Dylan Larkin’s trade request has turned into a tricky standoff, and the biggest obstacle may be the list he built for himself. The Detroit Red Wings captain asked out months ago, but he is still in Detroit, and the reality around a move looks a lot messier than he may have expected.
The problem starts with the destinations he approved. According to several insider reports, Larkin limited the field to just three teams: Vegas, Minnesota, and Florida.
That kind of restriction makes life difficult for Detroit right away, because it strips away most of the leverage a trade usually brings. It also leaves the Red Wings dealing with teams that have their own cap headaches.
Vegas is already more than $8 million over the ceiling. Florida has only $34K.
Minnesota is still trying to figure out how to fit Quinn Hughes onto its books with limited space. In other words, none of those clubs can simply snap their fingers and absorb Larkin without creating a second problem somewhere else.
Two of those teams also made major moves that complicate matters even more. Florida’s issue is Brady Tkachuk.
Minnesota’s is Quinn Hughes. So if one of those clubs were to chase Larkin, Detroit would almost certainly have to take back contracts and money in return.
The Red Wings were never going to eat another team’s mess while sending out their top scorer for scraps.
There’s also the question of how Larkin got to this point in the first place. He appears to have convinced himself that the Red Wings were the enemy, though it’s not clear where that thinking began.
One theory floating around is that his time with Team USA at the Olympics may have played a role, since he was around players from the three teams he wants to join. It’s possible those players encouraged him to ask out so he could team up with them.
If that’s what happened, Larkin took the bait.
That sort of thinking can backfire fast, though, because those same players were looking out for themselves, too. Larkin seems to believe he can’t win in Detroit and that he’s done waiting.
But the main reason the team has struggled is no longer in charge. Steve Yzerman is gone.
That should have been the moment to reassess. Instead, Larkin held onto the idea that the Red Wings were the problem and that the relationship could not be repaired.
Now Detroit doesn’t even have a general manager in place, which makes a deal even harder to engineer. There’s nobody there to push one through.
For the moment, Larkin may be stuck. Maybe for the next two years, too, until his no-trade protection grows and a new GM has more room to work with.
None of this changes the fact that Larkin is a good player. It just may be that he’s not as highly valued on the market as he believed. The three teams on his list are not rushing to empty the vault, and the one club that might be willing to pay a heavier price - Minnesota - has its own contract puzzle with Hughes.
Unless Larkin broadens his list, a deal may never come before the season. That would leave him in the uncomfortable spot of reporting back to a team he tried to leave, with a fan base fully aware of what happened.
Players have lived through that before. Can Larkin?
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