I'm kind of nitpicking here, but the fact that it seems everyone describes Rasmussen as a "low ceiling" guy drives me crazy.
He is a 6'6'' guy who is athletically gifted and can skate. His "ceiling" is as high as it can possibly be. He has the things that can't be taught or learned and can possibly give him a huge advantage.
You can give him a .01% chance of reaching it if that's what you think, but his ceiling is far from low.
So your argument is essentially height can't be taught, he has height, therefore he has a high ceiling?
Really when I said
lower ceiling (notice I didn't even say low), I said not more than a 2nd liner. Meaning I see him as either a 2nd or 3rd liner, which is about normal for a #9 pick, actually. Wasn't like I said I think he'll be a 4th liner, or bust completely. But I do think there were higher upside options with where we picked (Vilardi, Necas, Suzuki).
I like his scoring potential, I think he can be a 25-25 guy all day. To be a first liner he'd probably have to be more like a 25-40 or 25-50 guy, and I don't know that he has that kind of playmaking ability. I like his ability to protect the puck (which a lot of our guys can't do), but don't really think he is a dynamic puckhandler or that he has that vision to anticipate plays in an exceptional way.