On the Red Wings, a decade out of the playoffs, Dylan Larkin, and the need for better players

Let's unpack some quick thoughts after Steve Yzerman spoke to the media on Thursday.

It’s been a decade and two days since the Detroit Red Wings last playoff game, a 1-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 5 of the first round of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Seven of those playoff misses have come under Steve Yzerman’s leadership, creating what’s become an annual gathering each April of Detroit media members asking the general manager why and how this happened again.

On Thursday, with Red Wings head coach Todd McClellan sitting nearby taking notes, Yzerman was about as blunt as I’ve seen him during my now four years based in Detroit.

The Red Wings need to get better players, they need to take a deep look at everything, and while Yzerman plans to “see this out,” he didn’t rule anything out when it came to future bold decisions.

This naturally led to questions and discussions about Dylan Larkin, the Red Wings captain and only holdover from the Red Wings last playoff game. When it comes to Larkin, two things stick out in my mind.

1. It’s hard to be a playoff leader if you’ve never really been there.

2. The Red Wings aren’t good enough down the middle of the ice to support him.

Let’s start with first point, because it’s been on my mind since Larkin, in his media session last week, noted that he didn’t really have that experience to pass onto younger players. Larkin’s top two lieutenants, Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider, have also never played an NHL postseason game.

When other teams, many of them in the postseason right now, have hit skids or slumps in the regular season they tend to elevate themselves in response. As McClellan said the league elevates itself in the final quarter of the regular season and the Red Wings didn’t.

This is where good teams lean on their leaders, the sherpas that have been to the playoffs before and understand what it takes to even get to Game 1 of the knockout tournament.

But it’s hard to be a sherpa to the playoff mountain, in Larkin’s case, if you’ve never even really reached basecamp before.

Right or wrong, the Red Wings put themselves in this position over the past five seasons. Yzerman has put such a priority on being a Stanley Cup contender, that past teams weren’t worth investing in at the deadline because even if they had made the playoffs they wouldn’t have been a threat.

I’m not sure how you reverse that, and I’m not sure how easy it is to replicate what the Buffalo Sabres did, especially when you consider the Sabres have consistently gotten 70-plus goals from their top two centers over the past four seasons, including 77 this season between Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch.

Larkin scored 34 goals this season, the next highest scoring center was Emmitt Finnie with 13 goals.

As much as teams love the “two-way” game comments or praise defensive awareness, the reality is you need to have offensive pop down the middle of the ice to actually win games in April and beyond.

Andrew Copp isn’t the answer, neither is JT Compher and as much as I like Marco Kasper’s potential, it certainly doesn’t seem like a safe bet that he could fill that role next season.

So what do you do if you’re Yzerman and the Red Wings? Can you upgrade that position, realistically, for the 2026-27 season?

Not without something bold or unexpected.

For Red Wings ownership, the Ilitch family, there’s frustration but it hasn’t boiled over to the level it has for fans. The Ilitches still trust the Yzerplan will deliver, and you can probably say Yzerman won the press conference with his bosses on Thursday by willing to admit some of his shortcomings.

And, I guess, we sit and wait for the bold move and the proof behind those statements. We wait for any evidence that they’ve actually taken a deeper look under the surface and whether there can be meaningful changes that alter the culture of a team that has become synonymous with March sadness.