DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings have missed the playoffs nine years in a row with three head coaches, two general managers, dozens of players and one constant – Dylan Larkin. It’s taken a toll on the 28-year-old team captain. That was apparent Saturday as he once again addressed the media following a season ending in disappointment. “I do really take this hard,” Larkin said. “It’s difficult to sit up here again and we’re not playing tomorrow and there’s teams playing hockey tomorrow and you reassess, you evaluate yourself, you talk to the coaches, management, see what you have to work on. “I want to help this team get to the playoffs. Not just get to the playoffs but win the Stanley Cup. And we have a lot of work to do all over the board for us to become champions.” After missing a wild card spot last season due to a tiebreaker, Larkin believed this was going to be the year the Red Wings return to the playoffs for the first time since 2015-16 when he was a rookie. Todd McLellan replaced Derek Lalonde as coach the day after Christmas. A 15-3-1 run including a pair of seven-game winning streaks lifted the Red Wings into a playoff position for a brief time. But they struggled in March once again, going 4-10-0, and were eliminated with three games remaining. “You look at the schedule, it’s a lot of travel, a lot of games, a lot of coming and going, flying in, flying out,” Larkin said. “It’s difficult, but you have to come up with wins. And especially in March, it was hard that we didn’t do anything. “And then I felt the group kind of … we didn’t gain any momentum from the trade deadline, and guys were kind of down about it, so it’d be nice to add something and bring a little bit of a spark on the ice and maybe a morale boost as well.” GM Steve Yzerman didn’t swing a big deal at the March 7 trade deadline, adding goaltender Petr Mrazek and fourth-line winger Craig Smith, and the Red Wings’ post-4 Nations Face-Off fade continued. Larkin said playing in the event was a great experience but revealed that he suffered a couple of injuries during the four games. It might have contributed to his late-season decline. He tallied only seven goals and 13 assists in the final 27 games, finishing with 30 goals and 70 points. “There were times I didn’t feel good playing here and wasn’t able to do some things that I wanted to, but I still went out there and tried my best,” he said. “So, it is another disappointing year. I did play all 82 games, but I would have liked to be more effective in a lot of them.” He is hopeful the team will improve in 2025-26 under McLellan for a full season. “Todd is a really good coach and I’ve been very impressed with him,” Larkin said. “I think training camp with our group, our young guys and our core with him, it would be very valuable. I think Todd is going to really help to turn this thing around here.” Larkin said he still believes in the core group that includes forwards Lucas Raymond, Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane, if he re-signs, and defenseman Moritz Seider. And he’s encouraged by the emergence of young players like forwards Marco Kasper and Elmer Soderblom and defensemen Simon Edvinsson and Albert Johansson. “It’s good to see and I was very impressed with a lot of the young guys.” Larkin still has six years remaining on his eight-year, $69.6 million contract. It includes a full no-trade clause for the next three seasons. But Larkin also hinted at an uncertain future beyond that. “I’m not going to play with some of these draft picks, like the guys maybe (will be) drafted in the fourth round this year and by the time they develop, who knows?” he said.