His mother died when he was 12 years old. In the middle of the 1990s, he started to play for the farm team of Dynamo Yekaterinburg. There he was noticed by the new trainer of the team, Vladimir Krikunov. He saw the talent of the young Datsyuk on the soccer field. He noticed his anticipation, vision and intelligence were certainly over the average of the team. It took a long time before Pavel was contacted by an NHL scout, because he was too small. He was only 1,73m and 66 kg when he began his professional career. He was not supposed to be drafted in the NHL, but the scout of the Detroit Red Wings came to watch the defenseman Dimitiri Kilimine and he was impressed by this little sized player.