Bosc Ulrich II
OTP Resident Historian
Joined: 18 Oct 2007
Posts: 3226
Location: Sweetest lid in the league
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 Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 9:33 am Post subject: Eyes, Trust and Luck: Meet Hakan Andersson |
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Good article on the Wings' top European scout, who has been offered a job with the team in the US but likes where he is.
Eyes:
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Andersson generally doesn't trust other people's scouting skills. ("I've learned the hard way that there isn't many people who look at hockey the way I do.") But he trusts their judgment on character, and he relies on them to fill in the gray areas on a player's background.
There was one player from southern Sweden who struck Andersson as a solid defensive forward, but not much of an offensive threat. But a few friends who had known the kid forever persuaded Andersson to take another look.
"They said when he was really young, he was a hell of a scorer," Andersson said. "When he made the Swedish Elite team, the coach told him, 'When you're on the third line, you play defense. That's your No. 1 priority, to have 0-0 games.' So he developed a strong work ethic for that. But he had scoring in him, according to those guys."
Andersson looked at the player again and saw what his friends saw. His name was Johan Franzen. |
Trust:
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The first thing he mentions -- and this cannot be overstated -- is that the Wings listen to him. If Andersson fights for a player on draft day, they usually draft the guy. Wings general manager Ken Holland and his assistant Jim Nill trust Andersson, and as Holland often says, "We don't judge players by their passports." Many other teams still do.
"I know one scout who tried to bring up Niklas Kronwall's name with his team," Andersson said. "They just laughed at him. They never even had a serious dialogue. They just stopped him. They said 'a 5-11 Swedish defenseman?' Our organization is more open-minded than that."
This is crucial, because in drafting, small victories reap huge rewards. Andersson points out that he could not have been that high on Zetterberg since the Wings did not draft him until the seventh round. But obviously, the Wings were higher on Zetterberg than anybody else was. |
Luck:
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As for luck: Yeah, that plays a role. One time Andersson was flying to Russia to see a prospect for the third time, and his flight was delayed. After five hours on the runway in the snow, Andersson heard "this unbelievable roar.
"And I look at the window and there's this big ring of fire -- flames in the middle, and in the back of it there's a fan. It was a fan blowing wind through this ring of fire so the hot air would de-ice the plane. It was old-style Russian de-icing.
"So I was scared looking out. And at about 4:30 in the afternoon they said, 'OK, no flight. Get off the plane. Try again tomorrow if you want.' But then the game was going to be over, of course."
Thankfully, Andersson had already seen the prospect. Another scout on the plane, from St. Louis, had not.
And that's how the Wings got Pavel Datsyuk.
Then again, luck is whatever we believe it to be. Sure, Andersson was lucky the flight was canceled and the scout from St. Louis did not see Datsyuk.
But was it luck that Andersson was going back to see Datsyuk a third time, and (apparently) no other scout had even seen him once?
We tend to view luck selectively, as if winning teams have only good luck and losing teams have only bad luck. But the Wings have had their share of bad luck, too.
There was the tragic Vladimir Konstantinov accident, of course. Jiri Fischer -- another Andersson find -- was a rising star when he had to retire because of a heart problem at age 25. Igor Grigorenko was the top prospect in the whole organization before almost dying in a car accident; Grigorenko hasn't been the same since.
Then there is the case of Alexander Edler, one of the best young defensemen in the NHL. Edler lived in a little town called Jamtland, which was seven hours from Stockholm. Nobody in the NHL knew anything about him -- except for Hakan Andersson.
Andersson scouted Edler and liked him, but he wanted to see him play one more game. And since Jamtland was so far from Stockholm, Andersson called Edler's coach before he left, just to make sure Edler would play that day. Otherwise, it would be a waste of a trip.
The coach was friendly with an agent, and he called his agent friend to tell him the Red Wings wanted Edler.
The agent tipped off the rest of the NHL.
So on draft day, the Wings prepared to take Edler with their third-round pick, 97th overall. But Vancouver traded up to No. 91 and took Edler.
The Wings took the guy they were planning to take in the fourth round. And that's when they picked Franzen. |
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