Homegrown Dylan Larkin makes impact, Wings' next star?

Shawn Windsor | Detroit Free Press

He came from nowhere fast, a blur ripping across the ice, from the edge of the right face-off circle to a spot behind the net. Once there, Dylan Larkin swiped the puck from a defenseman, then squirted out toward the left corner. What happened next? A spin, a no-look centering pass, a goal. But really, what we're talking about here isn't a way to catalog a scoring chance. We're talking about something more kinetic. We're talking about the movement of the most electric hockey player to come out of this region in years. Here was a sequence built on speed, anticipation, photographic memory, touch and vision. He is that good already. The team knows it. His teammates know it. You know it. At least judging by the decibel spikes when the announcer mentions his name. And judging by the number of "Larkin" jerseys popping up on the backs of fans standing in their seats.

Larkin's popularity has risen so unexpectedly and so rapidly that during last week's game against the Arizona Coyotes his jersey was sold out.

"I hear we're having trouble keeping up," said Ken Holland, the team's general manager, who drafted Larkin with the No. 15 pick in June 2014.

The team can't make his jersey fast enough, partly because he's young — Larkin is 19, the first teenager on the Wings' roster since Jiri Hudler in 2003 — and partly because he grew up in Waterford and played at Michigan. Which is to say … he's one of us, which makes for a better story.

He spent his pond hockey days pretending he was Nicklas Lidstrom.

Or Kris Draper.

Or Henrik Zetterberg, the current Wings captain, with whom he shares a line and from whom he receives advice, while he sits next to him on the bench between shifts.

Imagine that?

Larkin can't. Or couldn't, anyway.

"I still have a few pinch-me moments every now and again," he said.

But not too many. He can't afford them. He's playing in a man's league, fighting to keep the job he took from someone else.

So, yeah, starry-eyed won't keep him in Detroit. Production will. Not that he predicted this start, leading the Wings in scoring, earning the NHL's rookie of the month honor for November, leading the league in plus-minus.

And whether we dismiss the plus-minus stat or not, because a player can control only so much whether the puck goes in the net while he is on the ice, we can see with our own eyes the beginning of something special.

Holland isn't ready to say publicly that Larkin is the next Steve Yzerman. No general manager wants to heap that sort of pressure onto his up-and-comers.

But he did say this:

"Dylan Larkin is going to be a very important player for this franchise."

What that means is hard to say. The business of projecting in sports is tough. Think of it this way: Fourteen other teams didn't see Larkin as a franchise player. It's possible all those teams didn't know what to look for while the Wings did; they've plucked Hall of Famers from unlikely spots before.

But even Holland will tell you teams never truly know. They can interview and scout and research and still miss an essential part of a player, something that doesn't reveal itself until the player arrives at camp.

The question is: What part?

With Larkin, Holland and his scouts saw his speed and vision and two-way pluck. What made him Dylan Larkin? They couldn't know, but took the plunge anyway.

Taking off

Let's go back to the late 1990s. Specifically, let's go back to the late 1990s in Waterford, a Detroit suburb marked by its abundant lakes, which makes it paradise for kids who live to play pond hockey in the winter.

Waterford isn't a bad place to play soccer, either, a sport Larkin played growing up, a sport his father, Kevin Larkin, played in college, and a sport that shares hockey's spacing and movement and geometry.

"Dylan liked soccer," his dad said, "but he loved hockey."

He remembers the first time his son put on skates. Dylan was 21/ 2 or so. He was enjoying a pacifier. His older brother, Colin, and a few of their cousins were playing street hockey in the driveway using roller blades. Dylan wanted in.

The father grabbed a pair of Fisher-Price roller blades and tried to put them on his son.

"He cried," Kevin said.

He took them off and found a pair of intermediate roller blades. Dylan rejected those, too. Finally, the elder Larkin decided to let his son try on real roller blades.

"And he took off," Kevin said, "pacifier and all. I ran along with him."

He didn't need to.

His little boy had made a statement. He wasn't going to be stopped.

A decade later, young Larkin was still racing past everybody, only now he was doing it for one of the premier youth hockey clubs in America. Joe Smaza recalled the first time he realized Larkin was a little different than the rest of the players on his Belle Tire AAA team.

They were at practice, and Smaza, who played some minor league and college hockey, was rushing up the side through the neutral zone when he sensed an accelerating force behind him.

"In hockey, you can always tell when someone is coming from your backside," he said.

But Smaza dismissed the feeling. After all, he was 36, a former pro, and the kids he was coaching were only 13. There wasn't any way one was going to catch him. Until Larkin did, and swiped the puck, jetting off as if it were no big thing.

"That's when I knew," Smaza said. "He had an NHL stride then."

He also had NHL maturity; at least it seemed like it to Smaza and so many other adults who spent time around him. When Larkin made the U.S. National Development Program, a club that brings together the top 16- and 17-year-olds in the country, he didn't immediately tell his Belle Tire teammates. They had a big tournament coming up. He worried the news might distract them.

