Red Wings: Wear And Tear Of Rebuild Affecting Dylan Larkin
By Tyler Kotila
It is no secret that the Detroit Red Wings are terrible, and this season is painful for the fans and, apparently, the players as well. Wings forward Dylan Larkin has let this horrific season get the most of him, making the wear and tear of a rebuild affect him.
In his fifth year wearing the winged wheel here in Detroit, Dylan Larkin is experiencing another horrible season while the Detroit Red Wings suffer through a teardown and rebuild of the organization.
The Detroit Red Wings currently sit dead last in the standings and are doing a great job of maintaining the best odds for a number one overall pick in the draft lottery, but what does that mean for the players currently stuck on the roster?
It has got to be miserable knowing that every day the players come to the rink, there is a more than likely chance they’re going to walk out as losers at the end of the night.
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Coming into the season, it seemed like Larkin was coming into a spot where he was a true leader for this Red Wings team and close to earning that prolific “C” on his jersey. Larkin ended up once again being named an assistant captain alongside others and has still shown his leadership role at the beginning of the season. Lately, it seems that it has been a different tune, but as fans, can you really blame him?
Regarding the 2019-20 All-Star Fan Vote, Larkin said that he would rather have time off instead of having the fans vote him onto the all-star roster. This season has been taking a toll on the twenty-three-year-old forward.
The entire team’s morale cannot be very high, to say the least, when they give up two or three goals. The morale on the bench and body language changes among some of the players, and it seems like Jeff Blashill needs to do something about it but fails to act.
That is not solely Larkin’s fault, but the entire team is almost dragging along as the season drones on, but statistically, Larkin is not having the greatest of seasons either.
In 2018-19, on a similar struggling Red Wings team, Larkin still managed thirty-two goals, and forty-one assists for seventy-three points on the season. That was ten points better than his 2017-19 campaign, and his best statistical season since bursting onto the scene in 2015.
Looking at this season, at the halfway mark, through forty-one games played, Larkin has nine goals and sixteen assists for twenty-five total points. Assuming he doubles that in the second half of the season, Larkin would finish with eighteen goals and thirty-two helpers for fifty points, which is lower than the past two seasons.
Now, on a rebuilding team that finishes dead last, Larkin is not going to put up ninety points and be a dark horse MVP candidate, but he could still be putting up more points if he is a true superstar.
That is the central idea to all of this, Larkin was supposed to be this generational talent for the Red Wings. A superstar, and with all of this rebuilding and lack of ability, he has been sluggish.
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It seems like he has the potential to be a phenomenal player for the Red Wings, but the “superstar” term may be out of reach with the wear and tear being put on him by the Red Wings rebuild.