I’m not the first one to find this article–Red Wings Prospects on Twitter posted this while I was sleeping–but here’s a rough translation of Red Wings director of European scouting Hakan Andersson’s long interview with Mans Karlsson:
Continue reading Roughly translated: Hakan Andersson talks about the Wings’ draft picks with Hockeysverige.se: ‘It’s shit what it says on the passport’“I’m the first to say ‘[it’s] shit in what it says on the passport'”
They were not content with [just drafting] Lucas Raymond. Detroit picked three Swedes in this year’s draft – with its first three draft picks. Now European scout Håkan Andersson talks about the selections.
“We do not hunt for Swedes – we hunt for the best hockey players,” Andersson says to hockeysverige.se.
No NHL team is as closely associated with Swedes as the Detroit Red Wings. There is, of course, a simple explanation for that, and that explanation is spelled Håkan Andersson. The team’s legendary scout has worked for Detroit for 30 years, and has made a lot of blue-and-yellow discoveries.
In this year’s draft, Detroit chose Lucas Raymond with its first choice, the fourth overall, and with his second and third choices, respectively, defenseman William Wallinder from Modo and forward Theodor Niederbach from Frölunda were picked. A hat trick of Swedes, then.
But it is more of a coincidence, says Håkan Andersson.
“I have worked for Detroit for 30 years and it is clear to most of those who are on the team now. That discussion comes up at regular intervals and I am the first to say, “It’s shit in what it says in the passport – choose the best players” , says the scout to hockeysverige.se and continues: