Red Wings' Dylan Larkin has his confidence back; can he become elite?

Dylan Larkin is enjoying himself, and it’s evident on a nightly basis with the Detroit Red Wings.

The season isn’t even at the midpoint, and already Larkin has matched the points he had last season in 80 games. Entering Wednesday’s game against the Ottawa Senators, Larkin was on a roll, with eight points in the previous six games.

“I’ve gotten my confidence back,” Larkin said after the morning skate at Little Caesars Arena. “I’m making plays, I’m playing a lot. I’m having fun again. I just want to keep going. I am not satisfied — I’d like to have more goals, and we’d like to have more wins. If I score more, I think it will help the team even more.”

Larkin is key to the Wings’ efforts to regain competitiveness even after not draft inside the top 10 from 1992 to 2016. Larkin, 21, stood out as a rookie with a 23-goal season, then experienced growing pains his sophomore season.

“I thought he went through a learning process the first three quarters of last season that I knew was coming,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “I thought the last quarter of the season, he had really taken steps to understanding how he is going to be great. He is going to be great by being a 200-foot player, by playing from the correct side of the puck, and from there you get lots of offense. I think he saw the last part of last year, I think he saw that in the World Championships, and I know he’s seen that this year. The other thing it gets you is lots of ice time, and with lots of ice time, there’s more opportunity for points.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all that Dylan’s had a great start.”

Larkin’s average ice time of 19 minutes, 51 seconds is almost four minutes more than what he averaged last season (16:09) and leads all Wings forwards. He has become a key part of both special teams units, adding penalty-kill duties this season. It’s a satisfying situation for Larkin after last season.

“Last year in the games, I was frustrated,” he said. “I thought I should be playing more and the only thing I could have done about it was what I did, and worked hard and had a good summer. Went to the World Championship with Blash and created a good relationship and earned his trust. I think that’s the biggest thing, is playing a lot, and playing in big situations.

“It’s a good start. I just want to keep going and continue to have fun.”

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What’s encouraging for the Wings is that Larkin had points in 24 of the first 38 games. He hasn’t gone longer than three games without producing.

“He’s been consistent in producing and consistent in his play,” Blashill said. “There are a lot of nights where he is our best forward, there’s a lot of nights where I put him out there in lots of different situations. His consistency throughout the season — there’s been very few dips. There’s been a couple times I’ve had to remind him you can’t cheat for offense — if you cheat for offense, you end up pulling it out of your net. But the good thing about him is, whenever he is reminded of that, he goes out the next night and does a great job of it.”

Larkin leads the Wings with 26 assists, but says he is not happy with only scoring six goals after moving to center from wing, where he played most of his first two seasons. That Larkin is pushing himself to score more goals is part of why the Wings were so delighted when he was available at 15th overall in the 2014 draft. Earlier that year, Larkin represented the U.S. at the World U18 championships, where he was an assistant captain and won a gold medal. One of the assistant coaches on that team was John Gruden, who Blashill ran into at Tuesday’s Ferris State-U.S. National U18 team game.

“Gruds was saying that he was talking to Larks and Larks was down on himself for the number of goals he’d scored so far,” Blashill said. “He has to be careful with that, because sometimes you get too hard on yourself, but I think what makes Dylan great is his inner drive. He wants to be the best and so although he’s had lots of points, he wants to make sure he’s scoring at a rate with elite players.

“He wants to be an elite player. It drives him every day.”

Contact Helene St. James: hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.