Wings Nation 2016-17 Player Review: Dylan Larkin

Oh, Dylan Larkin. What can we say about you? What can we say about your 2016-17 season?

Once the darling boy of the Red Wings faithful, Larkin was going to need to be a major factor if the Red Wings were to somehow make the playoffs this past year. Though still young, he was vastly outperformed by fellow sophomores (well kind of) in Anthony Mantha and Andreas Athanasiou, both who looked much more like well-rounded NHLers this season. Larkin was a major factor, just not in the way many would have hoped.

After a strong rookie season where he managed 45 points as the youngest Red Wing in a few generations, Larkin’s season ended with just 32 points in 80 games. Can you say sophomore slump?

Larkin’s hero chart pegs him in an unsurprising role, given his performance this year. The sophomore slots in as an average to above-average middle-six producer, with some defensive issues and “just okay” possession stats.
Note: The chart encompasses his rookie season as well, so it paints him in a more favourable light than it would if it just showed this past year.

Dylan Larkin’s sophomore season looks like somebody took a knife to Dylan Larkin’s rookie season, said “hey those numbers are too good,” and decided to chop off a few pegs where they could, while rewarding him with a few extra power play points and an improved faceoff percentage. Larkin had the same amount of games and similar ice time and went down in goals, assists, points,  +/-  and shots on net and went up in penalty minutes. Yeah, this was not an improvement of his rookie year at all. I don’t know much about how hockey players develop, but this really wasn’t a step-forward. Maybe a wakeup call that he has to adjust his game to be competitive at the NHL level? That’s all that I got.

Larkin only had 8 points by December and 14 points by the time January rolled around.

Oh, and he had one assist up to and through December 5th. Playmaker? Idk, man. I just d k.

Not that it matters at all, but Dylan Larkin only had one game winner for the Red Wings this year. Gut-punch.

Not that it matters at all part two, but Dylan Larkin was a -28 this season. Mostly the product of a bad team, but blech.

Not that it matters at all part three, but Dylan Larkin is still also waiting for his first OT winner.

On a bad possession team, it’s hard to get  too hard on Larkin’s shot attempt numbers. Many players see their possession numbers improve as they grow through the NHL, and it’s not like he got overly shelled possession wise. Not great, but probably not all that much to worry about either. It’s far from the most concerning part of his game.

Oi!!!!! Yikes!!!! Ouch!!!! Bang!!! Crash!!! Whoops!!!!

Plus-minus and goal-based stats are a bit of a crapshoot, and poor goaltending behind Larkin didn’t help much. However, Larkin’s inability to create even strength offence this year really shines through when looking at the fact he was only on the ice for 31 goals at 5v5. Larkin only had 15 primary points as well… eek!

Amongst Detroit regulars, Larkin had a better GF% than only Justin Abdelkader, Riley Sheahan, and Drew Miller.

Some comparables: Nick Jensen, 49 games played. On ice Goals For: 30. Jonathan Ericsson, 51 and 37. Anthony Mantha, 60 and 38.

Yeah, some of it can be attributed to his teammates and a lower-than-average shooting percentage, but Larkin really wasn’t that much of a threat this year at even strength.

It’s possible to say that Larkin had a down year, but I still wouldn’t put him much higher than 40-45 points. There’s still plenty of holes in Larkin’s game, and we need to see Larkin take the next step in his NHL career before we can project him to be racking up the accolades.

He’s not exactly a flash-in-the-pan and likely has a long career ahead of him, but don’t expect him to be returning to the all-star game anytime soon (unless Detroit really is that bad and has to just send *someone*. )

Dylan Larkin had, by all accounts, a below average sophomore season compared to most players expectations. Perhaps hitting the 60 or even the 50-point marker was a little lofty, but I doubt many people were predicting this level of regression.

How many conversations did you have over Dylan Larkin’s first year if he’d become elite? Did you change your answer at all after seeing this one?

He didn’t look completely lost out there and wasn’t the guy who scored no goals through 81 games and then a pair in game 82, but he also wasn’t nearly the level of offensive threat from year one. The best I can say about his performance this year is “meh”. Better luck next year.

C.