"He did the same thing when he accepted an offer to play at Michigan," Smaza said. "He called me and told me about it, then said, 'Coach, I've told my parents and U-M, and I wanted to tell you. But don't tell the guys.' Do you realize how unusual that is? Most kids who get a scholarship to a program like that would show up the next day decked in that school's gear from head to toe."

Not Larkin. Again, his team had important games coming up. He didn't want to take away from the preparation.

Youth hockey gets a bum rap at times for its cost and travel demands. Yet life on the road can foster a strong communal sense. Smaza is convinced this explains — in part — why professional hockey players are so often mindful of their place.

When Larkin made the national development team, he had to leave home and move to Ann Arbor. That may not sound like a big leap — Waterford is only 45 miles away — but it means leaving your mom and dad and siblings and everything that can go with that.

"It was hard on me," Larkin said. "It was hard on my mom, too. But you get used to it. Besides, any young player who plays hockey in the country knows what it can mean."

Larkin spent two years in Ann Arbor with the team. He attended Pioneer High during the day and spent the rest of the time with the team, whether at practice, on the road at games, or at the local Chipotle near the high school.

"Even when we didn't eat, we just liked hanging out there and talking," he said.

Curfew was at 9 p.m. That didn't leave much time for life beyond books and ice. The chats were crucial.

Things loosened up a bit when he graduated and enrolled at Michigan to play for Red Berenson. He had more free time because he could stay up later.

"I was only 5 minutes from where I'd gone to high school, but it was a whole different life," he said. "I didn't sleep as much as I did in high school. I hung out in dorms."

He made friends he still sees regularly. He also began to realize he might be pretty good at hockey. Between his dominance as a freshman for the Wolverines and his performance at last year's world juniors, he knew he was ready to take the leap.

He and his parents and Holland met to discuss the possibility.

"And I told Dylan that he had to be prepared to be on a bus riding to minor league towns in December," Holland said.

Holland knew Larkin was good enough for the NHL after he'd watched him play in the world juniors. Still, he didn't want him riding the bench. He told the team's coach, Jeff Blashill, that if they decided to take him, he'd have to be one of the top-six forwards. Otherwise, Holland wanted him in Grand Rapids, where he knew Larkin would get all the ice time he could handle.

It didn't take long for Blashill to see what he had. It had nothing to do with his time on he ice.

Staying humble

The Wings gathered on a bus at 6 a.m. to head to training camp in Traverse City.

"From the moment he stepped on that bus, he acted like he belonged," Blashill said.

He wasn't cocky, necessarily, but he was confident — deferential, too. That last trait has particularly endeared him to the club's veterans. All pro sports have their own internal hierarchies and protocols that come out of those structures. Larkin seemed to understand this intuitively.

Before training camp, Holland had suggested to Larkin that he affix himself to Luke Glendening, a U-M alum who clawed his way into the NHL with grit and will. Holland wanted Larkin to see how a pro operated in the off-season.

"Look, Dylan is a much better hockey player than I am, and he didn't have to come work out with me in Detroit," Glendening said, "but he did. That shows you something."

The morning after Larkin assisted on the goal to help beat the Coyotes, the Wings were back at the Joe, finishing up a light practice. When Blashill called it, most of the vets quickly moved toward the tunnel to get back to the locker room.

One by one, the younger guys followed, a few hanging back on the ice to take a few more shots and help scoop up the pucks for the equipment guys.

Larkin worked out by the net closest to the Zamboni entrance, firing shot after shot, racing in from the left, sprinting in from the right, picking different spots on the ice that might open up in a game.

For more than 15 minutes, he danced between the circles and attacked the empty net, until finally, no one else was left, just him and an endless sheet of ice, a ruddy-cheeked 19-year-old fine-tuning his game in one of the sport's iconic venues. Finally, after a couple of trips around its edges, Larkin glided toward the door.

"Sometimes I have to tell an assistant coach to go get him off the ice," Blashill said.

Larkin grew up a Maple Leafs fan thanks to his dad and his uncle, both of whom were raised in Toronto. The brothers moved to the U.S. to play college soccer — Kevin at Southern Indiana — then settled in metro Detroit. "I brainwashed Dylan," Kevin jokes.

It didn't hold.

By the time Larkin hit his teens, he had fallen in love with the Wings, too.

That he is now in their locker room, sitting on a stool peeling off their uniform, unwrapping the layers of tape and protective gear provided by their attendants, well, on some days it doesn't seem real.

"But I can't think that way," he said.

Larkin had agreed to meet after his extra-ice session to talk about bursting on the scene. He had to push back the interview a few minutes because it took awhile to unsheathe the cocoon of protection hockey players rely on.

"Sorry about that," he said.

Such self-awareness helps explain why he's the first teenager on the Wings roster in more than a decade. This is an organization that likes to take its time. As it happens, so does Larkin, off the ice, at least.

