How good is Larkin?

ArGarBarGar

What do we want!? Unfair!
Sep 8, 2008
44,017
11,677
He’s a 1C, but excellent to me means a Crosby, Mcdavid, Matthewsesque player. I doubt Larkin will ever spend more than a year or two as a top 15 center.

I like Larkin, but if he’s your number one C youre going to need some depth and or a star winger to be anything more than a team that loses in the first round.

He is a mid range 1 center, and ideally would be an EXCELLENT 2nd line center to a team with elite talent.
I think you are overstating the meaning of excellence with regards to players.

Crosby/Matthews/McDavid are beyond excellent, in my opinion. They have all-worldly talent and demonstrate it.

Larkin excels at a very high level in the NHL. So do a lot of players in the league.
 

Hatter of the Beach

I’m the real hero
Jun 26, 2017
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Parkland Estates, Florida
I think you are overstating the meaning of excellence with regards to players.

Crosby/Matthews/McDavid are beyond excellent, in my opinion. They have all-worldly talent and demonstrate it.

Larkin excels at a very high level in the NHL. So do a lot of players in the league.
Centers I consider better than Larkin today just off the top of my head

Crosby
Mcdavid (younger)
Malkin
Giroux
Tavares
Matthews (younger)
Mackinnon
Barzal (younger)
Barkov
Schiefele
Eichel (Younger)
Elias Petterson (Younger)
Point
Kuznetsov
Backstrom

And I’m sure I’m forgetting several others, plus left off players like Bergeron and Getzlaf due to age.

Larkin is in the tier of players like
Schenn, Draisetal, Courtier imo

Granted a lot of players are getting older but there is an equal amount of talent coming in. By definition a number one center is a top 31 center in the league. Some teams have noje, some teams have 3. To be excellent, I think you need to at least be in the top half of the 31, and that is something I dont see Larkin ever maintaining for an extended portion of his career.

Larkin is a #1 center, but the only true contender I see with one of his caliber or lower is Nashville, whose defense has 4 players better than the best Wings D.
 
Last edited:

EhlersChin

Registered User
Aug 23, 2017
550
412
Hes definitely good enough to fall in behind AM34 and Eichel on the USA depth chart. Dylan will have to play wing for the National team if he wants any ice time and that's not up for debate.
 

ArGarBarGar

What do we want!? Unfair!
Sep 8, 2008
44,017
11,677
Centers I consider better than Larkin today just off the top of my head

Crosby
Mcdavid
Malkin
Giroux
Tavares
Matthews
Barzal
Barkov
Schiefele
Eichel
Elias Petterson
Point
Kuznetsov
Backstrom

And I’m sure I’m forgetting several others, plus left off players like Bergeron and Getzlaf due to age.

Larkin is in the tier of players like
Schenn, Draisetal, Courtier imo

Granted a lot of players are getting older but there is an equal amount of talent coming in. By definition a number one center is a top 31 center in the league. Some teams have noje, some teams have 3. To be excellent, I think you need to at least be in the top half of the 31, and that is something I dont see Larkin ever maintaining for an extended portion of his career.
Based on what?
 

93LEAFS

Registered User
Nov 7, 2009
33,841
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Toronto
He's good. He's in that 20-31 range, but he could get into legit franchise center territory by the end of the year. He played extremely well last night.
 

Hatter of the Beach

I’m the real hero
Jun 26, 2017
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Parkland Estates, Florida
Based on what?
?

Based on the amount of young talent developing or showing promise in the league? Larkin is in his D+5 season. He’s not some super raw player anymore. Yes, he can and probably will improve, but I don’t think it will be by as much as people think. I just dont see the latent talent and also see a player who will be harmed by a loss of speed he’ll probably experience in his late 20s.

If the Wings want to contend, and I mean truly contend as in a top 5 favorite for a span of 3-4 years, they still need one or two more game breaker. I think players like Dach or Hughes can be that game breaker.
 

