There is a risk with every draft pick in the import draft, you never know who is gonna show up until that opening day of camp.
The Pats used to have terrible luck with euro's as well it seems like once it starts happening it is tough to reverse. Just comes down to doing more homework on which players are really willing to come over here and play. The import draft is basically who you know with the information you get on players and then comes down to the agent who the player has, chances are if a GM here has had past relations with certain agents you can get these players over here easier..
I think there are a lot of Russian players out there who are very willing to come over to Canada and play now that Russia is part of IIHF transfer agreement. The Russian junior league is not that great of league and all the top junior age kids get places in the pro teams and play against men. The WHl (CHL as a whole) have seen an increase of Russian players the past 2 years and I see this trend increasing more as long as Russia sticks with the IIHF transfer agreement.