DeuceMN
Really?
You can call it discrimination, but in reality, it's risk assessment. They aren't not picking Russians because they despise Russians for ignorant reasons, they are avoiding picking Russians because of the risk involved in losing a prospect for nothing, especially a high pick. Sometimes it pays off and you get guys like Tarasenko who may spend his entire career in the NHL and make everyone who didn't pick him look like a fool. Other times you get Radulov who looks promising and then bolts for the KHL for whatever reasons. If Tarasenko would have fallen to the mid-rounds, the Wild's stance might have changed on him because the risk may have been worth the reward. Spending a 5th round pick on an asset that may likely never see your organization is a much better pill to swallow than spending a 1st rounder.
Teams like Detroit and Washington can continue to accumulate Russian prospects because of their already established Russian core of players. Washington has less risk in going after Russian players because they have arguably the biggest star-power Russian hockey player in the world. Detroit has Pavel Datsyuk, whom players of every nationality have modeled their games after and would love to play with and learn from him. Tampa has done a good job of collecting young and talented Russian players, but who knows if they'll potentially bolt to the KHL for whatever reasons. I'm not knocking that either, but the guillotine still falls down on the GM/President if those assets leave the organization for no return. I'm not even totally agreeing with the policy of avoiding Russians in the draft, but at the same time, I can understand why a team would do so, and I can't agree with classifying it as 'discrimination'.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
