When the Blackhawks convened for training camp in late September, better than a dozen young forwards engaged in a fierce competition to earn a spot on a suddenly wide-open roster.

Among those in the crowded field was an unheralded, undrafted 6-foot-3 Swede by the name of Dennis Rasmussen.

With a vanilla resume that matched his hair, plenty of fans probably figured Rasmussen would be on the chopping block at some point before the regular season began Oct. 12.

Heck, even Rasmussen realized the odds weren’t stacked in his favor.

“I knew I was maybe going to be the last guy cut or the last guy to make the team,” he said. “I’m always trying to do my best, but the confidence level was that I was going to make it.”

Make it he did, and although Rasmussen might have held a tenuous grip on that roster spot at first, he has taken advantage of every opportunity and played in 27 of the Hawks’ last 29 games.

“He’s a super nice guy. Very down to earth,” said veteran defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson. “Really open to learn. …

“He wasn’t a superstar when he was younger, but he’s been working hard throughout his career and it’s been paying off.”

Beating the odds

Rasmussen, who first put on a pair of skates when he was 2, began playing organized hockey when he was 5, even though he was supposed to wait another year.

“I really wanted to play when I was 4,” he said. “My dad said you have to wait two years, but after one year I asked so many times he just

put me in there.”

Little by little Rasmussen climbed the rungs of the professional ladder, playing for Vaxjo in the Swedish Hockey League from 2011-14.

Then, on June 10, 2014, Rasmussen signed a one-year deal with the Hawks, and he played 73 games for Rockford that season. In 2015-16, he scored in his NHL debut Dec. 8 and finished with 4 goals in 44 games with the Hawks.

Now, after surviving a nerve-racking training camp, Rassmussen has carved out a nice little niche as a bottom-six forward who also is an integral part of the penalty-kill unit.

“It’s pretty tough, of course,” he said of the how he felt in early October. “You feel like you’re living on the edge the whole camp there. You just take it day by day and try to do everything possible … to show the players on the team, the coaches and the management that you should earn a spot.”

Help from all angles

Rasmussen said the three Hawks who have helped him the most are Marian Hossa, Patrick Kane and Hjalmarsson. Each has lent a hand in different ways.

Said Rasmussen of Hossa: “He’s just one of those guys that you can look at every day during practice — all the small things that maybe people in the crowd don’t notice … that makes him successful.”

Hjalmarsson, whom many of the team’s young players look to for advice, is one of the sharpest dressers on the Hawks, and Rasmussen will go to his fellow countryman when he’s not quite sure what to wear to a team function.

“We don’t wear suits much back home,” Hjalmarsson said. “So it’s always a bit confusing in the beginning what you’re supposed to wear or not to wear so you don’t get a fine.”

Kane’s part in Rasmussen’s emergence is pretty neat, too, as the MVP has gone out of his way to compliment his teammate’s play.

“Kaner, he just came up to me a lot of times and said that he’s believing in me,” Rasmussen said. “He told me to play with confidence.

“Small things like that. It really helps.”

Filling a role

Dennis Rasmussen’s stats aren’t going to wow fans or pundits. He has all of 6 goals and 7 assists in 71 NHL games thus far.

But for a salary-cap-strapped organization that’s trying to squeeze every last drop of talent from any possible source, having versatile guys like this who make a mere $575,000 is critical.

When players such as Rasmussen emerge and fill important roles, it makes life a lot easier on the coaching staff.

“He’s handled himself very well,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “He’s one of those players that looked like he was going to be a depth guy, organizationally. … But he kept pushing for more. …

“We put him at center, played him at wing. So he gives us a lot of different options and we like his size.

“We like the presence that he’s brought, and that consistency is something he’s been very good at. So we’ve been very happy with his play.”