So Larkin Made Some Interesting Comments.

[The Zetterberg Era]

The 'Keep in house' philosophy has been going since Yzerman showed up and to be honest, I wouldn't mind a break from it to an extent. I don't think that philosophy has stopped any drama from happening, consider the nonsense we had from Vrana and Walman and two coaching changes since then. Non stop finger pointing wouldn't be good, but a callout or two for people to be better could be what the doctor ordered.

I don't know. This all sucks, plain and simple, no more soap box for me today.

Worth remembering at training camp Larkin put forth a statement eluding to Walman and Sprong not doing what it took. Might be a part of his anger, he does that for them.

He has carried a lot of water for this organization.

I actually think Yzerman will say he understands his frustration if asked. I don’t expect him to dodge it. Both are actually fairly more transparent than I think people credit them with. Yzerman doesn’t talk a lot, but I always find him quite insightful.

I am glad the temperature is going up, we need to attack this offseason and next year.

 

[jkutswings]

After a bit more reflection, I have a slightly different take on this. It will sound controversial at first, but (IMO, with a bit of explanation) it makes sense.

Larkin (as a player in Detroit) and Yzerman (as a GM in Detroit) are exactly the same, but for opposite reasons.

Larkin:
* Clearly above average overall
* Done more good than bad
* In charge of where things go on the ice
* Has areas he needs to improve
* Seems to expect the roster to improve almost exclusively through external talent acquisition

Yzerman
* Clearly above average overall
* Done more good than bad
* In charge of where things go off the ice
* Has areas he needs to improve
* Seems to expect the roster to improve almost exclusively through internal talent acquisition (drafting and development)

So the real difference is where each person expects the help to come from. But in both cases, the problem is that each person seems to expect only one source of improvement.

I think the Wings will go a heck of a lot farther (and faster) with a BOTH/AND, rather than an EITHER/OR:
* Larkin needs to step his own game up, better motivate the rest of the roster as captain, and be responsible for a greater degree of improvement from within.
* Yzerman needs to step his own game up, have a more proactive summer via trade/UFAs, and be responsible for a greater degree of improvement from without.

The players already on the roster can be better and more consistent. And Detroit can make a few moves to provide some further upgrades (without completely emptying the cupboard). Find a better balance and it's a win/win for everybody.

 

[SCD]

The team *hits the bed for the first half of the year, then it is Yzerman's fault because of no moves. As professional hockey players, a coaching change should not have made that great of a difference.

Yzerman needs to look at Larkin's failure as a leader this season, and determine if he should be the captain of the future. I would move on.

 

[Coach Reggie Dunlop]

Because he's the captain and it's an embarrassing way for your captain to behave. You're supposed to be rallying the room and acting as a source of strength/hope/determination for the players, not sulking and whining after every bit of adversity. Larkin isn't a leader in the NHL and has never shown such ability.

I think this is a pretty crazy take. There’s some things that I don’t like about his leadership style but none of us are in the room, I think it’s crazy to say he isn’t a leader at all and has never shown the ability to be.

 

[RedHawkDown]

I think this is a pretty crazy take. There’s some things that I don’t like about his leadership style but none of us are in the room, I think it’s crazy to say he isn’t a leader at all and has never shown the ability to be.

None of us are in the room but we can only guess based on external comments made and the team's play. What evidence is there that Larkin is a good leader / a good captain? The team has collapsed in March 3 years straight under two different coaches, does that sound like a guy who has the team dialed in and is leading them well? He has whined and sulked to the media consistently since he entered the league. We also heard reports that the Wings' locker room is 'very quiet' and guys like Perron were the only ones being vocal leaders on the team. So again, what evidence is there that Larkin is actually acting like a captain on this team, other than being given the role because he was the only non-trash player on the team and a hometown kid when Zetterberg retired?

The 15-16 wings that made the playoffs with career-end Zetterberg scoring 50 pts in 82 games and Datsyuk with 49 pts in 66 games weren't a significantly more skilled team than what we had this season. 24-25 Larkin is a better player than Z was that year, and Raymond is far better than Datsyuk was that year. DBC is better than rookie Larkin. Kane is better than the depth pieces we had that year (the corpse of Mike Richards). On D, Seider is better than end of career Kronwall, and we had just as much trash on D (Quincey, Ericsson, Smith, etc). Difference is they didn't collapse because Zetterberg is 10x the captain and leader Dylan is or ever will be, IMO.

 

[lilidk]

I would trade him. You are suppose to be the LEADER. What captain would ever miss the playoffs then complain about not getting enough help? I'm fuming right now.

He just can't handle it, and that's ok. He should be second line center on very good team, depends how they do it in playoffs.Team like Carolina or Denver . Yzerman done couple of times trading top players, should do it again before draft.
Seider is next Capitan

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

It's kind of funny, because I think you can make an argument that the biggest long term mistake Yzerman made was exiting the rebuild a year or two too quickly - presumably trying to make Larkin a happy camper.

