Value of: Rasmus Asplund UFA

[Jersey Fan 12]

Spent the 2023-24 season in the AHL after playing 178 games in the NHL with Buffalo and Nashville over four seasons.

Does he receive a qualifying offer from the Panthers? If not, is he signed by another club?

Click to read more...

 

[Chainshot]

Maybe he gets another NHL deal. He went from effective defensive player to non-factor over the last year in Buffalo prior to the trade to Nashville.

 

[Sabreality]

I'd say it's more likely he heads back to Sweden sooner than later. Really fell off for some reason.

 

[biturbo19]

Kind of a dime a dozen "filler" player. Probably equal parts likely he takes a cheap depth contract with an NHL team to shuttle between NHL/AHL, or just heads back to Europe.

Just not sure he's got enough of anything to really hang his hat on as an NHLer. Nothing much offensively. Has been okay defensively at times, but not any kind of real shutdown player. Okay speed, but nothing super dynamic and not really an impact physical presence. Just one of those, "jack of all trades master of none"...and not even close to a master of anything. Just like one of those real cruddy Swiss Army knife tools that kinda sorta emulates a particular tool, but in a not very compelling or highly functional way.


Not a terrible player to stash in the AHL and call up for a few games and won't really hurt you much. But whether he signs a deal probably comes down to whether he personally wants to prospectively ride busses in the AHL most of the year, or just go back and play a more important role back home in Europe.

 

[Zman5778]

Has been okay defensively at times, but not any kind of real shutdown player.

To be fair, he was VERY good defensively for 2 years on a crap Sabres team.

And then his game just disappeared. Whatever offense he brought (which already wasn't much) dried up and any PITA in his game went away.

From this Sabres fan's POV, it's a mystery how he went from getting Selke votes to basically an AHLer.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1533527084986945536

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

He’d be a 100 point player if he played the Rangers every game

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

He was a non-descript AHL-level player in his brief time in Nashville. It may not be a representative sample size, but it doesn't look like he was anything special in the AHL either as a veteran. I think it's safe to assume he won't be qualified and will be heading back to Sweden.

 

[biturbo19]

To be fair, he was VERY good defensively for 2 years on a crap Sabres team.

And then his game just disappeared. Whatever offense he brought (which already wasn't much) dried up and any PITA in his game went away.

From this Sabres fan's POV, it's a mystery how he went from getting Selke votes to basically an AHLer.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1533527084986945536

I feel like the simplest explanation is probably just...that he was never actually that good in the first place. Playing on crap teams can sometimes make decent defensive guys giving an honest effort look real good by comparison, and in a lot of relative stats and things.


Maybe something else happened that caused his game to regress a bunch in terms of the sort of things that generally shouldn't be regressing, like effort and attention to detail, in a guy trying to stick around the NHL in that sort of role depth role. But i'm not really aware of any particularly major injury or anything that would tend to precipitate that sort of fall-off. So i'm more inclined to just go with, "overrated because of bad team effects". And/or some sort of analytics distortion that a few people bought into. Which more or less aligns with my perception/recollection of him around that supposed "peak" time, as still a pretty nothing filler player - on a bad, rudderless sort of team.

 

[Panthaz89]

Feels like he just lost his motor at one point he would never let anyone have an easy game against his line.

 

[Djp]

On his ELC he showed real potential. In 21/22 he was 27 pts in 80g. Next season he was a regular ptessboxer before being traded to nashville.

I think hrs someone that needs to play every day and not be a good press box player with occasional games.

 

[Mrfenn92]

One year two way deal if he wants to stay stateside I’d imagine

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Feels like he just lost his motor at one point he would never let anyone have an easy game against his line.

This certainly seemed to be the case in Nashville. He was invisible, you wouldn't have watched his games and thought he had any kind of motor at all.

 

[HogtownSabresfan]

Asplund is only 26, so it's not over, but I thought he would be so much better. His scoring touch is not elite, which means he needs to work hard to be 3rd or 4th line centre. He really could be one but the will looks lost. It's a tough league, and the grind is maybe impossible to imagine unless you are in. I would bet on his NHL days being numbered but you never know.