Burning Down the House

Welcome to Calgary Nigel Dawes

Since I need to quick while I’m at work, I won’t bother repeating what has been said so well over at Matchsticks and Gasoline:

In a somewhat surprising move, Calgary has claimed diminutive Junior scorer and former Ranger Nigel Dawes off of waivers from the Phoenix Coyotes. Dawes scored 19 points in 57 games with the Rangers, but stepped into an elevator shaft when he moved to PHX, managing just 2 assists in 12 contests.

Dawes was a sniper in Junior whom, it has been rumored, was coveted for years by Darryl Sutter a la Jamie Lundmark. Dawes scored 47, 47 and 50 goals in his last 3 seasons in the WHL and has also managed 27 and 35 goals at the AHL level (the latter in his rookie season). He has yet to translate his scoring at the NHL level, although he’s been confined mainly to 3rd and 4th line duties.

I like the Dawes addition purely from a risk/reward stand-point: he cost the club nothing and has the pedigree to eventually develop into a capable forward. If he stagnates, however, it won’t be a big deal.

One has to wonder what this means for the rest of the Flames forward roster, however. Dawes is an RFA and will be wanting a one-way deal. In addition (assuming Dustin Boyd get’s re-signed) the club already has 13 NHL forwards on staff - and most of them occupy the space Dawes will be looking to fill. This has to signal that at least one bottom-end forward is out the door; the natural choice is Wayne Primeau, of course, but the fact that Dustin Boyd has yet to sign a contract worries me…

This also means is guys like David Van Der Gulik, Kyle Greentree and Mikael Backlund will not be making the club out of camp this season.

I liked watching Dawes when he played for Team Canada under Sutter, but I have to admit that I haven’t paid much attention to him since. Fantasy hockey is pretty much my #1 concern when it comes to players on other teams, and for whatever reason I never really got all that excited about Dawes (size bias, perhaps?).

That said, every hockey-savvy person with Winnipeg connections that I know raves about the kid. Ian Fergusson at shallowfrozenwater once commented on his moral character… which is enough for me.

Dawes has always had to face questions about his stature and whether he would be able to overcome that hurdle to make it as an NHL regular. Just by taking a quick look at his stats from after he was drafted until last summer, the short but sturdy sniper sure seemed to follow a perfect development curve: 47 and then 50 goals in 2 extra years of junior, 67 points in 77 games in his AHL rookie year, 61 points in 65 games in his sophomore, and then finaly blasting past the PPG mark in Hartford (34 points in 20 games) in 2007/2008, earning his way to the big league where he posted a tidy half point per game.

Things derailed somewhat for Dawes this past season, where the lack of any superficial development over the previous season made him trade deadline fodder and promptly resulted in banishment to Phoenix.

Dawes plays a fast, energetic checking game which obviously made a good impression on Brent Sutter the past 2 years when they were bitter division rivals. A look at BehindTheNet’s advanced stats shows that he had a slightly positive +/- relative to the rest of his teamnates last year (both NY and PHX), goals were scored by his mates at a slightly higher rate while he was on the ice, and he drew more penalties than he took.

I love this move (assuming they get Dawes signed to a contract) as it gives the Flames another depth option to toy with once the search for dangerous line combinations begins in September. His energy and character can only help, and I think there is a decent chance this turns out to be a steal of Glencross-ian proportions by Darryl Sutter.

Welcome to Calgary, Nigel.