Documented path
Kārlis Skrastiņš was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1974 and began his professional hockey career in 1991 at age 17 with Pārdaugava Rīga in the Russian league. He played for TPS Turku in Finland's SM-liiga from 1995 to 1998, winning the Euro League in 1997 and the European Hockey Super Cup in 1998. He was drafted 230th overall by the Nashville Predators in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft and debuted in the NHL in February 1999. By the 1999-2000 season, he was a regular in the Nashville lineup.
Born in 1974 in Riga, Latvian SSR, Soviet Union; entered professional hockey at 17 with Pārdaugava Rīga.
Died on September 7, 2011, in the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash in Russia, aged 37.
Where the conditions came from
Each is placed on a −1 to 3 scale from documented evidence, and the three are never added together. A combined total would rank Kārlis Skrastiņš against other people. Held apart, they explain why this path ran differently from another one—which is the only comparison this project supports.
The marble itself
+1Tailwind
What capability, drive, or early skill is documented in the person rather than their surroundings?
Started hockey at 5, played professionally at 17. Drafted 230th overall (late round), not a highly-touted prospect. Above-average ability and exceptional durability (495 consecutive NHL games), but not prodigy-level.
Where it was dropped
0Neither way
What money, family standing, network, or permission was already in place before the work began?
No family background in hockey mentioned. From Riga, Latvia — a small hockey nation. No domain-specific family advantages.
The shape of the track
+2Tailwind
What place, timing, institution, or peer group made the next step available?
Trained at Dinamo Riga hockey school from age 5. Played for Pārdaugava Riga in Russian league, then TPS Turku in Finland's SM-liiga — one of Finland's elite clubs. European hockey pipeline provided development path to NHL.
A −1 is a documented headwind, not a missing value; a 0 means the sources record nothing notable either way. Annotation confidence: Medium. These are analyst readings of what the sources record, not measurements of merit, talent, or effort. The twenty-two scored dimensions remain available inside the deeper research detail.
What moved through the conditions
This records repeated behaviour or recovery described by sources; it is not a grit or merit score.
A successful-only archive cannot recover all encounters, avoided setbacks, or alternative outcomes.
Strongest documented signals: Family financial platform, Elite institution pipeline, Frontier geography.
Describes the starting position, not what the person later made of it.
Strongest observed levers: Complementary team, Started serious reps before 20, Prior reps.
Measures what was present, not whether it was inherited, earned, self-built, external, or mixed.
The timeline below shows the sequence of work and transitions around the selected early milestone. It is evidence of a path, not proof that every step was necessary.
Notable and widely recognized within the domain. The tier summarizes documented career recognition through the data cutoff—not Kārlis Skrastiņš's worth or future potential.
Question four · where did the leverage come from?
Each non-zero lever gets a best-supported origin, evidence signals, and confidence. Unresolved is the honest default when the biography cannot distinguish self-built, advantage-enabled, earned, external, or mixed.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
A structural wave is external to the person, even when their position improved access to it.
This is a bounded inference from the current annotations—not a claim about private effort, merit, or the percentage of Kārlis Skrastiņš's outcome attributable to any origin.
Structural luck, Encounter luck, Event luck, Outcome variance can change every arrow in the path. This successful-only dataset cannot observe the near-identical paths that did not break through, so luck stays visible and unscored.
Multiplying capacity documented later in the path. Measures what was present, not whether it was inherited, earned, self-built, external, or mixed.
Access or conditions documented near the beginning of the path. Zero means "no clear evidence in reviewed sources," not "advantage was absent."
Skrastiņš grew up in Riga, Latvia, during the Soviet era. Little is documented about his family background, but his path through the Soviet/Latvian hockey system to professional hockey in Russia and Finland suggests a supportive environment. As a 9th-round draft pick (230th overall), he was not highly touted and had to earn his NHL position through perseverance.
Not documented.
Skrastiņš's path to the NHL was unconventional for a Latvian player: he proved himself in the Russian league and Finnish SM-liiga before being drafted late. His time at TPS Turku, one of Finland's elite clubs, provided high-level European hockey experience. His exceptional durability (495 consecutive NHL games, breaking Tim Horton's record) demonstrates extraordinary concentration intensity and physical resilience. The low draft position and path through multiple leagues indicate adversity-driven motivation.
advantage confidence: Medium · source count: 3 · audit: source_verified · status: subagent_researched_beta