Quote:
Originally Posted by tsquared1967
One thing Sutter didn't do with his time in Calgary from 2003-2010 was drafting a Russian. He drafted Swedes, Finns and Swiss players.
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I stand corrected. I was thinking Taratukhin, but he was drafted in 2001, and Sutter's first draft was 2003. My bad.
Edit: Upon looking through the draft history, one thing really stood out to me and got me thinking. The Flames regularly took Russians up until Sutter took over, and the occasional Czech as well. Anybody know what kind of a presence was over there for the Flames? It was my understanding that the Flames had a tiny scouting department through the 90's when the team wasn't doing well financially, and it wasn't until Sutter came along convincing ownership to expand that department (along with better ticket sales since the Flames were doing better, and just as importantly a stronger Canadian dollar).
Just surprising that the Flames (fairly) regularly drafted Russian and Czech players. Even quite a few Swedish and Finnish players. Flames most assuredly had a few eyes over in Europe, and I thought they didn't have any. Loads of fairly high picks (2nds) being used on Russians, with few ever panning out. In 2001, they selected 4 Russians (2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th) without having any pan out, plus a Swede and a Fin. I remember them drafting Euros a bit more in the 80's, but I guess with the lack of drafting success through the 90's I completely forgot how many Euros they were drafting then. They must have had a fairly strong (and lousy) scouting presence in Europe at the time, which I found surprising.
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/t...r00005090.html