The Dylan Larkin trade talk in Minnesota never had much of a chance once the real asking price came into focus.
For weeks, Wild president of hockey operations Bill Guerin had been working the phones with Detroit Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman after Larkin submitted a three-team list of preferred destinations. The chatter pointed toward Minnesota, and reports said Guerin was calling Yzerman every day trying to get something done. But NHL free agency opened without a deal, and that was the first sign this whole thing was headed nowhere fast.
Then came the part that made the whole idea look even more far-fetched.
According to NHL insider Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet, Detroit’s demand from Minnesota was Matt Boldy. Not as part of a bigger package.
Boldy. The Red Wings would have no problem moving Larkin to the Wild if Minnesota was willing to include its young winger, and Kypreos added that “Other than Boldy, there is nothing else Detroit GM Steve Yzerman is too interested in.”
That’s a massive ask for a player who is still only 25 and coming off his best season. Boldy, the No. 12 overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, scored 42 goals and finished with 84 points in 2025-26 while posting a 10.7 point share. He’s nearly six years younger than Larkin and is locked in at $7 million per season through 2029-30.
Larkin has been a strong player for a long time, but his résumé doesn’t match that level of production. The 2014 No. 15 overall pick’s best season came in 2022-23, when he scored 32 goals and had 79 points.
Last season, he put up 34 goals and 33 assists, along with a career-best 8.0 point share. Still, he has never reached a 40-goal season, an 80-point season, or a double-digit point share.
That’s why the idea of Boldy-for-Larkin feels so out of line. The age gap, the contract, and Boldy’s trajectory all made that ask look like a nonstarter from Minnesota’s side.
So the bigger question now isn’t just whether Detroit ever truly expected to land Boldy. It’s how long Guerin kept chasing a deal if that was the price all along.
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Michigan still has reasons to believe it can stay in the national picture. The Wolverines are expected to bring back most of their top players and add a strong recruiting class, even after losing several big men and seniors, so the core of the team remains intact. The bigger question now is how much respect the program can hold onto while the staff situation settles, especially with the season still months away. [Read more 🡒]