"Jerseys": The Red Wings Players Under the Microscope, Part 1

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For the 10th consecutive season, the Detroit Red Wings are watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs from home.

Their fate was officially sealed after yet another late-season collapse, in which a once-comfortable lead above the playoff cut line vanished, culminating in a disappointing 5–3 loss and a chorus of boos from frustrated fans at Little Caesars Arena on April 11.

Following a 4–3 overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the penultimate game of the season, they were then throttled 8–1 in the regular-season finale by the Florida Panthers.

Head coach Todd McLellan was nothing short of incensed afterward and, during what was his shortest postgame media availability session of the campaign, said bluntly that the entire team should be embarrassed.

It was McLellan who decried what viewed as “jerseys” on the ice, or players who weren’t making a difference and weren’t giving a complete, total effort.

“Right now, for us, I think we have some players that are playing well and playing hard, and then we have some guys that are just jerseys,” McLellan said on February 28. “What I mean by that is they’re wearing jerseys. They’re skating around, they’re eating up some minutes, but we need more. We just flat out need more.”

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Which players, especially during the final third of the season, was McLellan referring to?

There may be no player who better embodies Todd McLellan’s “jersey” critique than Detroit’s former first-round pick (ninth overall) in the 2017 NHL Draft

Built like a prototypical power forward at 6’6″ and 220 pounds, Michael Rasmussen instead shies away from physical contact, is routinely knocked off the puck, and rarely ventures into the dirty areas of the ice. To see him drive to the net is about as rare as a solar eclipse.

He’ll occasionally show flashes of the player Detroit envisioned when they made him a first-round pick in 2017. Perhaps the most notable example came when he leveled Jack Hughes of the New Jersey Devils after scoring an empty-net goal, then stood over him in a pose reminiscent of Muhammad Ali towering over Sonny Liston.

“I Expect A Lot More”: Steve Yzerman Addresses Latest Late-Season Unraveling By Red Wings Detroit Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman said that he expects more from his players in the wake of their 10th consecutive season of missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs during his season-ending media availability on Thursday.

Rasmussen appeared in 64 games this past season, and his 14 total points were the lowest of his career aside from the shortened 2020–21 campaign, in which he recorded 12 points in 40 games. Additionally, his hit total was less than half of what it was just a season ago.

He appeared to be coming into his own in 2021-22 and for much of 2022-23 before his season was ended because of a broken kneecap as the result of a shot block.

Since then, Rasmussen has resembled anything but the kind of power forward that his size affords him the opportunity to be.

He remains under contract for two more seasons carrying a salary cap hit of $3.2 million.

If GM Steve Yzerman makes good on his offseason outlook of improving the club’s five-on-five scoring while making their bottom-six tougher for the opposition to face, don’t be surprised to see Rasmussen be a roster casualty in the form of a trade or buyout.

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