On it?

Few players in the league combine his speed and vision. His eyes always are looking forward. He is forever ready to pass or shoot.

Wings fans sense it already. It's why they rise when he makes a run and why they roar when they hear his name and why they chase his jersey at the apparel booths lining the concourse.

Larking, not surprisingly, isn't sure what to make of this.

"I was one of those fans in that concourse just a year ago," he said.

And in some ways, he is still not all that different from them. When he leaves the arena, he drives to a condo he shares with a couple of buddies — Glendening and Riley Sheahan. When he isn't at his condo or with the team, he drives to Ann Arbor a lot. "Like to see my friends there," he said.

And when he's not back in Ann Arbor or at his condo or with the Wings he's probably back with his parents, who now live in Clarkston, eating his mom's lasagna, messing around in the basement by firing shots on his old net, just as he always has.

He left Waterford for Ann Arbor and left Ann Arbor for the world. Now he's back in Detroit, and back home.

"Pretty cool," he said.

He isn't worried about expectation, and he understands he's just a few steps into a long, long journey.

As Holland said, "None of us know what his ceiling is, but we're all going to enjoy watching him get there."

Meanwhile, the next great Red Wing is living out a dream by playing alongside his idols and spending the time at home he missed out on when he was younger.

"He's with us 2-3 times a week now," said his dad, Kevin. "But the coolest thing is that when he comes home, he (gets) to be a kid again. He is a teenager still."

Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.

Meet Dylan Larkin

Who: Red Wings forward.

Vitals: 6-1, 190 pounds.

Age: 19.

From: Waterford.

College: Michigan.

Drafted: First round in 2014 (No. 15 overall).

In college: Had 15 goals, 32 assists in 35 games on his way to winning the Big Ten Freshman of the Year Award.

In the NHL: His plus-20 rating leads the NHL, and his 11 goals are tied for the Red Wings lead.

Did you know: His 47 points at Michigan were the most by a freshman since Brendan Morrison in 1993-94.

American dream

It's early, but at 22 points in 30 games, Dylan Larkin is averaging 0.73 point per game and on pace for 60 points. If he keeps it up, it'll be just the 11th time a U.S.-born teen scored that often while playing in at least 30 games. The 10 others:

1987-88: Jimmy Carson*, Kings

1.34

Games: 80.

Points: 107.

1983-84: Phil Housley, Sabres

1.03

Games: 75.

Points: 77.

1985-86: Ed Olczyk, Blackhawks

1.00

Games: 79.

Points: 79.

1986-87: Jimmy Carson*, Kings

0.99

Games: 80.

Points: 79.

1989-90: Mike Modano*, Stars

0.94

Games: 80.

Points: 75.

2007-08: Patrick Kane, Blackhawks

0.88

Games: 82.

Points: 72.

1982-83: Bob Carpenter, Capitals

0.86

Games: 80.

Points: 69.

1982-83: Phil Housley, Sabres

0.86

Games: 77.

Points: 66.

1981-82: Bob Carpenter, Capitals

0.84

Games: 80.

Points: 67.

1984-85: Pat LaFontaine*, Islanders

0.81

Games: 67.

Points: 54.

*Raised in Michigan.

Good company

Dylan Larkin has 22 points in 30 games this season. It's just the ninth time in Red Wings history that a teen has put up at least 20 points:

1984-85: Steve Yzerman

89

1983-84: Steve Yzerman

87

1947-48: Gordie Howe

44

1951-52: Alex Delvecchio

37

1983-84: Lane Lambert

35

1942-43: Harry Watson

31

1944-45: Ted Lindsay

23

1946-47: Gordie Howe

22

2015-16: Dylan Larkin

22

A big plus

Rookie forward Dylan Larkin has taken the Wings and the NHL by storm at age 19, entering Saturday ranking among the leaders in ...

Plus-minus

Larkin would be the first rookie ever to lead the league in plus-minus; he's got a healthy lead so far. The leaders:

Dylan Larkin, Red Wings…+20

Taylor Hall, Oilers…+15

Jeff Carter, Kings…+15

Evgeny Kuznetsov, Capitals…+14

Tyler Toffoli, Kings…+14

Anze Kopitar, Kings…+14

Rookie goals

Three of the top five rookies — Larkin, Panarin and Eichel — didn't play in the minors during the regular season in 2014-15:

Dylan Larkin, Red Wings…11

Max Domi, Coyotes…10

Oscar Lindberg, Rangers…10

Artemi Panarin, Blackhawks…9

Jack Eichel, Sabres…9

Anthony Duclair, Coyotes, and Sam Reinhart, Sabres…8

Wings goals

Larkin would be the first rookie to lead the Red Wings in goals since Mike Foligno did so in 1979-80. The top six:

Dylan Larkin…11

Tomas Tatar…11

Gustav Nyquist…11

Justin Abdelkader…10

Teemu Pulkkinen…6

Henrik Zetterberg…5