Former Detroit Red Wings first round picks Michael Rasmussen and Dennis Cholowski made the taxi squad — for now — while Evgeny Svechnikov was assigned to the minors.
The Wings pared their roster to 22 players on Tuesday evening, in advance of the NHL starting the 2021 season Wednesday. The Wings open Thursday when they host the Carolina Hurricanes at Little Caesars Arena.
Teams are allowed to carry four-to-six players on a taxi squad this season because of concerns playing during a pandemic. The thinking is teams need to have extra bodies readily on hand, rather than relying on calling up a player who has to travel from the team’s minor-league affiliate, which could require quarantining.