Montreal Canadiens fans may have gone from chanting for Dylan Larkin to feeling brushed off by him.
After a stretch in which the Detroit Red Wings forward first asked for a trade, then widened his destination list from three teams to six and now to 10, Montreal still isn’t among the clubs he’s apparently willing to join. The latest list includes the Florida Panthers, Minnesota Wild, Vegas Golden Knights, Dallas Stars, Washington Capitals, Carolina Hurricanes, Utah Mammoth, Tampa Bay Lightning, New Jersey Devils and Colorado Avalanche.
That leaves Canadiens supporters in an awkward spot. They were loud in their backing when Detroit came through Montreal a couple of weeks ago, but the new wrinkle suggests the feeling may not be mutual. Larkin has talked up the city and the passion of the market, yet Montreal still hasn’t made the cut.
The omission is the part that will sting most for a fan base that sees itself as a destination, not a fallback option. Given the role he’d fill and the way the Canadiens are positioned moving forward, the fit looks obvious from the outside. If the goal is winning, Montreal would seem to belong on the list.
Marco D’Amico addressed the situation on The Starr & D’Amico Show and said he doesn’t expect the warm reception to last. His take was blunt:
“Already a third of the league is on your list. At this point in time, either you want to go somewhere, or you don’t.
And if you need to be backed into a corner to get there, then fantastic for Kent Hughes. But I don’t know that the fans are necessarily going to be as open to welcoming him, knowing that it took borderline blackmail to get him to add Montreal to his trade list.”
That’s the tension here. Montreal could end up with a bargain if Larkin becomes available, but the optics are rough. If the Canadiens land him, plenty of fans will wonder whether he actually wanted to be in Montreal or simply ran out of other options.
The Canadiens are an Original Six franchise with a long history, and that matters in moments like this. Supporters expect players to want the logo, not settle for it.
Larkin could have included Montreal months ago. He didn’t.
Even as the list kept expanding, the Canadiens still weren’t on it.
For a fan base that takes pride seriously, that kind of snub only plays for so long.
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