LarKing

Registered User
Sep 2, 2012
11,739
4,558
Michigan
I have him in the Ryan O'Reilly type of 1c so you ideally want him in a scenario where you also have a highend 2c.

Well ideally you have Crosby and Malkin as your top 6 centers. Only one team every like 30 years gets to do something that ridiculous though. We were spoiled in the past with Datsyuk and Zetterberg, but it's not like a low first round pick becoming only a first line center is a bad thing. It's very possible to win Cups without a super elite 1C. The Hawks did it three times with Toews. They surrounded him with a ton of talent and those teams were dominant. We can try and do the same with Veleno, Zadina, etc. coming up. We still need another big piece or two but you really couldn't have hoped for a better rebuild so far. Holland and friends absolutely crushed it at the last draft and finding Larkin with a late 1st.
 

Pavels Dog

Registered User
Feb 18, 2013
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Sweden
Doesn't matter if people rate him as a top 30 center or not. What matters is, can you play him against top 10 centers in the league and get a good result? The answer to that question is being answered with a "yes" so far this season. And that is without any strong support from wingers/d-men. Without Hossa, Keith, Kane and Seabrook, Jonathan Toews never gets rated as a top 10 or even top 20 center in the league. Yeah Larkin will never be Sidney Crosby, but zero doubt in my eyes you can build a winning team with him as your #1C.
 

mphmiles

Registered User
Jan 1, 2017
631
1,110
People are seriously underrating how valuable having a 1C who is as good in his own zone as he is in the other team's, is. The Kings won two cups this decade with a guy in that mold. Larkin has been that good this season. He gets the opposing teams' best lines every night and has a corsi and Fenwick of 54% without the benefit of top wingers or defensemen to play alongside him.

The last 4 games, he's played against the Mackinnon/rantanen/Landeskog, Pastrnak/Marchand, Matthews, and Kucherov/Point lines. Combined, those lines put up 2 goals.

If he had a winger more adept at putting the puck in the net playing with him, he'd have a lot more points right now, and his point total is pretty good already.
 
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RedHawkDown

still trying to trust the yzerplan
Aug 26, 2011
4,358
4,834
Canada
Right now, as he's playing, he's a good 1C. He continues taking steps every single game and if he continues on this trend he's going to be Patrice Bergeron/Anze Kopitar 2.0 by the end of this season. Ecstatic to have this kid. Once gets a top flight scorer on his wing (Zadina, hopefully), it'll become clear how great he really is. His point totals are quite limited by his linemates - Nyquist is pretty good but not anything special. Not a surprise he's having a career year on Larkin's wing.
 

Lampedampe

Registered User
Feb 26, 2015
2,135
750
Some interesting stats for Larkin so far this year

CF% rel - 10.7 (even strenght)
FF% rel - 12.4 (even strenght)
FO% - 55.7
Takeaways - 35 (4th in the league)

He has a very low oiSH% at 6.5%, which is bound to go up if Nyquist and Larkin continues to play with chemistery, despite this he's ranked 15th amongs centers in points. Last year he had 9% which is a pretty normal number.
 

WingsMJN2965

Registered User
Oct 13, 2017
18,106
17,699
For reference, here is his draft year:
1 Ekblad (D) Panthers
2 Reinhart (C) Sabres
3 Draisaitl (C) Oilers
4 Bennet (C) Flames
5 Dal Colle (LW) Islanders
6 Virtanen (RW) Canucks
7 Fleury (D) Hurricanes
8 Nylander (C/RW) Leafs
9 Ehlers (LW) Jets
10 Ritchie (LW) Ducks
11 Fiala (LW) Predators
12 Perlini (LW) Coyotes
13 Vrana (LW/RW) Capitals
14 Honka (D) Stars
15 Larkin (C) Wings

How many of those 14 teams want a do-over?

Redo the draft today and he's #5, IMO.
 

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