Red Wings’ Dylan Larkin to miss opening weekend with upper-body injury

It appears we will have to wait until next week for Dylan Larkin to make his season debut with the Detroit Red Wings.

Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan announced on Thursday that the team will be without their begruntled center for Friday’s game against the New York Rangers and Sunday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets due to an upper-body injury.

Larkin has dealt with the injury throughout training camp, and as a result he did not play in any of the Red Wings’ preseason games. McLellan also mentioned that he was hopeful for Larkin’s return for Tuesday’s game against the Ottawa Senators.

Larkin probably doesn’t mind missing out on some more games, as he’s not exactly in the good books of Red Wings fans after requesting a trade during the summer. The trade has yet to happen, largely because of the lack of a general manager after Steve Yzerman stepped away from the role, so for now Larkin will have to endure whatever the Detroit fanbase is feeling. The Red Wings play their first four games and seven of their first eight games at home, so unless the injury is more major than reported, Larkin will have to play in Detroit at some point during this stretch.

As a result of the trade request, Larkin was stripped of his captaincy after holding the honour for six seasons. The Red Wings have yet to name a new captain for this season.

With Larkin out of the lineup, that moves Andrew Copp into the top center position in his place to start the season, while J.T. Compher, Nate Danielson and Marco Kasper fill out the rest of the center depth. Copp also replaces Larkin on the top power play unit.

Larkin is coming off another solid season, with a career-high 34 goals to go along with 33 assists and 67 points in 74 games.

The Red Wings will look to get off to a strong start without their captain in an attempt to end their league-high playoff drought when they host the Rangers on Friday at 6:30 p.m. EST.