Håkan Andersson

Håkan Andersson (born 19 February 1965 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish amateur hockey scout who currently serves as the Director of European Scouting for the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League (NHL).

Formerly a fishing guide, he was hired as a scout by the Red Wings in 1990. Since then he has won four Stanley Cup Championships as a member of the Detroit Red Wings organization, in 1997, 1998, 2002, and 2008. Andersson, based in Stockholm, Sweden, scouts all over Europe including Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic, and Russia, and has been responsible for the Red Wings drafting Tomas Holmström, Valtteri Filppula, Jiri Hudler, Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, Johan Franzén, Niklas Kronwall, Jonathan Ericsson, Gustav Nyquist, Tomáš Tatar, and many others.

His scouting and player evaluation, along with that of former Director of Amateur Scouting Joe McDonnell and former Assistant General Manager Jim Nill, has been credited by Red Wings General Manager Ken Holland as the reason for the long-term success of the Red Wings, specifically the ability of the team to find talented players late in the draft.

Early life

As a talented hockey player growing up, from the age of 10–14 he played with Charles Berglund on the IFK Tumba hockey club, and continued playing hockey until the age of 19 when, after having suffered a knee injury, he began his compulsory military service in Sweden.

Sometime after his military career was over he began working as a fishing guide with Frontiers International Travel, guiding clients such as Seymour Knox, founder of the Buffalo Sabres, around the waters of Sweden, Norway, and Argentina. After being hired as a scout by the Detroit Red Wings he kept that job part-time until the mid-1990s when scouting took over as his full-time career.

The primary focus of Andersson and the rest of the Red Wings scouts is skill. They will often draft players such as Pavel Datsyuk who were overlooked by other teams due to small size when they feel the on ice ability of the player warrants it. Generally Andersson likes to watch each player two or three times, but never more than ten times; too few visits does not give a full picture of what the player can do, while too many visits can result in "picking on the player's minor weaknesses."

Scouting career

Håkan certainly is one of the best in the business. You've just got to look at his track record. … Obviously Håkan has been an MVP behind the scenes for us. — Ken Holland, General Manager of the Detroit Red Wings

While scouting in Sweden in 1993, Andersson visited the national team selection camp for players born in 1973 in order to scout players such as Peter Forsberg and Markus Näslund, and while there noticed a young Tomas Holmström. The next year Holmström caught his attention again when Holmström's coach at the time, Niklas Wikegård, described Holmström as the best player on the team. The next year Andersson travelled with Jim Nill to a tournament in Finland to scout Mattias Weinhandl. Nill was distracted, however, by "this little Zetterberg guy who always seemed to have the puck." Andersson and Nill came away with a very high opinion of Zetterberg, whom they drafted 210th overall in the 1999 draft, and he has matured into a superstar in the NHL. Their decisions to go with Zetterberg and Datsyuk have paid off handsomely. The two star centers were named as finalists for the Frank J. Selke Trophy in 2008, with Datsyuk winning the award, while Zetterberg set a new franchise record for most points in a post-season (27) and won the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the 2008 playoffs. In 2009 Datsyuk was named as a finalist for the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, having already won the award three consecutive times, and was again named a finalist for the Selke, both of which he was eventually awarded. He was also a finalist for both the Hart Memorial Trophy and Lester B. Pearson Award.

Niklas Wikegård interviewing Håkan Andersson in 2009

Andersson's good fortune in stumbling across prospects continued in 2001 when he happened to see a game in which Jonathan Ericsson, at the time a center, had been switched to defense temporarily due to injuries on his team. Ericsson had not garnered any attention from other scouts as a forward, but Andersson thought he was an excellent defender with great size and reach, and so recommended that Ericsson should move to defense permanently. The Wings subsequently drafted Ericsson with the last pick in the 2002 draft on Andersson's word of his potential as a defender, and ended up playing parts of 13 seasons with the Red Wings from 2008 to 2020.

In 2004 Andersson's luck seemed to take a hit when the Vancouver Canucks traded up to take Alexander Edler ahead of Detroit. Andersson had scouted Edler in the remote town of Östersund, where the youngster was playing in a local men's league, and due to the relative isolation of Östersund the only other NHL scout who had seen Edler play was Vancouver's Thomas Gradin. With Edler off the board, Detroit moved to the next name on their list: an unheralded 24-year-old defensive-minded Swede center named Johan Franzén. Andersson's expectations were exceeded in 2008 when, despite missing six games, Franzén set a new Red Wings franchise record by scoring 13 goals in a single post-season, a mark subsequently matched by Zetterberg.

Besides Holmström, Franzén, Datsyuk, Ericsson, and Zetterberg, Andersson has also been responsible for the selection by the Red Wings of Niklas Kronwall, Jiří Hudler, and Valtteri Filppula, among others. In 2008, the Red Wings' top five post-season scorers (Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Franzén, Kronwall, and Hudler) had all been scouted and recommended to the team by Andersson.

In December 2008 Andersson's scouting ability was recognized by The Hockey News which ranked him No. 65 on its list of 100 People of Power and Influence.

Personal Andersson and his wife live in Stockholm where they have recently started a family. In his free time he enjoys fishing, sometimes with former clients.