Michael Rasmussen signed a four-year contract extension with the Red Wings, averaging $3.2 million per year
Michael Rasmussen signed a four-year contract extension with the Red Wings, averaging $3.2 million per year
Michael Rasmussen is sticking with Detroit.
Wearing a Detroit Tigers hat and all, the 24-year-old forward signed a four-year contract extension Tuesday with an AAV of $3.2 million, the team announced on social media.
The contract is a significant upgrade from his three-year, $1.46 million deal he signed in 2021. Rasmussen was a pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights, but both he and Detroit won’t have to worry about that with his long term future secured.
The contract is well-earned. Rasmussen has been a consistent contributor for the Red Wings the past three seasons, scoring well over 20 points the past three seasons. He’s currently on pace to break his career highs in goals and points. All told, Rasmussen has played in 293 NHL games while scoring 47 goals, 62 assists and notching 197 penalty minutes. However, his calling card is his physical play, with 225 hits and 509 blocks across five seasons.
Such a statistical makeup stems from his aggressive style. At 6-foot-6 and 212 pounds, Rasmussen is an imposing force on the forecheck and takes up a lot of space when he screens at the net. He also uses that size in defensive situations and on the penalty kill. That is especially true this season, when he has been the Red Wings’ most physical forward by logging the most hits (92) and blocks (56) of any this season, while also playing the third-most penalty kill minutes among forwards.
The conversation about Rasmussen’s impact often draws focus on his high draft selection — ninth overall in 2017. That discussion comes up because others selected later in his class, such as St. Louis’ Robert Thomas and Dallas’ Jason Robertson, have been more productive in their careers thus far. Even if he isn’t as much of a scoring threat, Detroit has gained significant value from Rasmussen’s versatility and size.
Those traits seem to be ones the front office wants to enjoy long term given the midseason extension, especially in signing him before seeing what the upcoming March 5 trade deadline holds.
With Rasmussen locked into an extension, the Red Wings have $60,632,640 in caps space already spent for 2024-25. Considering that commissioner Gary Bettman predicted the salary cap next season to land at $87.7 million, Detroit has around $27 million for general manager Steve Yzerman to spend. However, some of that will have to go to rising stars in forward Lucas Raymond and defenseman Moritz Seider, who are bound to net higher paydays than their rookie contracts. That could eat up as much as half of the available cap space, leaving the remainder for Yzerman to flesh out the roster.
This midseason move to sign Rasmussen to an extension might not be the only move Yzerman and Co. make. In addition to Raymond and Seider, forward Joe Veleno is still a restricted free agent. Meanwhile, forwards Patrick Kane, David Perron and Daniel Sprong are pending unrestricted free agents alongside defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere and goaltender James Reimer. There are many more moves to make, but for now Yzerman has taken care of Rasmussen’s business early.
But for Rasmussen, business is taken care of.
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