There were few members of the Detroit Red Wings who were more disappointed in missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the ninth consecutive season than team captain Dylan Larkin.
After all, Larkin is the only player on the current roster who was a member of Detroit’s most recent playoff team. That took place in the 2015-16 campaign, his rookie season.
Since then, the Red Wings embarked on a difficult rebuilding process which included the trying 2019-20 season in which they posted the NHL’s worst record since the 1999-2000 expansion Atlanta Thrashers.
Since then, the Red Wings have made progress under the tutelage of beloved former captain Steve Yzerman, now serving as the club’s general manager. Although they came within a point of securing a playoff spot in 2024, ultimately losing out thanks to a tie-breaker, the 2024-25 season was the first time in the last five years that they failed to improve their point total from the previous campaign.
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Larkin celebrates his 29th birthday today, and there’s nothing that he wants more than to have his first postseason hockey experience by the time he celebrates his 30th birthday one year from now.
“It’s been difficult,” Larkin said on Detroit’s locker room clean-out day in late April. “I think about it every day for a long time during days, just bounce back and forth. But that doesn’t do you any good; you have to go out and win hockey games, and we came up about four or five wins short this year.”
The month of March has been a difficult one for the Red Wings in the last three seasons, during each of which the team endured a prolonged losing skid that ultimately doomed their postseason chances.
“It’s frustrating to go through it again and sit here outside the playoffs,” Larkin said. “March was definitely not a good month for us and defined our season, unfortunately.”
Larkin has been nothing short of a good soldier for the Red Wings, having continued to proudly don the Winged Wheel and the captain’s “C” on his jersey during some of the more challenging seasons for Detroit in recent memory.
Not only does he want the thrill of playoff hockey action at Little Caesars Arena for what would be the first time in the venue’s history, but for the Red Wings to take their place back in the upper echelons of the NHL and become yearly contenders for the Stanley Cup.
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