Until Monday, life on the Red Wings’ taxi squad was pretty simple for Michael Rasmussen.
There was the daily taxi-squad skate, occasionally followed by jumping into the Red Wings’ normal practice if needed, then a lift in the gym. While the Red Wings started up a frantic first week to their 2021 season, Detroit’s six non-roster players (allowed to practice and travel with the team this season in case of COVID-19-related emergency) were basically just on standby. “Just trying to stay ready,” Rasmussen said.
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As it turned out, he didn’t have to wait long. Monday morning, Rasmussen woke up and got the text: He’d be in the lineup against Columbus at noon.
Certainly, the COVID-19 protocol-related absences of Robby Fabbri and Adam Erne are not the way Rasmussen would have ideally chosen to crack the lineup for his first starts of the season Monday and Tuesday. But no matter how it happened, Rasmussen is now looking at a rather large opportunity to show how he’s grown since his last NHL action in 2018-19 — and, if he has his way, at an opportunity to show why he should stay in the Red Wings’ lineup this time, even when the roster is fully healthy.
Monday, Rasmussen plugged right into Fabbri’s spot between Filip Zadina and Bobby Ryan. Then, when Detroit shook up the lines for Tuesday’s rematch with Columbus, Rasmussen found himself paired with Ryan and Anthony Mantha. Those are three of Detroit’s highest-skilled wingers for the 6-foot-6 center to play between, and a rather large chunk of responsibility for him to manage.
And through two games, he appears to have mostly passed that test. It certainly helps that Rasmussen directly contributed to a pair of goals by Ryan, both by winning offensive-zone draws, and that Detroit managed a split in its series with the Blue Jackets with him in. But more subtly than either of those, the Red Wings actually managed more than 60 percent of the expected goals share with Rasmussen on the ice (at even strength) in each game, according to Evolving Hockey — a small sample, but a good start.
Detroit’s even-strength shot share with Rasmussen on the ice, meanwhile, has still been a hair below even both nights. But if the quality of those shots each way can continue to favor the Red Wings, you can bet they’ll take it from the 2017 ninth overall pick.
“Ras has done a great job,” Dylan Larkin said Tuesday night. “I think he’s created tons of chances, he’s a huge body (who has) really worked on his skating, so he’s getting up and down, he’s making plays, he’s winning big face-offs for us. … He’s digging in, he’s battling.”
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Rasmussen was one of five young Red Wings prospects (along with Evgeny Svechnikov, Givani Smith, Gustav Lindstrom and Dennis Cholowski) who entered camp as long shots to make the roster this season, largely because of the truncated NHL training camp window. Detroit’s coaches had less than two weeks, and zero preseason games, to get their rosters and lineups game-ready. That likely put players with less of an NHL track record — Rasmussen played 62 games as a 19-year old in 2018-19 — at a healthy disadvantage unless they made major statements in camp.
Rasmussen’s improved skating earned recognition from Detroit coach Jeff Blashill, but he still wanted Rasmussen to think quicker in game situations, knowing what he would do with the puck before he got it. So when the time for cuts came, Rasmussen was optioned to the taxi squad, where the likelihood he would play any NHL games was entirely up in the air.
Blashill stressed throughout training camp, though, that the roster on the season’s first day was anything but permanent. That has quickly been proven true. And now, rather suddenly, opportunity has knocked in a big way for Rasmussen.
“Him and I talked about grabbing (this opportunity),” Blashill said Tuesday morning, after calling Rasmussen’s Monday performance solid. “He can’t play afraid to make a mistake. He’s got to go out there and do what he thinks is right, and we’ll coach him when he gets back to the bench, and coach him after games, and do those type of things. But he’s gotta go out there and play with confidence, and be ready to grab it.”
One thing that shouldn’t be lost here, though: As much as Rasmussen is the one responsible for proving he’s ready to play on a more prolonged basis in Detroit, the Red Wings would benefit just as much as him if he does so.
Their depth at center is still relatively weak behind Larkin, and Rasmussen, while green, still has the potential to give the Red Wings a unique presence in the middle of the ice and down low with his physicality.
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“He’s an interesting player,” Ryan said Monday night. “He can kind of command the middle of the ice and then kick it wide. Really, really good in a lot of areas.”
It can be easy to forget, too, that Rasmussen is still just 21 — likely because he spent that full 2018-19 season with the Red Wings already, before he was eligible for the AHL. But in reality, he’s still young enough for potential further development. Playing with Ryan has, for now, given him a natural veteran to lean on.
Ryan mentioned trying to say “little things” to Rasmussen during Monday’s game.
“It doesn’t matter who you are, he talks to you and he helps you out,” Rasmussen said. “So, he was definitely really helpful to me yesterday, and works real hard and he’s a skilled player. I really enjoy playing with Bobby.”
And, with Ryan scoring a pair of goals off of Rasmussen’s face-offs, he may well get the chance to keep playing with him for the short-term.
Only one of those face-off wins earned Rasmussen an assist — Ryan’s goal Tuesday technically came via Jon Merrill and Frans Nielsen. But even on that play, after Rasmussen won the draw, his presence around the net was clear, getting easily to the low slot as Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones scrambled to challenge Ryan’s shot. He then got his stick down at the edge of the crease, in case Ryan had passed it over, or if there had been a rebound to tap in.
These are small things, just like the face-off wins. But if he can repeat them over and over, they could lead to important moments.
Rasmussen still has much more to prove, of course. He said Tuesday morning he needed to shoot when there’s an opportunity, and Blashill again alluded to the big center needing to be sure to play fast both with and without the puck. Realistically, if Fabbri returns soon, it will likely mean Rasmussen going back to that simpler, less glamorous life on the taxi squad while he continues to develop.
But the more games he’s able to play in the meantime, the more chances he’ll have to change that.
And if he does, both he and the Red Wings stand to gain.
(Photo: Tim Fuller / USA Today)