The Athletic’s Max Bultman penned a fine article discussing what will change–and what won’t–now that Dylan Larkin is the Red Wings’ captain:
Certainly, as arguably the Red Wings’ best player in recent years and a two-way centerman who plays some of Detroit’s most challenging matchups, Larkin has checked that box already.
He also, after five seasons with the Red Wings, has been around long enough to lead more directly, too. He has now lived through one of the toughest seasons in modern NHL history, which wasn’t easy on anyone, but does give him an invaluable perspective on the locker room, knowing what it needs and what it may respond to.
“He’s got a great temperature of the room in terms of, he knows when something needs to be said, when we need to call out something in terms of as a team, just not performing,” Glendening said. “But he also knows that there’s a time to lift guys up.”
These are words said about Larkin before he formally got the “C” — to Blashill’s point, the things that put Larkin in this position. More importantly, though, these are the things he’ll need to hang on to now that he’s here.
Carolina Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal echoed those sentiments late last season when asked what changed when he became captain, saying “everyone just kept telling me not to change, so I didn’t. It didn’t really change a whole lot for me. Personally I knew I was a leader in the room from the start, and I think most guys that are named captain already know that they’re a leader in the room.”
But even Staal would admit that some things are inevitably different when the “C” is officially placed on a jersey — from small details on the ice or in the locker room, to more macro ones like being more in the loop of the team’s direction on the management side.