When Dylan Larkin was being interviewed this summer by Jason Benetti during a Detroit Tigers broadcast about starting his second decade with the Red Wings, the Detroit captain recalled a conversation with Darren Helm

“When I was a rookie — 19 years old — Darren had been on the team,” Larkin recalled. “I grew up loving Darren Helm. He was always in the gym taking care of his body. He had a couple of kids. I said, ‘Helmer, how old are you?’ He said, ‘Dylan, how old do you think I am.’”

“Thirty-four,” Larkin guessed.

“No, I’m 29,” Helm said.

Larkin laughed, telling the story: “Now, I’m 29.”

The Michigan native is six games into his 11th Red Wings season.  It seems like this summer has the potential to be a new beginning for him. With Larkin off to a strong start with five goals and 11 points in six games, and the Red Wings at 5-1 heading into Wednesday’s road game at Buffalo, it feels like fans are viewing Larkin in a new light.

Positivity Carrying Over

Larkin feels like he had a healthy summer, and this is “positivity carrying over to the season.”

The addition of speedy Emmitt Finnie to Larkin’s line has also added a layer of energy. Lucas Raymond can also skate and when Raymond missed a couple of games with an injury Todd McLellan inserted swift skater Mason Appleton as his replacement.’

“Great skating guys who could skate and think the game at high speed and making it very easy.” Larkin said. ” I don’t have to be F1 on the forecheck and first guy back to play defense. It takes a little bit of the load off when you got two other guys that can skate and go help and do some of the heavy lifting to get the pucks back.

Congratulations to Dylan Larkin for earning the Top Star of the Week in the NHL. 👍 💯 #LGRW pic.twitter.com/bKOXM3BnLZ

— Detroit Dan (@dclynick66) October 20, 2025

Larkin became the first Red Wings player to be involved in six consecutive goals since Pavel Datsyuk was involved in seven in 2016.

“(He’s) everything a captain should be,” McLellan said. “Leadership. And leadership isn’t just rah rah. A lot of times, it’s leading by example. He’s done a tremendous job. We’re early in the season, he’s playing banged up a little bit, but everything that we should see from Dylan, we’re seeing from him right now. Now we got a long way to go. He’s got to keep doing that.”

None of this should be a surprise to anyone because Larkin has put together four consecutive 30-plus goal seasons. He has averaged 72 points per season in those four campaigns. But some fans complain that he’s not a true first-line center, even though his numbers say otherwise.

Cracks Top 15

Given his speed, goals, point production, faceoff skill and leadership, the NHL Network ranked him as the league’s 15th best center.

The negativity sometimes directed at Larkin may stem from the fact that he’s been the best player on a team that has missed the playoffs for ninth consecutive seasons.

Best players are lauded when teams perform well, but they are often abused when the team doesn’t perform as well.

Even Steve Yzerman went through it a bit. He got blamed in the late 1980s and early 1990s when the Red Wings couldn’t push through to the next level.  But when the discussion of a possible Yzerman trade to the Ottawa Senators occurred in 1995, the fan base realized how much they appreciated Yzerman.

Larkin may be the kind of player who is appreciated more after he retires, although fans certainly like his game in the early going this season. In addition to his offensive production, he has been defensively sound, especially against top stars such as Connor McDavid.

“It’s a hard task, especially when the two of them are together, because Connor can speed the game up so much and Leon (Draisaitl) can slow it down,” McLellan said. “So you got your foot on the gas and then all of a sudden a break… If there was one descriptor of Dylan Larkin, it’s skate and speed, and pace, and he accepted the challenge (against Edmonton) and skated and did a good job.”