Hakan Andersson

[David 2]

Article

A bit longer and more involved than other articles I've read about him.

[Drake_Marcus 890]

I love this quote from the article:

One time, in the mid-1990s, Andersson saw a Swedish forward who crashed the net all the time. He was a maniac. But he was also 165 pounds and not much of a skater.

A year later, a friend mentioned that the kid was now 200 pounds. If he would battle like crazy at 165, how good could he be at 200?

Andersson went to see him.

And that's how the Wings landed Tomas Holmstrom.

Holmstrom still wasn't much of a skater. But he made up for it with his work ethic. One time, Holmstrom's coach told the team to take Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off. Holmstrom got so grumpy on Christmas Eve, his dad told him to get out of the house and go practice. Holmstrom could not even stand to take Christmas Eve off.

[JeeSpot82 10]

That's a great article. Thank you for posting.

I didn't know that Edler story - pretty interesting stuff. Bastard Canucks.

[Cruiser008 37]

Excellent read! Can't wait to see who Andersson unearths in the draft this weekend (although we won't find out until 3-4 years down the road)

[Yemack 1]

good story. it's always nice to read anything about him.

[akustyk 84]

(...)

Andersson went to see him.

And that's how the Wings landed Tomas Holmstrom.

Holmstrom still wasn't much of a skater. But he made up for it with his work ethic.

(...)

it still didn't help and when Homer landed in Detroit in 1995 the very Scotty Bowman

told him he's not gonna last a year with Wings. which is why he actually wears the

number 96

[David 2]

"Everybody was raving about the Sedin twins," Andersson said. "We were a couple of scouts standing around the coach, and we said, 'Oh, are they ever good, those twins.' And he said, 'You know what, guys? My best player so far in the camp here has been Zetterberg. He's even outplayed the twins.' "

Andersson was pleased.

"We had drafted him the summer before."

I liked that quote most, myself

[Inultus 12]

So this has probably already been posted but I haven't seen it. Great article about our European scouting.

The Red Wings' top five postseason scorers all have one man to thank. His name is Hakan Andersson. He is the Wings' director of European scouting. He is the one who scouted Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, Johan Franzen, Niklas Kronwall and Jiri Hudler and recommended the Wings draft them.

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In fact, Andersson recommended virtually every European player on the roster, except for Nick Lidstrom, who was drafted before Andersson was hired in 1990.

Hakan Andersson does his job as well as anybody in the NHL does anything.

This is supposed to be a story about Andersson's magic touch, but I ran into a problem while reporting it. I found out there isn't any magic.

Good eye, good luck

"Another scout once said, and I think it makes a lot of sense, that scouting relies on three things," Andersson said the other day. "You have to be out there watching games. You have to have an eye for players. And you have to have a little bit of luck. If you're missing one of those three components, it's hard to come up with players."

Of course, every scout is out there watching games, and nobody can control luck. So that leaves the eye for players.

What makes Andersson so good?

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.

So that's the first thing: Andersson's bosses trust him. But it also helps that Holland, Nill, Andersson and the other scouts all share a philosophy. Generally speaking, they value skill over size.

"I hear people come in and watch these 18- and 19-year-olds and say 'Oh, he's not strong enough,' " Andersson said. "No 18-year-old is. I don't look at it that way."

Big 18-year-old players probably won't get a lot faster, but fast players have a chance to get a lot bigger. Plus, there are actually some advantages to being too small at 18. It seems counterintuitive.

But small players learn to fight for the puck. They have to be tough, or they can't play. And if they grow into NHL-sized players, they are suddenly scrappy and strong.

One time, in the mid-1990s, Andersson saw a Swedish forward who crashed the net all the time. He was a maniac. But he was also 165 pounds and not much of a skater.

A year later, a friend mentioned that the kid was now 200 pounds. If he would battle like crazy at 165, how good could he be at 200?

Andersson went to see him.

And that's how the Wings landed Tomas Holmstrom.

Holmstrom still wasn't much of a skater. But he made up for it with his work ethic. One time, Holmstrom's coach told the team to take Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off. Holmstrom got so grumpy on Christmas Eve, his dad told him to get out of the house and go practice. Holmstrom could not even stand to take Christmas Eve off.

And that's another key to the Wings' success: They usually won't compromise on work ethic. It's too hard to make it in the NHL if you don't want it enough.

After the Wings drafted Kronwall, Andersson arranged to meet with him. Kronwall thought they would talk hockey; instead, Andersson took him to a grocery store, and they walked down every aisle together, with Andersson telling Kronwall what to eat if he wanted to be in top shape.

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.

Keeping a cool head

OK, so Andersson has the backing of management and a philosophy that works. He also trusts the scouts who report to him, just as Holland and Nill trust him.

Here is another key quality: Andersson does everything he can to take emotion out of his evaluations.

When a player wows him, Andersson goes back to see him again, because "it might have been the game of his life." This works the other way, too: He lives in Stockholm and has a tendency to get down on Stockholm players because he sees them more. He knows their strengths and starts to look for flaws. So he tries to be careful about that, too.

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.

Happy at home

A few years ago, Holland offered Andersson a promotion, working for the Wings' front office in the United States. He mulled it over and turned it down. He likes living in Sweden, and now he has a young family. Plus, he figures he has more value to the Wings in his current role.

There are moments when he knows he made the right choice. Like a few years ago, when he was watching the practice for the Swedish World Junior Championships team, and talk turned to twins Daniel and Henrik Sedin. The Sedins would be the No. 2 and No. 3 picks in the NHL draft.

"Everybody was raving about the Sedin twins," Andersson said. "We were a couple of scouts standing around the coach, and we said, 'Oh, are they ever good, those twins.' And he said, 'You know what, guys? My best player so far in the camp here has been Zetterberg. He's even outplayed the twins.' "

Andersson was pleased.

"We had drafted him the summer before."

[NeverForgetMac25 483]

If you're curious about whether or not a dated article has been posted, use the "Search Forum" at the bottom of GD Forums page. 99% of the time if its been posted you'll find it, as is the case for this article.

[Shutemdown 23]

That's a great article. Thank you for posting.

I didn't know that Edler story - pretty interesting stuff. Bastard Canucks.

Eh, they can have him...

If we had drafted Edler, then we probably wouldn't have Franzen right now.