from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

Michael Rasmussen is looking better than ever, and has gained an edge that should help him as he tries to make the Wings come autumn. The 2017 first-round pick helped his Tri-City Americans advance to round two of the Western Hockey League playoffs with a 5-goal, 12 point performance in a four-game series against Kelowna in round one.

Wings director of player development Shawn Horcoff was on hand to observe the last two games of the series, and came away wowed.

“He looks fantastic,” Horcoff told the Free Press. “It’s the best I’ve ever seen him play. He showed more vision than in the past. He won loose puck battles and from there he was making some great plays. The biggest thing is he really has raised his intensity. He is way more physical, which is buying him more space. ...

Horcoff also spent time last week watching defense prospect Dennis Cholowski (20th overall, 2016) play for the Portland Winterhawks in their first-round series against Spokane (if Tri-City and Portland keep winning, Rasmussen and Cholowski would face one another in a conference final). Cholowski had three goals through the first three games.

“He looked terrific,” Horcoff said. “He got two goals the first game I saw. First one was off the rush, he was faster than the defender and broke through their D for a backdoor tap-in. Second one he faked a shot and went behind the net to stuff the puck.

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