Detroit Red Wings: Strong off-season needed for Michael Rasmussen

There are no guarantees in professional sports, one minute you are a top prospect and the next your playing to secure a job.  You can find yourself on the outside looking in with a snap of the fingers; it’s no different for Detroit Red Wings forward Michael Rasmussen.

Michael Rasmussen has what I’d consider a so, so first season with the Detroit Red Wings.  Going into the season, I had hopes of a 15-20 goal season out of the 19-year-old rookie, but it was not to be this season.  His season has been cut short with an upper-body injury that has all but ended his rookie season.  He will finish his rookie campaign with less than 20 points little own 20 goals.

I’m sure someone is shaking their head at the idea of a rookie, first-year professional promptly establishing himself in the greatest hockey league in the World and finding twine that many times.  He’s a big body with a nose for the front of the net and has the ability to finish especially in tight; I also expected Rasmussen to play as a top-nine forward with hopes that he’d break into the top-six, but that did not occur.

Michael Rasmussen had been often found on the fourth line playing with grinding type players rather than offensively skilled players.  His lanky 6’6 frame has the makings of a power-forward build, but he’s yet to grow into his body.

Once Rasmussen puts on some muscle he should become a force working the walls down low, complimenting top tiered players on this team like Dylan Larkin and Andreas Athanasiou.  I envision Tyler Bertuzzi being the worker-bee on the top line for years to come and Rasmussen being something similar on the second line with more scoring upside.

Bertuzzi is enjoying a fantastic season having scored 17 goals on the season to date; I feel Rasmussen has every bit of that same scoring ability in his future.  The problem is this league is like the autobahn and players can find themselves cruising in the right lane while other prospects come streaming by them in the hammer lane.

Over the last few weeks, the Detroit Red Wings have seen players like Filip Zadina, Taro Hirose play particularly well, and the team is expected to take a long look next summer at Joseph Veleno and whomever the team selects in the first round in this up and coming draft.  Detroit will also have Evgeny Svechnikov returning after a season lost due to knee surgery along with players like Ryan Kuffner, Matt Puempel and Christoffer Ehn all hoping to make the team as regulars.

It wouldn’t surprise me to see Michael Rasmussen start in Grand Rapids next season until he finds his game and can return to the Detroit Red Wings lineup as a top-nine forward.