Euro-Integration: Were some teams against it?

[kaiser matias]

I found this slightly surprisin tidbit and thought of posting it here. Mainly because Canucks did fairly good job with Europeans and was one of the first NHL teams signing lot of Euro players. But in fact they did not have European scout as late as 86. Petri Skriko was tipped to Canucks by former Canucks prospect Stu Ostlund who played half a season with young Skriko in SaiPa in 1980-1981.

The Vancouver Sun 6. Dec 1986
...But an organizational bias remains. Canucks still are without a full-time European scout in the payroll, and instead rely on the rankings of Central Scouting, a talent-finding combine that is funded by the league.

"I think it was coincidence that me and Sunny (Patrick Sundström) even got here," said Skriko. "I think Vancouver is almost only NHL team that doesn´t scout in Sweden or Finland, hardly at all, although other teams are drafting European players all the time. When I was playing in the world championships, I think the only team that didn´t have a scout there was the Canucks. I don´t know the reason; it´s not my job to think about it."

Explained Darcy Rota, the Canucks director of player development: "Central Scouting does such a thorough job all over the world there aren´t any secrets any more."

Mike Penny, the Canucks director of scouting, currenty is in the midst of a three-week scouting mission to Scandinavia to watch Swedish and Finnish junior prospects and guage the progress of thow Canucks drafts - Hakan Ahlund a winger with the Swedish junior team, and centre Robert Kron, who is playing with the Czechoslovakian national team at tournament in Helsinki...

Mentioned in other thread lately, but Göran Stubb formed European Scouting Service (under Central Scouting) in 1983. Just lately watched old Stubb interview where he mentioned that when he started the service there were 6 scouts in the 1984 European U18 Championship. When the interview was made in 1994 there was already 95 in the same tournament. It certainly would have changed eventually, but I feel European Scouting Service did a lot to professionalize scouting in Europe. Besides making their rankings and evaluations they helped teams scouts in travelling, accomodation and getting game programs and information.

What a shocking quote from Darcy Rota. Jesus.

It's ridiculous even for the era, considering not even three years later the Canucks would be drafting Bure on advice of a scout who confirmed he played enough games to qualify. Never mind that in hindsight it looks absolutely idiotic, but having watched the Canucks growing up, I can't say I'm surprised; there's a reason they were so bad for so long, and this is a prime example.