Nigel Alexander Dawes (born February 9, 1985) is a Canadian-Kazakhstani professional ice-hockey winger for Adler Mannheim of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). He played 212 games in 5 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New York Rangers, Phoenix Coyotes, Calgary Flames, Atlanta Thrashers, and Montreal Canadiens. Since leaving the NHL, Dawes has become known as a Sniper (goalscorer) in Europe particularly in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) with Barys Astana, Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg and Ak Bars Kazan scoring 267 goals and 505 points in 543 games in the KHL - making him 5th all-time in KHL point scoring and 2nd in goals. In major junior Dawes played for the Kootenay Ice in the Western Hockey League, with Kootenay he was part of the team that won the 2002 Memorial Cup. He was also part of Team Canada's IIHF World Junior Championship teams of 2004 and 2005, winning Gold at the latter.He later switched to Kazakhstan. Playing career Dawes played junior ice hockey for the Kootenay Ice in the Western Hockey League. In his first year, the Ice won the 2002 Memorial Cup after winning the President's Cup as champions of the WHL. Dawes improved his play in his next two seasons in the WHL, and, for the 2003–04 season, he was named a first team All-Star in the Western Conference, the winner of the Brad Hornung Trophy (most sportsmanlike), and the Ice's most valuable player. Dawes was drafted in the fifth round, 149th overall, in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft by the New York Rangers, after two seasons in the WHL. After three seasons of junior hockey and four games in the American Hockey League for the Hartford Wolf Pack at the end of the 2003–04 season, the Rangers signed Dawes to his first professional contract on September 1, 2004, when he was 19 years old. Dawes went on to play another season with the Ice, recognized for his talent as a finalist for the Four Broncos Memorial Trophy (WHL player of the year), before breaking into the professional game in the AHL. Dawes finished his Kootenay Ice career as the franchise leader in goals, with 159 scored in 245 games. Dawes scored his first NHL goal against Andrew Raycroft on October 21, 2006, in the Rangers 5–4 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. After playing in seven games then being a healthy scratch for seven of the