The Athletic’s Mark Lazerus discusses the recent trend of “player empowerment” over the course of the past summer, including the trade demands of several members of Team USA’s Olympic gold medal-winning hockey team.
We’ve covered Alex DeBrincat’s diplomatic remarks about Dylan Larkin’s trade request before, but DeBrincat’s comments from the NHL/NHLPA Player Media Tour are worth revisiting:
“It sucks,” DeBrincat said of Larkin’s trade request. “But it doesn’t really change what we think of him.”
DeBrincat understands better than just about anyone. He was blindsided when the Chicago Blackhawks traded him to Ottawa at the 2022 draft, and he and his wife never really felt comfortable there. He scored 27 goals and played in all 82 games in the 2022-23 season but made it known to then-GM Pierre Dorion that he had no desire to re-sign with Ottawa as a restricted free agent. So, Dorion traded DeBrincat’s rights to his hometown Red Wings, who promptly signed him to a four-year contract.
And now, with the Red Wings in disarray and DeBrincat entering the last year of that contract, he’s again mulling his own future, wondering whether Detroit is still the best place for him at this stage of his career. He’s entering his 10th NHL season, but his only postseason experience came in the sterile bubble playoffs of 2020, when the Blackhawks backed into an expanded field. If DeBrincat feels Detroit — which is still without a permanent GM after removing Steve Yzerman from the role two months ago and is likely to lose one of its best players in Larkin soon — is headed in the wrong direction, he might once again be looking for greener pastures.
Yeah, DeBrincat’s said a firm “no” to that to the Red Wings’ media corps…
So, he’s the last guy who’s going to criticize Larkin for doing what he feels is best for him.
“There are so many different things that go into it, right?” DeBrincat said. “Everyone’s got their own things going on. You have to do what’s best for you at that time — for family reasons, for hockey reasons. It’s tough to even really put a couple words on it, really. It’s just a feeling that maybe it’s not the best fit. … I think communicating that with the guys is a lot easier than maybe everyone else thinks. I’m still best friends with some of those guys on (the Senators). So it’s not like it burns bridges. It’s a business, and you have to make decisions for yourself sometimes.”
…
“That backlash is a part of it, but you can block it out,” DeBrincat said. “You’re not just going to sit somewhere you’re not happy with for ‘X’ amount of years just because you don’t want to get hated on by that fan base. There’s another fan base that will love you.”
Continued (paywall); I’m going to be honest here. I think that this concept that players are finally empowered to stand up for their own futures for the first time in NHL history is overblown.
Yes, players are bolder and more assertive right now in saying that they “want out,” even if they have no-trade or no-move clauses, and that’s a bit of a change, but players have been bucking the team-first trend by asking for trades to accommodate family issues or plain old desire to move on for a long time now.
We’re definitely seeing a trend where this past summer, a handful of significant players (most of them in the same Team USA group chat, as Lazerus notes) have demanded trades, but this isn’t new. It’s just evolving…
And there is part of me that believes players who have no-trade or no-move clauses should have those agreements made null and void when they demand trades.
Players are making a commitment to a city and its franchise and its fans as well, and if the marriage isn’t going well, I get it, but it’s on both sides to make the damn thing work.
