So Dylan Larkin either has or has not expanded his list of approved teams to which he would accept a trade from Florida, Vegas and Minnesota to Dallas as well, or Larkin has not done so, depending on whether you believe MLive’s Ansar Khan or the Free Press’s Helene St. James, both of whom I believe are well-meaning here.
We know this isn’t coming from Steve Yzerman or the Red Wings’ management team, because they don’t interact with the media save for press conferences, and we know that this isn’t coming from the player, because Dylan Larkin has posted two Instagram stories about attending hockey games, and one July 4th post consisting of a photo of Larkin and Zach Werenski celebrating Olympic gold.
Logically, the news regarding the player’s trade list has to be coming from the player’s representation, and that’s mega-agent Pat Brisson in this instance.
And yes, we all know by now that Brisson also steered Sergei Fedorov’s divorce from the Red Wings some 23 years ago, and that, somewhat ironically, Brisson happens to be Patrick Kane’s agent.
Anyway, I really don’t give a shit as to whether Larkin’s approved trade list is restricted to 3 or has opened up to 4 teams. In any case, making a trade in which the Red Wings receive commensurate value for Larkin, regardless of whether he’s really a #1 center, is going to be tough.
My “spidey sense” about this situation has always been that the Wings will have to find a third team to swap out the “future assets” they receive for present-day contributors. I just don’t believe that the teams Larkin wants to be traded to have any inclination to trade the “help now” assets which Detroit requires.
Since the Panthers seem unwilling to trade Eetu Luostarinen or Anton Lundell, and given that their cap situation is tight after trading for Brady Tkachuk, their entire roster set-up is a sticky wicket. They don’t need a Dylan Larkin given their natural depth;
Vegas sent Pavel Dorofeyev to New York, and I just don’t see Detroit settling for 32-year-old forward Tomas Hertl, 33-year-old William Karlsson, and/or “future assets” in order to move Larkin to Sin City;
In the case of the Minnesota Wild, whose GM, Bill Guerin, is clearly talking to the media about his team’s situation (hello, The Athletic’s Michael Russo and Joe Smith), and we’ve already heard that the prospect-depleted Wild would probably send a package of prospects Charlie Stramel, Danila Yurov and/or center Joel Eriksson Ek to Detroit in exchange for Larkin, who the Wild seem to really, really, really believe should already get fitted for a green #71 jersey;
And if we’re talking about Dallas, Wyatt Johnston is obviously off the table, and restricted free agent Jason Robertson will cost a stratospheric amount of money to pay as a restricted free agent (who’s filed for arbitration with the Stars).
They don’t really have much else up front unless you’re interested in Arttu Hyrry, Sam Steel or Oscar Back, and the Wings very well might have to ask for hulking defenseman Lian Bichsel, who’s probably a flat “no” as well, in order to assuage the Stars’ lack of alternate targets at the center position.
Add it all up, and the Red Wings’ management team probably feels that it’s stuck in a Mexican Standoff (i.e. a situation where nobody has the advantage, and the “standoff” has no winners, only losers) with Larkin right now.
Detroit cannot afford to trade Larkin anywhere unless they receive commensurate value for him in return, especially given the wrinkle that the Leo Carlsson offer sheet made in the NHL’s salary structure for young, talented forwards…
And Larkin doesn’t seem to have any flexibility in terms of where and to whom he’s willing to be traded.
So both sides are likely to wait the situation out until somebody cracks, be it the Wings (unlikely), Larkin (who could expand his approved trade list) or the teams to which Larkin is willing to be traded…
But right now, it looks like we’re going to be talking about whether Larkin’s presence is required at training camp as a disgruntled player come September.
It’s my hope that Steve Yzerman and the Wings’ management team tells him to stay home, or that he holds out, because bringing Larkin to training camp out of spite’s sake–something I believe we can all see the Wings’ management team doing–will just engender a level of negativity around the team that I don’t believe it needs to accommodate as it prepares for a challenging 2026-2027 season.
Somebody’s got to “blink” for this situation to rectify itself, and at this point, nobody’s willing to be the better man, so to speak.
It sucks to be made to wait without a resolution like this when those of us who are Red Wings partisans are the ones who’re bearing the brunt of the weight of this mess, and it does suck to deal with all of this heaviness as we attempt to discern what the 2026-2027 Red Wings will look like when they inevitably trade Larkin…
We all know it won’t be easy, because losing Larkin will likely set the team back a bit, but I’m not of the, “Just take a step back and retool” persuasion, so I’m going to be very curious as to how coach Todd McLellan and his staff prepare the post-Larkin team to prepare for a competitive performance.
For better or worse, we’ve got to deal with it, together, and we’ll bear the weight for the foreseeable future.
I used to write a weekly blog entry on MLive called, “Lies, Rumors and Innuendo,” and I feel like we’re stuck in that kind of news cycle right now. All we can do is weather it for now, and be skeptical of everything we read, including what’s uttered by the most well-meaning of journalists.
That, and I’d highly suggest that you avoid taking too much out of what the sports talk radio shock jocks have to say, because their job is to stir up the fan base with panicky BS and negative viewpoints.
This situation is already negative enough. We don’t need the inflammatory narratives about whether Steve Yzerman is Ken Holland 2.0 or whether Larkin is Judas 2.0 to get through this stuff.
Mostly, we need to be as patient as is possible given that “our team’s” captain wants “out” after almost 12 years with Detroit, and we have to hope for the best in terms of some sort of inevitable trade’s return, because, one way or another, a trade is the only way out of this standoff.
It’s gonna take the time it takes, and it’s gonna be painful to deal with. Steve Yzerman is not trying to punish the fan base by ensuring that what might be a franchise-altering trade is the best that the Red Wings can earn in exchange for Larkin’s services, and Larkin…
His reputation will be what it will be. When the captain asks for a trade, sure, we can understand that this is the “era of player empowerment,” and that he “only wants to win,” but those things can suck, and piss us off, as well. I have no idea whether what he’s doing has any intention to hurt anybody, but that’s what it’s doing.
So it is. It’s gonna be a long summer, and all we’ve got right now is each other to help get through this messy, sticky situation.
