Moscow. Montreal. Minneapolis. Helsinki. Halifax. Stockholm. St. Petersburg. Ufa. Malmo. Toronto.
Patrik Allvin's been everywhere, man.
Well, everywhere but up on the podium during the NHL Draft. Since the Penguins aren't drafting until the second round, Allvin might not be doing that this weekend in Dallas. Such pomp and circumstance is typically reserved for the first round. But this will be Allvin's first under the spotlight as the team's director of amateur scouting.
After 12 years in the organization, Allvin was promoted to the post last summer after Randy Sexton left to become Jason Botterill's assistant general manager in Buffalo. According to Jim Rutherford, the 43-year-old Swede was perfect for the job.
"I've watched him here for a few years and how he handles himself in our meetings, how he treat the players, his work ethic," Rutherford told DKPittsburghSports.com. "I've never been more confident in our scouting staff with him heading it up. We have really good chemistry with the staff now. I really like what we're doing. He's a very bright guy. He was the guy to take in that role."
For Allvin, it's been a long journey — figuratively and literally — to get to this point.
In his playing days, Allvin was a defenseman for Leksands IF, the famed Swedish program that produced Ulf Samuelsson and Johan Hedberg among others. He even did a three-year stint playing in North America in the IHL and ECHL in the mid-'90s.
But scouting some of the game's best draft-eligible players has been his life's calling.
"It’s been quite a lot of travel and it’s been busy, but I enjoy it," Allvin, who broke into the scouting ranks with the Canadiens in 2002 and was hired four year later as the Penguins' European scout, was telling me. "It’s been fun, it’s been challenging. I get the opportunity to see the best hockey players in the world in this age group. I see it as I'm fortunate to be able to see a lot of hockey and a lot of good players. Hopefully, I bring in some of the young talented players to our organization and to help us win another Stanley Cup."
For any scouting staff, the draft weekend is the culmination of a year — at least — of hard work, long hours and even longer travel. For them, it's the equivalent of their Stanley Cup Final, Game 7 in overtime. It's those two days at the draft where they take center stage, working tirelessly behind the scenes the other 363 days. During the winters, they drive from small town to small town, from rink to rink across North America and Europe, looking for the next great player. And often in hazardous road conditions, too. This April for the U-18 World Junior Championship in Russia, Allvin laughs that he didn't have to deal with snow during a four-hour drive from Magnitogorsk to Chelyabinsk, but he did have to contend with cows and moose on the road.
Scouting has its own reward, Allvin says. He considers the draft his "graduation week."
"This is when it all comes together for them," Rutherford said of his amateur scouting staff. "This is what they work for. It's an exciting week. A little nerve-wracking for them. Of course, it's important to get the picks right ..."
And that's the thing: Getting the picks right.
Even in the best of circumstances, it's very difficult to determine how a teenager might project several years down the road playing at the game's highest level. Many, if not most, 18-year-olds are not physically or emotionally mature.
It's exponentially harder when you're routinely picking in the latter rounds as the Penguins have of late. Barring a trade up, this will be the fourth straight year that the Penguins won't be selecting in the first round. The Penguins will have six picks this weekend at the American Airlines Center beginning with No. 53 overall in the second round, followed by pick No. 64 in the third round, picks Nos. 129 and 146 in the fifth, No. 177 in the sixth and No. 208 in the seventh.
It's easy to spot the undeniable talents of Rasmus Dahlin, this year's presumptive first overall pick by the Sabres, or Andrei Svechnikov, Brady Tkachuk or Filip Zadina. It's a little more difficult to find gems further down the draft board, but it's not impossible. If you want to succeed in today's NHL, you have to.
The Penguins have done some of their best work drafting on the second day, a point of pride for Allvin and the organization. Some of those players — Jake Guentzel (third-rounder in 2013), Matt Murray (third-rounder in 2012), Bryan Rust (third-rounder in 2010) and Tom Kuhnhackl (fourth-rounder in 2010) — have their names etched in silver a few times. Kasperi Kapanen, the Penguins' last first-round pick, in 2014, was used to acquire Phil Kessel.
"It’s challenging, especially the way the game has changed over the years with the salary cap," Allvin said. "You’re depending on having young players coming up every year to fix the holes in your roster and you need prospects and assets to enable you to do trades and moves. But you also need a good depth charge in order to make a push for the Cup. It is a challenge for us, but we’re sure up for the task."
Fortunately for the Penguins, this year's draft is fairly deep and not just at one particular position, according to Allvin. The Penguins have a few obvious short-term needs like bolstering the forward depth and perhaps the back end of the defense, but his charge is to add quality prospects regardless of position to replenish the cupboard a few years down the road. While a lot of attention will be paid locally as to who the 53rd pick will be, Allvin cautions that all picks are equally important.
"Obviously it’s hard to guess who’s going to be available at 53 or 64 (overall) but I think our scouting staff has done a good job during the year in identifying a lot of players," Allvin was saying. "Obviously we have those picks at 53 and 64, but we have more picks to work on as well. If we have our list in place, we sure hope to get some good prospects into the organization."
Draft weekend should be the start of an exciting summer for Allvin. After a difficult year with travel, he was still living in Sweden while traipsing the globe on behalf of the Penguins, he will relocate his family full-time to the Detroit area next month. After all that's happened in the last year, Allvin sounds as excited for the move to the U.S. as he is the draft.
For him and his staff of amateur scouts, they've become a well-oiled machine, he says. The only difference between this year's draft and his 12 others with the Penguins is simply his job title.
"Honestly, my staff has made my job easier," Allvin said. "In terms of communicating and knowing those guys, I know they’re hard-working people and I know they know their areas very well. Obviously, at the end of the day, it's my job to call the shot there, but I couldn’t do it without the tremendous scouting staff."