The wings didn’t exit the rebuild. They made incremental improvements in 2021 to 2023. Seider and Raymond showed up. Ed and Kasper and Johansson showed up. They’re all good enough to make positive impacts on the ice. What was Yzerman supposed to do? Keep them all in the AHL to tank?

 

[Shaman464]

The wings didn’t exit the rebuild. They made incremental improvements in 2021 to 2023. Seider and Raymond showed up. Ed and Kasper and Johansson showed up. They’re all good enough to make positive impacts on the ice. What was Yzerman supposed to do? Keep them all in the AHL to tank?

Not sign a bunch of scrubs would be a good start.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

It really feels like Copp is the guy in the locker room. When he went down, the skid started. His postseason presser also seemed far more professional than Larkin.

I don't know. Rubs me the wrong way.

At the very least I like copps press conferences better. Generally straightforward but not whining.

 

[schuelma24]

The wings didn’t exit the rebuild. They made incremental improvements in 2021 to 2023. Seider and Raymond showed up. Ed and Kasper and Johansson showed up. They’re all good enough to make positive impacts on the ice. What was Yzerman supposed to do? Keep them all in the AHL to tank?

I'm talking more about adding the FA's in 22-23 - definitely not this year. Not saying they would have been able to get Bedard, but I can see the case that keeping things slow another year and maybe you're in the Will Smith/Michkov range instead of Danielson.

Again, I'm not saying I necessarily agree, but I can see the argument.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Larkin has been a great soldier throughout the whole rebuild and carried some truly awful teams. He’s not getting any younger and has only ever played on bad teams. He went to the 4 nations and made a huge impact. I think he has every right to be frustrated and deserves to be able to vent. No clue why people are so mad about that.

He went to 4 Nations and made a huge impact, then when he came back to his team he disappeared for stretches and is now complaining in the end of season press conference about the lack of deadline acquisitions.

Go to Yzerman personally and vent. It's not a good look to complain when you yourself came up short. As I said previously, if Larkin and the team really was that disheartened about the lack of moves, that's a mentally weak captain and mentally fragile team.

Again, this is all purely speculation based on a few off the cuff comments. I'm just trying to elaborate on why I think that's not the proper forum for his comments. As captain he just created drama for his team headed into the offseason. Keep it in the room.

 

[lilidk]

Larkin has been a great soldier throughout the whole rebuild and carried some truly awful teams. He’s not getting any younger and has only ever played on bad teams. He went to the 4 nations and made a huge impact. I think he has every right to be frustrated and deserves to be able to vent. No clue why people are so mad about that.

I am not mad I just think if Larkin so frustrated with Yzerman it's time to move on and play for good team and have a chance to win cup next year.
We have good prospect pool , but they are not going to be impact players next season, it will give us good draft pick 2026, meantime our young core will improve and team could be good again in 2-3 years.

 

[minimal]

He went to 4 Nations and made a huge impact, then when he came back to his team he disappeared for stretches and is now complaining in the end of season press conference about the lack of deadline acquisitions.

Go to Yzerman personally and vent. It's not a good look to complain when you yourself came up short.

If you're gonna make this argument in good faith, you at least have to acknowledge that he's clearly been playing injured and couldn't even rule out having surgery this offseason.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

If you're gonna make this argument in good faith, you at least have to acknowledge that he's clearly been playing injured and couldn't even rule out having surgery this offseason.

Right. He's playing injured from a 4 Nations tournament that meant nothing and then complains about not getting deadline acquisitions.

Playing injured may excuse his performance, but it's still a bad look. I'm still a big Larkin fan, but this was a mistake on his part.

And I do think he at least has some nagging injuries, on a separate point, why didn't they shut him down when the playoffs were officially out of reach?

 

[schuelma24]

If you're gonna make this argument in good faith, you at least have to acknowledge that he's clearly been playing injured and couldn't even rule out having surgery this offseason.

That's fair. I'd turn it around though..you're Yzerman and you know Larkin isn't 100% and the team loses 4 in a row right before the deadline...is it the smart move to do anything significant in that scenario?

I think the criticism of Yzerman for this year is A- had too many existing shitty contracts which handicapped him in FA and 2- waited at least a month too long to get rid of Lalonde.

 

[Rzombo4 prez]

Interesting.....

 

[Steve Yzerlland]

He just can't handle it, and that's ok. He should be second line center on very good team, depends how they do it in playoffs.Team like Carolina or Denver . Yzerman done couple of times trading top players, should do it again before draft.
Seider is next Capitan

Absolutely. I'm all for Seider being the Captain. I would strip him of the captaincy right now whether he is traded or not. Toronto took it from Tavares who is better than Larkin...

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

I'm talking more about adding the FA's in 22-23 - definitely not this year. Not saying they would have been able to get Bedard, but I can see the case that keeping things slow another year and maybe you're in the Will Smith/Michkov range instead of Danielson.

Again, I'm not saying I necessarily agree, but I can see the argument.

