Dylan Larkin will not be on the ice when Detroit Red Wings training camp opens, sidelined by an upper-body injury he picked up this summer.
Horcoff said Wednesday that he got hurt during a training session and won't be skating when camp opens. Max Bultman first reported it.
This is the same Larkin who wanted out of Detroit over the summer. The Red Wings never pulled the trigger on a deal, and now camp starts without him.
Convenient? Bad luck? Maybe both. Feels like a rough way to open a camp that already had plenty of tension hanging over it.
Larkin still put up a strong season for Detroit. He finished with 34 goals and 33 assists for 67 points across 74 games, worth an $8,700,000 cap hit.
Fourteen of his 34 goals came on the power play, tied to nine game-winning goals, numbers that show how much Detroit leaned on him in high-leverage minutes.
He was rolling before the year ended too. Larkin posted 9 points in his last 5 games and 11 points over his final 10, exactly the kind of form a team wants from its center.
Larkin's trade talk resurfaces amid new injury concern
Losing your top center before camp starts is like a contractor showing up to a job site with no tools. Everything slows down before it even begins.
Larkin ran the top power-play unit and centered Detroit's top six most nights last season. Someone else fills that role at camp, at least for now.
General manager Shawn Horcoff and head coach Todd McLellan now have to manage a captain who wanted out, sitting out at the exact moment the roster needs him healthy.
Every day off the ice is one less day of camp reps before the regular season opener.
Detroit finished last season 41-31-10 for 92 points, ranked 16th overall, and closed on a three-game losing streak to end the year.
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No return timeline has been given. The Red Wings open camp without knowing when their best player gets back on the ice.
Should the Red Wings have traded Dylan Larkin when he asked out this summer?
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