The Athletic’s Minnesota Wild beat writers, Michael Russo and Joe Smith, discuss the Wild’s pursuit of disgruntled Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin this morning. Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman probably won’t appreciate the forthright nature of this one:
The Wild are still very much in the Larkin sweepstakes, with [Minnesota GM Bill] Guerin, Detroit GM Steve Yzerman and Larkin’s agent, Pat Brisson, in constant communication. Larkin, who requested a trade earlier this offseason and has a full no-trade clause, was not moved on Friday’s busy first day of the draft, and it’s up in the air when — or if — Yzerman would move his disgruntled six-time 30-goal scorer.
Yzerman isn’t just going to trade him to trade him, especially with five years left on Larkin’s contract and scores of teams in need of a top centerman. That puts the Wild in a tough spot because of all the picks and prospects they have traded over the past few years, especially in the Hughes trade.
There’s no doubt Guerin would trade multiple first-round picks and prospects like Danila Yurov and Charlie Stramel for Larkin, who had Minnesota on his initial list of three teams he was willing to go to. But those young forwards aren’t considered blue-chip prospects and, as of now, they clearly haven’t moved the needle for the Red Wings.
“Nothing is ever off the table,” Guerin said while talking generally. “There’s a lot of time.”
Russo and Smith believe that the Red Wings and Wild may have to include a third team in a prospective Larkin trade, yielding a “flip” of future assets in order to afford the Red Wings the “right now” help which they’re requesting:
It feels like, at this point, it’s going to take a third team to get involved for the Wild to get a Larkin deal done since they don’t have the trade assets/chips the Red Wings covet. If Detroit were to trade Larkin, it would likely be looking for centers back, which Yurov and Stramel are. But again, even the Wild don’t know how good they’re going to be.
It’s also clear that the Wild will have to trade money in a Larkin deal or subsequent ones. Larkin’s cap hit is $8.7 million, and the Wild only have $12 million in cap space with nine forwards, five defensemen and two goalies signed.
As such…
When free agency strikes next week, Guerin can’t wait around forever for Yzerman to make a decision. He’ll have to start signing players to fill out the roster.
As Guerin said Friday night, “tomorrow is another day,” so time will tell.
Then it’s imperative for Guerin to give the Red Wings the assets which they require. Yzerman won’t be pushed into making a rushed deal for Larkin’s services, because Detroit can’t and won’t accept lesser players, prospects or picks to simply get the deal done. Yzerman has the benefit of taking as much time as he needs to make the right deal, regardless of whether the Wild fit into the category of a “buyer” as of July 1st.
We’ll have to wait and see what happens this weekend.
