North American Hockey

I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head.
Why bring a grinder over from Europe, with all the risk it entails, when there’s more than enough grinders to be had in North America?

While there are plenty of European grinders (in Europe), the European hockey game differs vastly from the North American. It’s considerably less physical due to larger ice surfaces and stricter reffing. This will naturally lead to a larger amount of the players focusing on skill aspects of the game, as opposed to physical or grinding aspects.

I also suspect the hockey “education” that prospects receive in Europe, is quite different from that in North America, although my knowledge of this is limited to Scandinavia. In Scandinavia, there is an extreme focus on defensive play, tactics and skating. There’s no way a talented prospect will be allowed to play on any sort of team that matters, until he’s learned his hockey ABC, no matter the skill.

This leads to Scandinavian prospects being solid skaters, responsible defensively and tactically sound, but sorely lacking size and grit.
Most of those players will never reach the size and grit of their North American counterparts, but, in all other aspects will be ready to step up almost immediately upon being drafted. The result? You end up with “soft” looking players, who might not be ideal for the playoffs, but who does everything else right.
This is all generalization of course. And Detroit has proven everyone wrong, more than once, on the matter of whether Europeans can succeed in the playoffs. I must say, though, that they’ve picked some of the grittiest Europeans out there (Holmstrom, Zetterberg, Kronwall), so it would seem there is a connection between grit and playoff success afterall.

But, the bottom line is, a team with the hockey philosophy of the Penguin, will naturally be more interested in tough North American grinders, than smooth skating, under-sized Europeans.