After getting recruited from his hockey class at the University of Alberta, Cross spent three seasons with the University of Alberta, during which time they won three Canada West championships and one national championship in 1992. Cross made his professional debut with the Atlanta Knights of the IHL in the 1993-1994 season. The Knights won the Turner Cup championship, only losing 2 games in the playoffs. He was called up to the parent club Tampa Bay Lightning for the last five games of the 93-94 season. Despite making the Lightning after the 94-95 exhibition season, he returned to the Knights during the NHL lockout. At the end of the lockout, Cross was called up to the Lightning for the remainder of the season.
After spending five full seasons in Tampa Bay, Cross, along with a seventh-round draft pick, was dealt in the off-season to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Fredrik Modin. Cross scored one of the biggest goals of his career on April 16, 2001, when he potted the overtime game-winning goal for Toronto over the Ottawa Senators in Game 3 in the first round of the 2001 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs on the way to an upset sweep of the number-two seeded Senators.
Cross signed with the Hamburg Freezers of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga in July 2006. Cross played one season with Hamburg and formally retired as an active player in September 2009.
Cross was a member of Team Canada at three World Championships (1997, 1998, 2003), winning gold in 1997 and 2003.
Coaching career
On September 27, 2009, the Calgary Dinos' head hockey coach Mark Howell announced that Cross would be an assistant head coach along with former NHL player Brad Isbister.[1]
Cross was born in Lloydminster, Alberta, and now resides in West Kelowna, British Columbia, with his wife Shannon and their two children. Cross is part-owner of an oil and gas service company, R'ohan Well and Rig Services, and one of the co-founders of ProSmart Sports, an online hockey learning platform.[citation needed]
