Red Wings Select Rasmussen In First Round Of NHL Draft

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today selected center Michael Rasmussen in the first round (ninth overall) of the 2017 NHL Entry Draft at the United Center in Chicago.

Rasmussen, 18, has spent the past two seasons with the Western Hockey League's Tri-City Americans. In 2016-17, he was limited to 50-of-72 games played due to injury, but still ranked second on the club with 32 goals – including a team-best 15 power-play goals, which tied for sixth in the WHL. Four of his 32 goals came in Tri-City's season-opener on Sept. 24, 2016, the franchise's first four-goal game in over four years.

He also placed ninth on the team with 23 assists, seventh with 55 points and seventh with 25 penalty minutes, while tying for the team lead with five game-winning goals. In his WHL rookie campaign of 2015-16, Rasmussen placed seventh in team scoring with 43 points (18-25-43) in 63 games. He has produced 98 points (50-48-98) and 89 penalty minutes in 114 games for Tri-City since making his WHL debut in 2014-15.

The 6-foot-6, 215-pound center skated for the Okanagan Hockey Academy prior to joining Tri-City, which selected him with the seventh overall pick of the 2014 WHL Bantam Draft. In 2014-15, Rasmussen led his team with 50 points (27-23-50) in 28 games and added eight (3-5-8) in three postseason games to help the team capture the Canadian Sport School Hockey League championship.

In addition, the Surrey, British Columbia, native has twice represented his country in international play. He produced four points (1-03-4) in four games at the 2016 Ivan Hlinka Memorial in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and added three points (2-1-3) in five games for Canada Black at the 2015 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in British Columbia.

Detroit currently has 10 selections for the second day of the 2017 Entry Draft: one in the second round (38th overall), four in the third round (71st, 79th, 83rd and 88th), one in the fourth round (100th) and fifth round (131st), two in the sixth round (162nd and 164th) and one in the seventh round (193rd).