Amongst this early afternoon’s storylines:

1. The Red Wings are preparing for their opening weekend of the 2026-2027 season…

Opening weekend at home🏠

🎟️ » https://t.co/JEZEpKeLpq pic.twitter.com/L0DK9xVTHY

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 29, 2026

It’s important to take advantage of the home schedule early on. Getting off to a good start is key. 7 of the first 8 games are @LCArena_Detroit
Need to feed off that home cookin’
Last season Detroit only won 3 of their last 14 home games.

— Ken Kal (@KenKalDRW) September 29, 2026

Interesting that the NYR will have played 2 games before the Red Wings face them in their opener on Friday

— Ken Kal (@KenKalDRW) September 29, 2026

2. In the Dylan Larkin trade rumor department, take this from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, via Red Wings Prospects, for what you will:

By the time that the Detroit Red Wings host the New York Rangers on Friday (6:30 PM start on TNT/97.1 FM), the New York Rangers will have played 2 games (at Boston tonight, and vs. Tampa Bay on Thursday night), and will be playing in their 3rd game in 4 nights.

In theory, that gives the rested Red Wings an advantage, but MLive’s Ansar Khan reports that coach Todd McLellan isn’t thrilled with the concept, even though it gives the team both time to negotiate a contract with Simon Edvinsson and it gives Dylan Larkin more healing time from his upper-body injury:

“We don’t live in a perfect world because if we did, we’d like to start right with everybody else,” coach Todd McLellan said. “I think when you’re opening up at home, there’s always that unpredictability that goes into it, regardless of any types of circumstances. And the quicker you can get one under your belt, the better off you are.

“You understand the pace and the intensity of the regular season. After playing a few games, the Rangers will have that. But we also have practice time, and if we use it properly, maybe we can polish up some things that otherwise wouldn’t get addressed.”

Continued; the Red Wings play 14 times over the course of 31 October nights, so the schedule gets plenty busy in the middle of the month.

This is a very cool behind-the-scenes video of what the Red Wings’ equipment staff does:

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills spoke with Wings coach Todd McLellan about the fit-and-finish aspects of the Red Wings’ preparations for Friday’s home opener against the New York Rangers:

“It’s continuing to build and polish,” McLellan said. “I’ll take you back to the game we played (on Saturday night) against Columbus. We did like a lot of the things we did, but I thought our passing and receiving – quarterback, receiver, whatever you want to call it – was very erratic. A lot of pucks thrown in skates, pucks thrown two or three feet behind, the passing and the rhythm was off. We’ve got to get that quickly. We took today, and it was a workday for us. Wake the system up again after a long Camp and a day off. A lot of skating.”

Moritz Seider also said this about Detroit settling into a more regular practice routine now that training camp is over, and the roster has been cut down from 50+ players:

“You have eight D out there, and everyone can play on both sides in all situations,” Seider said. “Great (penalty) killers on there. Overall, I just feel it’s a very, very solid D-core. You don’t have to be afraid of putting anyone out there against the top line.”

With Detroit’s Training Camp and four-game preseason slate now complete, Seider said the energy and excitement within the group will keep building as Friday night approaches.

“Obviously, it’s great to have the locker room for yourself finally, and don’t have guys in and out all the time,” Seider said. “As much as you like seeing them, it’s nice to have a full team and kind of get down to the daily work. I thought today was a really good day. Lot of skating, a lot of good work out there. I think a step closer to Opening Night is a good day.”

From PWHL Detroit:

The talent isn't stopping with the roster!

We are excited to welcome Hockey Hall of Famer Danielle Goyette and Stanley Cup Champion Jimmy Howard to the Detroit coaching staff!

📰 Read more at https://t.co/SglOe5pws9 pic.twitter.com/1R042cDtNx

— PWHL Detroit (@pwhl__detroit) September 29, 2026

As pointed out by The Athletic’s James Mirtle, Sportico’s Kurt Badenhausen has produced his annual list of the NHL’s most valuable franchises, and Badenhausen has the Wings ranked 13th in the NHL at $2.4 billion.

Sportsnet’s Luke Fox earns the masthead story on Sportsnet this morning, listing 27 people who Fox believes will define the 2026-2027 NHL season. Dylan Larkin’s name is among them:

DYLAN LARKIN

The Detroit Red Wings’ stripped captain has showed up to collect his paycheques despite submitting a not-yet-fulfilled trade request that now falls on the desk of interim GM Shawn Horcoff — the man (for now) charged with ending the NHL’s longest active playoff drought.

The gold medalist’s desire to join a contender and dictate where he plays, for reasons he is choosing to keep private, is just one more thing fretting a restless fan base that remains in the dark regarding Detroit’s front-office direction, the contract status of RFA Simon Edvinsson and the future of impending UFA Alex DeBrincat.

How uncomfortable will life get for Larkin and the Wings?

“Larks has played five playoff games. He’s going in his 12th season. That guy’s the ultimate team guy. Seriously. And any team in the league would be lucky to have Larks. Larks is one of my favourite people out there,” Quinn Hughes defends. “The Wings would be lucky to have him. I would take him (in) two seconds. You watch him in the Olympics. You know how much the guys love him, what a team guy he is, and how he performs in big moments. Yeah, so that’s what I feel about Larks.”

Continued; for better or worse, Dylan Larkin remains the Red Wings’ problem, and until he’s traded, he’ll be seen as a colossal distraction, even if the Red Wings’ locker room doesn’t see it that way.

