It’s over at the age of 35: defender Thomas Larkin has decided to end his career after the end of the season.
The British-born, but holds Italian and German citizenship, made his professional ice hockey debut in 2012/13 wearing the Springfield Falcons uniform. The former 5th round pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets moved to the KHL in 2015/16, where he played for Medvescak Zagreb. After two years in the Croatian capital, another change.
Mannheim as a second home
Larkin spent no less than six seasons with the Adler Mannheim and was also able to win the DEL title with the Baden-Württemberg team in the 2018/19 season. The defender spent the last three years with the Schwenninger Wild Wings, for which he was captain on the ice.
Leadership role also in the Italian national team
Larkin laced up his skates for the Italian national ice hockey team on many occasions – 105 games in total. In the last four years he has taken on more and more responsibility there and led the “azzuri” with the “C” on the chest – including at the Olympic Games in Milan Cortina last February.
The veteran said the following to the Italian ice hockey association FISG: “Wearing the national team jersey was always a great honor for me. Playing with Italy at the Olympics was one of the greatest moments of my career.”
Larkin could definitely stay in the sport and pass on his experiences: “If someone wants to talk to me, I will always be there. I am very connected to Italian ice hockey and would like to pass on my view of things to young players.”
Image: Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
“), i.text = “window._taboola = window._taboola || ();_taboola.push({mode:’alternating-thumbnails-a’, container:’taboola-below-article-thumbnails’, placement:’below-article’, target_type: ‘mix’});”, n.appendChild(l), n.appendChild(i), e(n, t) } Array.prototype.filter || (Array.prototype.filter = function(e, t) { if (“function” != typeof e) throw TypeError(); let n = (); for (let l = 0, i = this.length >>> 0; l < i; l += 1) if (l in this) { let r = this(l); e.call(t, r, l, this) && n.push(r) } return n }), window.insertAfter = e, window.getElementByXPath = t, window.injectWidgetByXpath = function e(l) { let i = t(l) ||. document.getElementById("tbdefault"); i && n(i) }, window.injectWidgetByMarker = function e
