LAS VEGAS - Alex DeBrincat didn’t try to pretend the Detroit Red Wings are in a tidy place right now. He knows the picture is messy: no general manager, captain Dylan Larkin asking out, and one of the team’s key defensemen still unsigned.
Even so, the Wings’ leading goal scorer put on a calm face Tuesday night at the 2026-27 NHL Player Media Tour and backed up his captain when asked about the trade request that landed in June.
“It sucks. Doesn’t really change what we think of him,” DeBrincat said Tuesday.
“He’s still a great player. He’s been a great friend and a great teammate to me, and we obviously love him here.
That’s kind of for him to answer, what’s next for him. But for us, I think it’s all the same.
We’re happy to see him at the rink and happy to get started.”
Larkin’s request, along with his short list of preferred destinations that grew from three teams to four, put then-GM Steve Yzerman in a tough spot. Yzerman didn’t want to force a move and kept pointing to the five years left on Larkin’s contract.
He stepped down from the GM job a month after the request, and Detroit still hasn’t filled the position, leaving the whole situation stuck in neutral. Training camp is close, and there’s still no clarity on whether Larkin will be around or what the return might look like if the Wings do move him.
DeBrincat also addressed the uncertainty around Simon Edvinsson, the restricted free agent and offer-sheet candidate whose contract talks have been frozen by the front-office vacancy. Edvinsson said this week that “there’s no one to talk to” about getting a deal done.
“It’s like anything, you don’t really like change, it feels uncomfortable for a bit,” DeBrincat said. “But at this time, we’re all just excited to get back.
Obviously we want Simon there, but I think he is still going to be in Detroit, maybe come hang out with the guys, I’m not really sure what his plan is, you guys would have to ask him. Overall, I think we’re just excited to get back and play hockey again.
That’s where we can get away from everything. I think all the guys are excited to get back as a team and see each other again and just play.
“
There’s been some roster movement, with Viktor Arvidsson and Keegan Kolesar joining the mix, but neither is going to replace Larkin. Patrick Kane’s departure for the Chicago Blackhawks in free agency leaves another obvious gap as well, especially for a team that leaned heavily on that top-end skill.
Still, DeBrincat tried to lean into the optimism. He said the team is “looking essentially the same as we were last year,” and he left the door open for a run at the playoffs if a few things break right. That list starts with Larkin’s situation somehow settling down, includes another strong season from John Gibson in goal, another big year from Moritz Seider, and maybe a breakthrough from one of the younger players such as Nate Danielson or Michael Brandsegg-Nygard.
That optimism has to live alongside the bigger reality. DeBrincat is 28, nine seasons and 696 games into a productive career, and he has played in the playoffs only once - the 2019-20 COVID-19 bubble tournament, when his then-team, the Blackhawks, sneaked in with the league’s 23rd-best points percentage. Detroit hasn’t reached the postseason in 10 years, the NHL’s longest active drought, and Little Caesars Arena has never hosted a playoff game.
For DeBrincat, this is also a contract year, which makes the next few months matter even more. He said he still sees Detroit as home.
“Winning is very important to me, and I think we’re a lot closer than people are giving us credit for,” he said. “And for being in Detroit, I’ve said it all along, I love it here, and ultimately that’s where I want to end up.
But there’s a lot of things that go into that. So we’ll see what happens when a new GM comes in.
But overall, I love the guys, I love the team, love playing for the Red Wings. That’s something that we all take tremendous pride in, putting that jersey on every night and the history that goes into it.”
For now, though, the biggest question hanging over Detroit is simple: what happens next, and who answers it? Until the Red Wings hire a GM, nobody really knows.
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