newfy
Registered User
- Jul 28, 2010
- 14,771
- 8,328
It looks like he was captain of the Sabres too... and his hockeydb numbers are comparable to Larkin's. This was the "dead wings" era. So yeah if that's the bar we are setting them yes Larkin deserves to be the captain if we are committed to being terrible. So basically Hughes would then be our Yzerman...
If youre expecting the wings captain to always be an Yzerman/Lidstrom quality of player, youre never going to be happy. Larkin absolutely looks like a c aptain out there. He goes 100% all the time, is always improving, is playing like a top ~20 center this year and plays a really good defensive game as well. No, that isnt Yzerman quality but you know who wasnt Yzerman quality when he was named captain in the first place? Yzerman.
In the high scoring 80s Yzerman was coming off a 42 points in 51 game season. For his career to date, he was 7 points above point per game. For where he was drafted and the time he was playing that really wasnt sticking out that much. Kinda like Larkin really. Solid rookie season, a down year, then continual improvement to a first line quality player last year, to now a top ~20 center in the league. No he isnt going to be Yzerman, but hes a really good, young, first line player that shows leadership and will be in Detroit for years. Its so obvious that he should be captain that I cant believe even though youre against basically everything on here that you could be against that as well