Larkin close to joining exclusive club of Red Wings players with multiple 30-goal seasons

Detroit Red Wings captain @Dylan Larkin scored his 29th goal of the 2021–22 season midway through the third period of Sunday’s game against the Ottawa Senators.

Larkin, 25, cut the Senators’ lead to 3–2 at the 12:35 mark of the final frame, taking a pass from @Filip Hronek in stride and cutting behind a backchecking @Drake Batherson before backhanding the puck over the glove of Ottawa netminder @Anton Forsberg.

Hronek and @Marc Staal picked up the helpers on Larkin’s team-leading 29th of the year. Larkin and @Michael Rasmussen scored for the Red Wings in their 5–2 loss to the Senators on Sunday afternoon.

With 29 goals and 64 points in 64 games this season, Larkin needs just one more goal in the Red Wings’ final 13 contests to become only the sixth player to post multiple 30-goal campaigns with the club since 2000.

Larkin previously posted 32 goals and 73 points (both career highs) in 76 games with the Red Wings back in 2018–19. The Waterford, MI product has 145 goals and 353 points in 497 career NHL games, all spent with Detroit.

These five Red Wings alumni previously compiled two or more 30-goal seasons with the team during the 21st century:

Zetterberg and Datsyuk both scored 30 goals in 2008–09 as the Red Wings worked toward trying to repeat as Stanley Cup champions. Detroit ultimately lost in seven games in a rematch with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2009 final.

Since then, only two players have posted 30-goal seasons while wearing a Red Wings jersey. As previously mentioned, Larkin netted 32 in 2018–19; that same year, @Andreas Athanasiou scored exactly 30 goals in 76 games.

There’s a chance the Red Wings could ultimately feature multiple 30-goal scorers again this season. @Tyler Bertuzzi is up to 26 goals in 57 games and might already be at the 30-goal plateau if he had made any appearances on the road in Canada.

Of the Red Wings’ final 13 games, 11 will take place in the United States. Bertuzzi needs four goals in those 11 contests to officially become a 30-goal scorer in his fifth season since becoming an NHL regular.

Various Red Wings players have put together 118 different 30-goal seasons since the inception of the franchise in 1926. Larkin’s 2021–22 campaign could end up being the 119th unique entry on that list.

If Larkin were to continue on his current scoring pace over the final 13 games of the 2021–22 season, he would finish with 35 goals and 77 points in 77 games.

A 35-goal season would be Larkin’s new career-best output and would tie him with seven former Red Wings — Mud Bruneteau, Ivan Boldirev, Gordie Howe, Vaclav Nedomansky, John Ogrodnick, Paul Ysebaert, and Steve Yzerman — for the 55th-most goals in a season in Red Wings history. Bruneteau achieved that feat in just 39 games back in 1943–44.

Larkin has one year remaining after this one on a contract that carries an average annual value of $6.1 million. He’ll look to help the Red Wings avoid losing a seventh consecutive game when they return to action on Tuesday to take on the Boston Bruins.

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