Head coach Todd McLellan designated Michael Rasmussen a healthy scratch on Saturday against the Blues, but still values his role in Detroit's improved penalty killing.
While the Detroit Red Wings were defeating the St. Louis Blues as part of a historic 6-4 comeback victory that initially began by them trailing by four goals, one player who didn't take part was forward Michael Rasmussen.
He was designated a healthy scratch for the first time this campaign by the Red Wings, who chose instead to roll with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Meanwhile, offseason signing Travis Hamonic played for the first time since the Oct. 9 Home Opener against the Montreal Canadiens.
Head coach Todd McLellan made it clear that removing Rasmussen from the lineup wasn't an indictment on how he'd played in the early goings of the season, and while being sat wasn't the easiest situation for him, he has every confidence that he'll rebound.
"I'd rather have four lines you could roll out and get a sense of rhythm," McLellan said of his lineup decision following the 6-4 win. "We have tough decisions to make. We think very highly of Ras and his contributions to the team. But we made a decision, and it was hard on him, and he'll bounce back."
Rasmussen was Detroit's opening round selection (ninth overall) in 2017. Despite having the size and build of a prototypical NHL power forward at 6'6" and 220 lbs, Rasmussen doesn't often play like it.
He's never scored more than 15 goals in a season (most recently in 2021-22), and isn't quick to use his size to his advantage. So far this season, he's averaged less than seven hits per 60 minutes of play.
As pointed out last week by longtime Red Wings reporter Bob Duff, 10 of Rasmussen's last 37 goals have been scored into vacated nets.
That being said, McLellan still values the role that Rasmussen plays on Detroit's penalty kill, which has seen a massive improvement in 2025-26 as opposed to last season when it flirted with being the least effective penalty kill in NHL history.
"Our penalty kill is drastically improved, and he's a big part of it," McLellan said prior to Saturday's game. "We gave him that assignment at the beginning of the year, so he's done a really good job in that area....we're quite happy with what he's done there in those situations."
"Five on five, we've asked him to play the wing and center, he's moved around from line to line," McLellan continued. "A little bit of a utility guy. Like our team, he's had some really good nights and some average nights. As you get bumps and bruises, and if he's not included in that list, there has to be more from him all over the ice surface and we've talked about it. But the real positive is his contribution on the penalty kill."
However, a "utility guy" likely wasn't the role that Rasmussen was envisioned to fill when Detroit used their first round pick on him after he'd scored 32 goals in 50 games for the WHL's Tri City Americans.
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Rasmussen was starting to come into his own in the latter half of the 2022-23 season, reaching a new career high in assists with 19 along with 10 goals in just 56 games. But his progress was halted when a shot block resulted in a broken kneecap, ending his season.
His ice time also has been diminishing, falling to just 11:40 so far this season, the third lowest amount of any other player.
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