Position Right Wing Name Dwayne Norris Career start 1992 Shot Right Career end 2007 | Height 1.78 m Playing career Weight 79 kg | |
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Born January 8, 1970 (age 54) St. John's, NL, CAN ( 1970-01-08 ) NHL Draft 127th overall, 1990Quebec Nordiques | ||
5/10/1996 Dwayne Norris Shorthanded Goal vs. Syracuse Game 5
Carl Dwayne Norris (born January 8, 1970 in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador) is a former professional ice hockey player. He started his hockey career with the St. John's Capitals (Caps) of the Avalon Junior Hockey League. He left home at the young age of 14 to play with the Notre Dame Hounds. He then went on to play college hockey with Michigan State. From there he joined the AHL's Cornwall Aces after being drafted by the Quebec Nordiques (127th overall) in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft. The Aces then moved their team to Halifax in 1994 under the name Halifax Citadels. Norris appeared in 20 National Hockey League regular season games for the Nordiques and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, scoring 2 goals and 4 assists for 6 points and collecting 8 penalty minutes. In 1996 he moved to Germany and joined the Kölner Haie (Cologne Sharks) of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. In 2002, he won the German Championship with the Sharks when Cologne beat perennial rivals Mannheim Eagles 3:2 in the best-of-five final series with Norris netting the game winner in each of the Sharks' victories. Before the 2003/04 season he signed with league rivals Frankfurt Lions and immediately helped the Lions win the league title in his first season in Frankfurt. After three more seasons Norris retired from active play and, in a surprise move by his last club, became the Lions' General Manager in 2007, a position he held until the team filed for bankruptcy in May 2010. Norris is still now involved in hockey, he is the hockey director of an elite youth hockey program in Michigan, the Oakland Junior Grizzlies. Norris has three sons, all involved in the Oakland Junior Grizzlies AAA program. He currently coaches the Bantam Major and PeeWee Major Grizzly AAA hockey teams.
His most memorable moment may have occurred during the 1990 Junior World Hockey Tournament in Helsinki when he scored the winning goal to help Team Canada beat Czechoslovakia and win the gold medal. In 1994 Norris won a silver medal with Team Canada at the Lillehammer Winter Olympics.
Don Cherry once referred to Norris as "one of the best damn skaters to come out of this country". Cherry also stated numerous times that he should have been given more ice time in Quebec and Anaheim.
His younger brother Warren Norris is also a professional ice hockey player.
