Certainly, Michael Rasmussen is a center who attracts attention.
At 6-6 it’s hard for the Tri-City Americans center not to do so. But not all of that attention has been good. The young man selected ninth overall by the Detroit Red Wings in Friday’s opening round of the NHL entry draft has many boosters, and his fair share of detractors.
On the plus side, it starts with his size. You can’t teach big.
“We want to get bigger, we want to get harder to play against,” Detroit director of amateur scouting Tyler Wright said. “With that, he’s got good touch.
“It was an area of need through the middle with size and competitiveness, with some ability to finish.”
About that touch? Critics point out that Rasmussen collected 53 percent of his points on the powerplay, the highest percentage of any draft-eligible player who skated in the CHL. It’s also curious to note that Rasmussen, who missed the end of the season with a broken wrist, was not invited to this summer’s Hockey Canada world junior evaluation camp, despite scoring 32 goals in 50 games, 15 of which were tallied with the man advantage.
Wright doesn’t seem to be worried by any of these elements, pointing out that Rasmussen also succeeds at doing things that the Wings as a team didn’t do so well last season.
“He goes to the hard areas,” Wright said. “He plays the net front on the power play. He’s a big body, he’s going to be hard to move, he’s got good scoring touch around the net and he’s competitive.
“I don’t know how good he’s going to be, but he’s got a chance to be really good. At the end of the day, he’s 6-foot-6, he can skate, he’s got some touch and he competes.”
It’s that success in tight areas around the goal crease that causes some to see a little bit of ex-Wing Tomas Holmstrom in Rasmussen’s net-front game.
“Obviously, I’ve got a big wingspan, so I protect the puck well,” Rasmussen said. “When I have the puck, I pride myself in not getting it taken from me. It’s something I work hard on.
“I practice a lot with my hands in tight, my hands in front of the net. That kind of contributes to it.”
Rasmussen’s skating has also been the subject of criticism, and he’ll admit it requires some work.
“It’s obviously the biggest thing for me,” Rasmussen said. “Being a big guy, it’s tough to get a bigger frame around. It’s something I worked hard on in the summer with my speed coach and skating coach.
“It’s something I pride myself on and need to improve on for sure.”
Wright is of the opinion that the knocks against Rasmussen’s skating are more perception than reality, noting that many people mistakenly view bigger players as being slower afoot.
“I had zero issues with his skating,” Wright said. “I actually think he’s a good skater. He’s a big man who’s still developing. He’s just going to continue to get stronger, and when he does that he’ll continue to add weight.
“We’ve just got to get him on that track.”
For a team whose mantra could often be described as size small, it was different to see the Wings super size things for a change.
“We got him in a group of guys where we’ve taken some wingers, we’ve taken some smaller defense in the last couple of years,” Wright said. “We wanted to get bigger up the middle and this guy fit the bill for us.”
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