goal.
It is interesting that Nigel also showed himself well in the playoff stage: he took part in 10 matches and scored 2 goals in them. Strictly speaking, the 2007/2008 season was the most successful during his performances for the Rangers.
In July 2008, Nigel signed a new contract with a New York club in the amount of 587.5 thousand dollars. This contract was designed for one year. However, in the midst of the season, Dawes was handed over to another NHL club Phoenix Coyotes. A year later, he moved from Phoenix to Calgary Flames, and then defended the colors of Atlanta Thrashers and Montreal Canadiens.
Unfortunately, in Montreal, he received little playing time (for the most part, he generally played for the farm club - “Hamilton Bulldogs”). And this situation pushed Dawes to important changes: he decided to cross the ocean and test his strength in the Continental Hockey League (KHL).
Nigel Dawes in Barys and Motorist
On May 31, 2011, Daws signed a contract with Barys, a club from Kazakhstan's Astana (by the way, this city is now called Nur-Sultan). And in a new place, Nigel began to play brilliantly, and pretty quickly entered the pool of the best league players.
February 22, 2013 he was marked by a kind of record - in just 26 minutes he scored as many as four goals against HC “Tractor” (Chelyabinsk) in the game of the first round of the KHL playoffs. This allowed Nigel to become the first Canadian in the KHL to score more than three goals in one match.
In 2015, he first participated in the KHL All-Star Game. However, subsequently, Dawes played several times in similar matches - in 2016, in 2017, in 2018 and in 2019.
On November 1, 2017, Nigel Dawes was the first KHL forward to record 10 hat tricks. And in general, according to the results of the 2017/2018 season, he was recognized as the best sniper of the league.
In April 2018, the hockey player announced that he had decided to leave Barys. Yekaterinburg Avtomobilist, also performing in the KHL, has become the new Dows club. In the 2019/2020 season, he is still playing for this club. Moreover, at the moment, Daws is acting as captain of Motorist.
Performances for the national teams of Canada and Kazakhstan
In 2004 and 2005, Nigel Dawes, as a member of the youth team of Canada, participated in world championships. At the 2004 World Cup, he led the tournament scorers rating (that is, he scored the most points in the “goal plus pass” system - he scored six goals and made five assists) and took silver with the team. And in 2005, the Canadian team won gold at all (although Nigel did not perform so well - he managed to record only two goals at his own expense).
In 2016, Nigel, along with two other Canadian hockey players - Brandon Bochensky and Dustin Boyd, received Kazakhstani citizenship and the right to play for the national team of this country. And over the next two years he took part in many matches of this team. In particular, when Kazakhstan fought in Group A of the First Division for reaching the final of the 2017 World Cup.
At the same time, it must be admitted that since 2018, Nigel Daw's appearances for this team have stopped for some reason.
