Dylan Larkin’s trade request has now widened to four possible landing spots, with the Dallas Stars joining the mix for the Detroit Red Wings captain.
According to the report, Detroit and Dallas have already held exploratory talks about a deal, and the Red Wings asked for Wyatt Johnston as part of the return. Johnston carries an $8.4 million cap hit, a figure that would mostly balance out Larkin’s $8.7 million average annual value.
Cap space is not exactly sitting there waiting for the Stars to use, either. Dallas has $10.6 million available, per PuckPedia, but that money - and possibly more - looks tied up for restricted free agent Jason Robertson, who has filed for salary arbitration.
Robertson’s situation has already been messy. The Stars were said to have a trade lined up to send him to the Seattle Kraken before the June draft, but that deal unraveled after Robertson turned down an eight-year contract from Seattle that would have carried a cap hit of roughly $15 million.
On the ice, Robertson and Johnston were both central pieces for Dallas last season. Robertson led the team with 96 points in 82 games, while Johnston tied him for the club lead in goals with 45 and finished with 86 points in 82 games.
Detroit’s search for a trade partner has already thinned out in other directions. The Panthers seem to be out after landing Brady Tkachuk in a massive deal with the Ottawa Senators last month, and the Golden Knights are squeezed by the cap after re-signing Rasmus Andersson to a seven-year contract with an $8.5 million cap hit on July 1.
The Wild remain in the picture, at least for now, after what has been a quiet offseason. But Minnesota has just over $1 million in cap space and may not have the assets Detroit would want.
Larkin’s request became public in early June. The 29-year-old Waterford, MI native has five years left on the eight-year, $69.6 million contract he signed, and he also holds a full no-movement clause. Detroit selected him 15th overall in the 2014 NHL Draft out of the USA U-18 Development Team.
He has spent all 11 of his NHL seasons with the Red Wings, piling up 276 goals and 367 assists in 808 career games. This past season, he set a career high with 34 goals and totaled 67 points in 74 games.
For Steve Yzerman, the situation is as tricky as it gets. The Red Wings general manager has made it clear he won’t move Larkin just to satisfy the player’s request.
“My job as the manager of the Detroit Red Wings is always to do what is in the best interest of the Detroit Red Wings, and I will act accordingly to that,” Yzerman said at the draft last month. “I cannot make any guarantees, or did not make any guarantees, that that request could or would be met.”
Detroit’s urgency is obvious. The franchise owns the NHL’s longest active postseason drought at 10 years, and after a 32-16-5 start last season, the team stumbled badly down the stretch, winning only nine of its final 26 games and missing the playoffs.
Before 2016, the Red Wings had reached the postseason in 25 straight seasons.
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