Larkin’s Line for the C

Well the news broke today of Dylan Larkin finally signing his contract. Larkin is now inked to Detroit for the next 5 years, and not only is his deal team-friendly, but player-friendly as well. 5 years/$30.5M was enough to keep the 21-year-old stud in his home town to continue playing for his home town team. Now, as far as the press conference went, that is where things really got interesting.

That’s right, things continue to get worse on the Henrik Zetterberg front. I wrote just a couple of weeks ago that we may have seen the last of Captain Z, and while at the time it seemed like a hunch more than anything else, it quickly could become a reality. There have been no signs of improvement and no mention of a future for Zetterberg this offseason. All we really know is we are waiting this out until camp in September, at which point it may be time for a new captain of the Detroit Red Wings.

I think everyone knew where this was going, but now it’s time to officially announce it: Dylan Larkin should be the next captain of the Detroit Red Wings. It’s a perfect fit. He’s the team’s best player right now, a quality leader at 21, just signed a team friendly contract, a hometown kid. It’s almost just too perfect. I know most have kind of expected this from Larkin since Day 1, but with the recent events that came out today, it’s almost impossible to think the Red Wings would go in another direction.

I still don’t want Zetterberg to retire, I don’t think anyone should. One more year out of him to help mentor all of the kids would be huge. However, I also don’t want him to risk his future with his family. Zetterberg has been a gift to us Red Wings fans for 15 years now. We are fortunate to have had him, and should thank him for everything he has accomplished while sporting the winged wheel. But the way things are going, one has to assume there may be an unwritten clause in Larkin’s new contract that the #71 and the letter “C” may soon very well be associated in Detroit.