It’s prediction time around the NHL, and some predictions are more lighthearted than others.

This morning, The Athletic’s Sean McIndoe makes one slightly amusing prediction about all 32 NHL teams, including the Red Wings…

Detroit Red Wings

Where will Dylan Larkin be traded? I’m not sure. What about Alex DeBrincat? Also no idea. But without getting into either player’s new home (if any), let’s thread the needle with this prediction: DeBrincat and Larkin will end up facing each other in this year’s playoffs.

While Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin offers two predictions regarding Red Wings players which are dead serious in their tone:

18. The top names moved at the 2027 Trade Deadline: Alex DeBrincat and Erik Karlsson.

DeBrincat is a Michigan kid living his childhood dream, but he’s nine seasons into his career and has played in the playoffs once – six years ago. If the Detroit Red Wings remain rudderless, might DeBrincat inform them he wants to pursue a Cup? He’d fetch a significant return as a three-time 40-goal scorer.

…

10. Dylan Larkin never takes the ice again as a Red Wing and is shipped out before the holiday break in December.

His injury provides a convenient smoke screen to keep him from what would surely be a hailstorm of home-crowd boos if he played for Detroit again minus the captain’s C. Some combination of the right contender having an injury that frees up cap space, or Detroit being bad enough to entertain picks and prospects and not just NHLers in a trade, creates the right conditions for the deal to happen.

I’m an optimist when it comes to hockey, so I’m going to suggest that none of these predictions will come to pass.

DeBrincat really does want to stay in Detroit, and as inept as the Wings’ management group has been thus far, I believe that they’ll get a deal done…

And something tells me that Larkin will have to endure the boos at Little Caesars Arena for a little bit before he’s finally traded.

Update: I actually believe that Sportsnet’s Frank Seravalli’s prediction for the 2026-2027 season will come to pass:

2. Dylan Larkin will be traded to the Minnesota Wild before Christmas

It’s no secret the interest is mutual. After years of searching, a true No. 1 centre is right in front of the Wild, and GM Bill Guerin will present an offer that addresses more of Detroit’s immediate needs to get it done — just like he did for Quinn Hughes

ESPN’s Emily Kaplan discusses the Red Wings’ situation with Dylan Larkin and the Winnipeg Jets’ attempts to trade the equally disgruntled Connor Hellebuyck as part of a column highlighting the NHL’s “biggest storylines” going into the 2026-2027 season.

She reports that the Wings stubbornness regarding their “asking price” for Larkin is holding up a deal:

While Detroit stripped the “C” from Larkin, there’s still a path forward for the homegrown center to remain with the Red Wings. Larkin was nicked up entering camp but is expected to start the season with Detroit and see where it goes. As far as I understand, the trade request still stands, though there are no guarantees it gets done this season.

Teams that have inquired about Larkin over the past several weeks say they aren’t sure the Red Wings know what they want to do. They also believe that, to complete a trade, Detroit will have to come down from its asking price and potentially become more willing to accept futures.

The GM search this summer yielded no long-term hire, with Shawn Horcoff getting the interim title in September. Detroit says Horcoff has full authority, but how aggressive can an interim GM be in making a franchise-altering trade?

Continued; I understand that there’s frustration about Detroit not closing a deal, but Detroit cannot simply accept future assets for their #1 center, even if he’s a #1B center on other teams. The team is holding out for the right reasons, and while the return for Larkin isn’t going to be what the Red Wings hoped…

They can’t just accept some draft picks and prospects and simply move on for the sake of moving on.

The Athletic’s Max Bultman discusses the atmosphere in the Red Wings’ locker room as the team’s summer of discontent from Dylan Larkin and inability to re-sign Simon Edvinsson hang over the team like a dark cloud:

“So far … so good,” [coach Todd] McLellan said. “We have some hurdles in front of us that we’re going to have to continue to cross and to deal with, but it’s probably appropriate that we’re (speaking) inside the locker room because the group in here has come to play hockey. They’ve focused on the things that they need to do to get themselves ready. The outside noise through the summer and everything else that’s gone on, they’ve done a good job focusing on what they can control, and that’s the hockey part of it.”

And in my experience the last two weeks, that’s mostly true. You can certainly feel an awkwardness in the air at times, but the Red Wings’ players have been diligent this preseason.

On Monday, new arrival Keegan Kolesar went out of his way to note that “this is a team that’s doing a great job of internalizing everything here and worrying about what’s in this locker room, despite all the noise outside.” Veteran Andrew Copp said the Red Wings “talked about it before camp, and then ever since then, it was honestly pretty normal.”

That’s important, because the Red Wings will have enough challenges this season. Even with Larkin, the team lacks scoring punch down the middle. And since no one knows how much they’ll have Larkin this season, who, aside from the trade request, is working back from an upper-body injury, that issue could very well worsen. That’s a scary thought in the league’s deepest division.

Yet, even with their path to the playoffs narrow, the Red Wings’ collection of rising young players and veterans with something to prove is the kind of set-up teams can rally behind, even — and perhaps especially — if they’re short on superstars.

“I think everyone’s gonna feel important,” Copp said. “I think the team makes sense the way it’s constructed. … Everyone’s just gotta do their job. That’s all it is. Whether we win 5-4 or we win 1-0, it doesn’t matter. We’ve just gotta find a way to win games, get off to a good start and then you start feeling good, momentum builds, everything goes. I think a good start is instrumental for us.”

Continued (paywall)