Michael Rasmussen

This Season So Far

The 2022-23 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.

Last Season

15 goals and 12 assists in 80 games — 27 points, a minus-25 and 66 penalty minutes at 14:31 a night, the 40th percentile among forwards.

42.4 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 965 minutes — the 22nd-worst of the 393 qualified forwards. His ice went 33-53 against an expectation of 33.09-44.89: the chances came out exactly right at one end and eight goals worse at the other.

The Finesse Game

68 per cent of his shots came from the slot, the 96th percentile, at a median of 16 feet — the 12th-closest shot chart of the 393 qualified forwards. At 6-6 and 222 that is exactly where he should be shooting from and it is the whole of his offensive case.

6.61 shots per 60 is the 35th percentile — he does not shoot often, and fifteen goals on 128 shots is 11.7 per cent, the 55th.

0.83 giveaways per 60 is the 8th percentile — the fewest of any Detroit forward — against 1.50 takeaways at the 41st. He does not lose the puck, largely because he does not carry it.

1.51 even-strength points per 60 is the 32nd percentile and 7 per cent of his points came on the power play. Twenty-five of his twenty-seven points came at five-on-five on the worst chance share on the club, which is a genuinely difficult thing to do.

The Physical Game

6-6 and 222. 7.34 hits per 60 is the 77th percentile among forwards and 3.36 blocks is the 97th — elite for a forward and the same figure Radek Faksa posts in Dallas.

1.34 penalties drawn per 60 is the 46th-most of 393, which is what happens to a man that size standing in the paint. 1.45 taken is the 90th percentile, though, and sixty-six minutes in eighty games is the most of any Detroit forward. Net minus-0.10. He is fouled a great deal and he fouls slightly more.

22.3 mph is the 39th percentile and 9.09 miles per 60 is the 44th-lowest of 365. He covers very little ground, which at that size is expected, and 5.2 bursts per 60 at the 50th percentile says he can move when he needs to.

The Intangibles

Ninth overall in 2017, and 182 NHL games at 23 across three seasons, with no NHL games at all in 2019-20.

With Adam Erne he took 44.8 per cent over 916 attempts and 39.5 without him, which is the worst pair of numbers in this chapter. With Vladislav Namestnikov 50.6 over 570 and 38.3 without — and Namestnikov is in Tampa now.

A ninth overall pick who is a net-front fourth-line centre at 23 has not become what he was drafted to be. What the file says he is instead is a large, disciplined-with-the-puck, shot-blocking centre who scores from two feet out, and that is a career. The 6-6 and the shot chart are the two things nobody can take off him.