Pavel was first noticed by Red Wings Director of European Scouting Håkan Andersson in the summer of 1997–98. Andersson had made the trip to Moscow to scout Dmitri Kalinin but the one who caught his eye was Datsyuk, "this little guy on the other team". Andersson made another trip to see Datsyuk and would have gone a third time however his flight was cancelled due to a storm.