Signing Compher, Copp and Chiarot isn’t exiting a rebuild, though. The alternative option was another year of Frans Nielsen and Filppula and scrubs like Madison Bowey on D. I don’t disagree with Yzerman going after free agents in 22 and 23.

The choices in hindsight weren’t great. Trocheck would have been better than Copp. O’Reilly would have been light years better than Compher. The pro scouting needs to be overhauled and I’m not comfortable with how many 90s Red Wings are working for the team. It reeks of when the Oilers hired 80s legends for their early 00s team.

The team had the opportunity to go bargain shopping in 2021 before Seattle joined the league and missed out on some players in free agency and via trade that would have been truly beneficial to the team now.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Worth remembering at training camp Larkin put forth a statement eluding to Walman and Sprong not doing what it took. Might be a part of his anger, he does that for them.

He has carried a lot of water for this organization.

I actually think Yzerman will say he understands his frustration if asked. I don’t expect him to dodge it. Both are actually fairly more transparent than I think people credit them with. Yzerman doesn’t talk a lot, but I always find him quite insightful.

I am glad the temperature is going up, we need to attack this offseason and next year.

To this point I'm guessing there were a lot of conversations between Yzerman and Larkin when Larkin was re-signing about the rebuild for this team. That may be where some of Larkin's comments are coming from if he feels like what he was told before signing is not happening. But it's also a reason to keep it between him and Yzerman.

 

[Steve Yzerlland]

He went to 4 Nations and made a huge impact, then when he came back to his team he disappeared for stretches and is now complaining in the end of season press conference about the lack of deadline acquisitions.

Go to Yzerman personally and vent. It's not a good look to complain when you yourself came up short. As I said previously, if Larkin and the team really was that disheartened about the lack of moves, that's a mentally weak captain and mentally fragile team.

Again, this is all purely speculation based on a few off the cuff comments. I'm just trying to elaborate on why I think that's not the proper forum for his comments. As captain he just created drama for his team headed into the offseason. Keep it in the room.

1000% agree with all of this. When it gets tough he folds. But I don't think it's all his fault.He is in over his head. He is not the guy that can carry you to a cup or even the playoffs for that matter. #2C with flashes of #1C when he is on but he can't sustain that level of play for an entire season.

 

[MarioBalotelli]

Hope we trade him. Had a lot of collapses with him as C. Habs made alot of trade deadline acquisitions right that's why they made it,? f***ing soft muppet. Grow a beard or shave that pubic hair off ur face.

 

[lilidk]

Yzerman will change this team big, hope he learns from his mistakes. Going forward this team should be built around Seider, Ed, Kasper and Raymond.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Signing Compher, Copp and Chiarot isn’t exiting a rebuild, though. The alternative option was another year of Frans Nielsen and Filppula and scrubs like Madison Bowey on D. I don’t disagree with Yzerman going after free agents in 22 and 23.

The choices in hindsight weren’t great. Trocheck would have been better than Copp. O’Reilly would have been light years better than Compher. The pro scouting needs to be overhauled and I’m not comfortable with how many 90s Red Wings are working for the team. It reeks of when the Oilers hired 80s legends for their early 00s team.

The team had the opportunity to go bargain shopping in 2021 before Seattle joined the league and missed out on some players in free agency and via trade that would have been truly beneficial to the team now.

Trocheck was never signing in Detroit. New York had made the conference finals the previous season and was his top choice. O'Reilly I don't know for sure. He may have picked Nashville thinking they were more competitive but it's funny how that turned out.

The signings this past offseason were the real swing and misses (outside of Holl). If Gus and Tank performed anywhere near where you'd hoped, this team is likely in the playoffs in spite of Lalonde.

 

[Rzombo4 prez]

Right. He's playing injured from a 4 Nations tournament that meant nothing and then complains about not getting deadline acquisitions.

Playing injured may excuse his performance, but it's still a bad look. I'm still a big Larkin fan, but this was a mistake on his part.

And I do think he at least has some nagging injuries, on a separate point, why didn't they shut him down when the playoffs were officially out of reach?

I don't fault him for subjectively feeling like he does, but I do fault him for not having the sense to address it with the front office privately, outside of the media. How you go about your business says a lot about you.

The problem with the Wings is that as goes Larkin, so go the Wings. We simply do not have impactful depth at this point. Our skid last year directly correlated with his injury, and our post-deadline woes this season coincided with an injury. Larkin has been asked to do a ton of heavy lifting over the last five years.

Anyways, I expect the riff to grow. There is no big summer coming. We are a non-playoff team in an unsexy market looking at a super thin UFA market at a time when everyone has money. The only assets we actually have to move for significant upgrades are the assets we cannot afford to move. Enough with the big off season bullshit already.

 

[Steve Yzerlland]

Yzerman will change this team big, hope he learns from his mistakes. Going forward this team should be built around Seider, Ed, Kasper and Raymond.

Honestly I hope he dumps Holl, Copp, Compher, Gus,Tarasenko even Ras. Literally attach prospects and picks to dump these guys and use the cap wiser. That's too money going to these plugs. Get younger if we are going to suck anyway.