Earlier this morning, I posted the clip of Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas’ final “32 Thoughts” podcast of the 2025-2026 season, a massive 4-hour bonanza of coverage of each and every one of the NHL’s 32 teams.
At the 1:17 mark, Friedman and Bukauskas discuss the Red Wings, and the Hockey News’s Michael Whitaker reports that Friedman and Bukauskas discuss a logical target with which the Wings could pursue a trade for Dylan Larkin–the Carolina Hurricanes:
“The other thing, when I heard Detroit, it made me wonder if they’re in on Larkin at all,” he said. “Because – first of all, he’s Larkin, he’s a heck of a player. Although he would have to change his list to go there, and secondly, also a great skater who would really fit in their system.”
Friedman then listed a handful of prospects in Carolina’s system who could potentially be used as trade bait in a deal, as there isn’t much room on their current roster for them to earn regular playing time at the NHL level.
“They’ve got some interesting young players,” Friedman said. “They’ve got (2023 round 1, #30 overall) Bradly Nadeau. They’ve got (2023 round 2, #62 overall ) Felix Unger Sörum.”
“They’ve got (2023 round 5, #139 overall) Charles-Alexis Legault; he’s a defenseman,” Friedman continued. “And so is (2021 round 7, #219 overall) Joel Nyström, who played 38 games with them this year. Carolina has some young guys who are ready, just not a lot of spots on that roster on a team that just won the Stanley Cup.”
The chances of Larkin landing with the Panthers dropped dramatically when they acquired former Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, whom Larkin played with during the Four Nations Face-Off as well as the 2026 Milan Olympics.
One of the key players Detroit could have requested in a trade for Larkin from the Golden Knights, Russian forward Pavel Dorofeyev, was dealt to the New York Rangers. Additionally, the Wild don’t have many NHL-ready players on Larkin’s level they’d part with.
Continued; the Wings would have to do a bit of “hybrid trade” with Carolina in taking the “futures” (Unger Sorum is a hell of a prospect, who’s more or less NHL ready) and swapping some of them for present-day help, but if Larkin is amenable to expanding his trade list from Minnesota, Florida and Vegas…
You knock on every door, kick every tire.
