Early this morning, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that disgruntled Red Wings forward Dylan Larkin has expanded his potential trade list from 3 teams–the Vegas Golden Knights, Florida Panthers and Minnesota Wild–to 8 teams, including the Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals, Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, and a mystery team.
This afternoon, MLive’s Ansar Khan ponders the feasibility of Friedman’s report…
None of the seven teams Larkin may or may not be willing to join has anywhere close to the cap space to absorb his $8.7 million cap hit, requiring them to shed a significant amount of salary.
According to puckpedia.com, Vegas ($8.96 million) and Florida ($896,000) are over the cap while Washington ($75K), Dallas ($350K), Colorado ($404K), Minnesota ($928K) and Tampa Bay ($1.85 million) are right up against the cap.
Red Wings interim GM Shawn Horcoff, while declining to discuss the Larkin situation during his lone media address on Sept. 16, indicated he’s not looking to rebuild.
If the Red Wings trade Larkin, they’re determined to get NHL-ready players in return and would need a top-line center.
The Red Wings also realize they have a good value in Larkin, who’s scored 30 or more goals the past five seasons and has five years remaining on his contract.
Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen also weighed in:
Hockey insider Elliotte Friedman reported that Dylan Larkin has expanded his list of acceptable trade destinations to eight teams and Tampa Bay, Washington, Colorado and Dallas are presumed to be on the list.
Florida, Vegas and Minnesota were the three original teams. Friedman also said on his podcast that there are no Canadian teams on Larkin’s new list.
If only Larkin’s original list was in place, there appeared to be no real opportunity to get anything done in the near future. The new list creates the possibility of getting a deal done quickly.
Larkin is the team’s only productive offensive center and the Red Wings have made it clear they must receive players who can help the team immediately to fulfill Larkin’s trade request.
Meanwhile, coach Todd McLellan confirmed that Larkin won’t play the team’s final preseason game Saturday (against Columbus). He did practice for the second day in a row.
If Larkin’s upper body injury extends into the regular season, then Nate Danielson and Carter Mazur both fit into a 13-person forward group.
Both Washington and Tampa have the assets to get a deal done, albeit barely for Tampa. Making the salary cap work will be the real challenge.
Washington has the Protas brothers (I’d take either and a first or both and no pick). Tampa has Geekie and Sam O’Reilly. There’s guys worth adding to the Wings that won’t set us back significantly. I’m working to absorb a few years of a bum contract to make it work