After playing together at the U.S. national team development program and internationally, Dylan Larkin and Jack Eichel have remained close friends. They kept in touch a lot this summer, and still do during the season.



“He’s a good guy to talk to. We come from the same background,” Eichel told The Athletic. “We talk a lot.”



So Eichel knew full well how much work Larkin put into this bounce-back season. How Larkin studied where last year went wrong and honed in on skills to make sure he could make the strides necessary to reassert himself as one of the game’s bright young stars.



One quarter of the way through the season, he’s done that.



Larkin has 20 points in 21 games, a total that leads the Red Wings so far this season. Last season, he was eighth on the team in scoring, trailing both a defenseman (Mike Green) and a forward who finished his season in Florida (Thomas Vanek).



He’s already eclipsed...