Red Wings' Dylan Larkin full of confidence after overseas stint

TRAVERSE CITY — Going overseas was just the tonic Dylan Larkin needed.

Larkin approaches his third year with the Detroit Red Wings a better player for the struggles his sophomore season presented and the opportunity playing in the World Championship afforded. The Wings need Larkin to be a good two-way center for them to be competitive, and Larkin is ready to show he can handle those duties now.



“I feel really comfortable,” Larkin said during training camp at Centre Ice Arena. “I’m excited. There is a lot of opportunity there. More so than ever I feel like I can really be creative and use my speed, use all my skills to make linemates better and make our team better.”

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It is a big responsibility for a 21-year-old to assume, but Larkin is a driven, grounded guy. It’s what made him the 15th selection in the 2014 draft, what led him to a standout year at the University of Michigan in 2014-15, why he made the Wings squad at 19, and why he stood out at the World Championship in Germany in May. Playing for a U.S. team coached by Jeff Blashill and including Wings teammates Jimmy Howard and Danny DeKeyser, Larkin was determined and dominant, producing10 points in eight games, a plus-7, and winning 62.3% of his faceoffs.



That experience, Larkin said, “helped a ton. I played in all situations there and playing for Blash, playing our systems, it was an opportunity to be the second-line center there, one of the go-to guys. It was huge for my confidence and was huge in gaining some of Blash’s trust.”



Blashill, entering his third year behind Detroit’s bench, said the experience “was a good thing for both him and I to go through. For me to be on the bench and watch him playing those big minutes against elite players, and how good he played, gives me tons of confidence to put him on the ice in a lot of different situations. I used him against everybody’s best over there. Now the benefit we have here is we have multiple guys that can go against everybody’s best.”



Larkin turned heads as he reached 23 goals and 45 points – and a plus-11 rating – as a rookie, only to stumble last season when he finished with 17 goals among 32 points – and a minus-28 rating. Starting last season at center didn’t go well, but as the Wings sank out of the playoff picture in spring, Larkin returned to center duties and looked much more at home.



“I’m still going to have to figure things out, but those last 20 games, I got to play in different situations, got to penalty kill, and looking at that it was another opportunity to have more ice time and help our team more,” Larkin said. “It was a lot of opportunity for myself.”



Larkin is among the fastest skaters on the Wings, but he’s learned to nuance his game from watching and playing with Henrik Zetterberg.



“What is so special about him and something I’ve really tried to focus on is, it’s hard to do, but he slows the game to his speed,” Larkin said. “He is so subtle. He is always in the right position. He doesn’t fly up the ice. There are times I can use my speed and there are some times where I can learn from him how he just protects the puck for a second and then finds some ice for himself.”



In addition to being stronger on the puck, Larkin wants to breach the perimeters more and establish himself inside.



“It takes some guts to get into the middle so I think you’ve got to be willing to take a hit,” Larkin said. “That’s confidence as well. When you’re cutting to the middle you have to have speed and your head up. So with experience I think getting to the middle is something I could definitely do more.”



Ideally Larkin is able to ease some of the burden on Zetterberg, much as he and Pavel Datsyuk once did for Steve Yzerman. It helps that Larkin has sound instincts.



“He knows to anticipate where is the puck going,” Blashill said. “He has really developed a give-and-go game and using changes in speed and also making sure that there is give-and-go with the players that he is with. He has got a real ability to make passes – when you are a big-time skater, sometimes you just get it and go to yourself. But the more he learns to continue to use those changes in speed and has that good give-and-go game, it will allow him to be an elite center.



“He understands that he’s a better play now than he was at the beginning of last year. That’s a great thing for a young guy to get that – part of improvement sometimes means struggle and he had some struggles, but with that adversity I think he has come back a much better player.”



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

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