For most of his eight years with the Red Wings, Dylan Larkin has waited for the future. He's still waiting after signing for eight more. Larkin met with the media Thursday one day after agreeing to a $70 million extension with his childhood team and about one hour after learning not one but two of his longtime teammates had been traded and tried to peer down a path that seems to stretch further into the distance each year.
"There’s hope," said Larkin. "There’s more guys coming and I’m excited to be a part of it. So I hope this isn’t my last contract in my career or in Detroit and I hope that at the end of it, I’m taking significant paycuts because we’re adding guys at times like this. That’s how I see it."
Since making the playoffs for the 25th straight season when Larkin was a rookie, the Red Wings haven't been back. Their drought is pushing seven years, which would tie a franchise worst. The team Larkin joined is a far cry from the one he captains. Same for the team Steve Yzerman took over. After Filip Hronek and Tyler Bertuzzi were traded ahead of Friday's deadline, just three players remain from the roster Yzerman inherited from Ken Holland in 2019: Larkin, Michael Rasmussen and Filip Zadina.
In extending Larkin on a contract befitting a No. 1 center, Yzerman solidified the Red Wings' future. In trading a top-four defenseman and a top-six forward for more draft picks, he may have extended their rebuild. Detroit now has four first-round picks and four second-rounders in the next two years, which looks better on paper than it does on the ice.
Of course, Yzerman doesn't have to actually use his picks in the draft. He could wield them this summer to trade for the sort of star he covets. He could also use the money he saved in shedding Bertuzzi and Hronek to attack free agency. The Wings will enter the offseason with more than $30 million in cap space, one of the highest figures in the NHL.
"With signing an eight-year extension, I’m putting a lot of trust into Steve and the people that I believe in that are running our organization," Larkin said. "I trust Steve. Some of these questions ultimately he’s going to have to answer. I think he's going to have to hopefully pull through for us and we’re going to have to continue to pull through as well and continue to get better from within."
Within, there's lots to like. Question is, what's to love? Beyond Larkin, Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond, that remains to be seen. Simon Edvinsson and William Wallinder are potential stalwarts on the blueline. Marco Kasper could be a force down the middle. Carter Mazur might be a big-time scorer on the wing. Sebastian Cossa has the tools to be a monster in net. All of them are 20 years old or younger and total unknowns in the NHL.
Larkin, 26, remains relatively young himself. He has elevated his game the past two seasons and should still be in his prime when the players on the way enter theirs. And with the salary cap rising, Larkin's $8.7 million salary might be a bargain by the time the Red Wings have to extend Seider and Raymond. There is a path forward for Detroit, which also just extended defensemen Jake Walman, 27, and Olli Maatta, 28. It's just fraught with peril in an Atlantic Division that continues to get deeper.
Beyond the powers that be, the Red Wings saw exactly where they stand against the Senators earlier this week. And they're 0-3 this season against the Sabres, the other challenger in the Atlantic. The Red Wings have young talent, some of it already in Detroit. Buffalo and Ottawa have young stars. The difference shows up on the scoreboard, where the Senators and Sabres have hung at least five on the Wings in all but one of their matchups this season.
Yzerman could have kept Detroit's roster intact and chased the playoffs down the stretch. Larkin will still do his best to lead the charge. But the Red Wings weren't constructed to be a threat in the East. They lack the big-time players to hang with the big-time teams. They have one in Larkin and another in Seider, and it's Yzerman's job to surround them with more. Now he has the assets to do it.
Acquiring "picks for the future," said Larkin, sounding a lot like his boss, will "hopefully pay off for us in the long run to build a sustainable winner and not just one playoff run this year."
Larkin was destined to stay in Detroit. It's where he's always wanted to be, to the point that he laughed and said his agent told him to stop making it so public for fear of losing leverage. Larkin couldn't help it. This team is his dream. The reality is that he needs help to lift it, "and I feel like there's help in our room and on the way," he said.
And then Larkin sounded a lot like Yzerman again: "I can feel it this year, that I really want to be able to lead this team into the playoffs and on long playoff runs."
Together, they're trying to turn back time and chase down the future.
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