Steve Yzerman’s move out of the GM chair and into a senior advisor role has only sharpened the spotlight on the real issue in Detroit: Dylan Larkin’s trade request. The front-office shuffle is news on its own, but the bigger question is whether the damage with the captain can still be undone.
Helene St. James doesn’t think so.
And according to Ansar Khan, the fracture goes back further than Larkin’s public frustration over a quiet deadline. The tension traces to 2018, when the captaincy stayed open for two years after Henrik Zetterberg retired.
Larkin, like everyone else, expected the job to be his. Yzerman passed him over for two straight years.
That kind of slight is hard enough to smooth over if it’s only between player and GM. The sense here, though, is that Larkin’s bitterness reaches beyond Yzerman and into the organization itself.
Elliotte Friedman said time will tell whether the two sides can repair things. At the very least, there’s still the possibility that someone new steps in and tries to change Larkin’s mind.
Elsewhere in the rumor mill, Patrick Kane’s free-agency decision has reportedly been cut down to two destinations: Buffalo and Chicago. Chris Chelios said he’s spoken with Kane directly, and Buffalo still looks like the favorite.
The Sabres may not be done adding, either. They’re also working the trade market for Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck, and reports say Hellebuyck would be willing to waive his no-movement clause specifically to go to Buffalo. If both moves happen, Buffalo suddenly becomes one of the loudest stories in the Eastern Conference.
Chicago carries a different kind of pull, of course. The idea of Kane going back there has obvious emotional weight.
Detroit could be a small wildcard because of its cap space, but it still doesn’t sound like a real landing spot.
In Edmonton, the goaltending picture is crowded and unsettled. The Oilers are set to start the season with Tristan Jarry, Devon Levi, and Frederik Andersen, three NHL-caliber goalies and no obvious No.
- The early plan appears to be spreading the starts around, at least at first.
None of the three comes with clean certainty: Andersen is 36 and has dealt with injuries, Jarry is coming off some of the league’s worst goaltending numbers, and Levi is still largely unproven at the NHL level. The expectation is that a clear leader will show up quickly.
There’s also a contract angle in Edmonton after Cole Perfetti signed a five-year extension at a $6 million AAV following an injury-shortened season. That deal naturally raises the question of what Matt Savoie might be in line for next. The Jets bridged Perfetti to get here, but the belief is the Oilers would rather avoid that path and get to a long-term agreement right away.
Philadelphia, meanwhile, got a major piece of business done by extending Trevor Zegras for four years at a $9.125 million AAV after his bounce-back season with the Flyers. The deal leaves people wondering whether the club was simply convinced he was worth it or whether their offer sheet to Leo Carlsson influenced the number. It looks like full freight, and then some, though the broader market may be pushing contracts higher anyway - even if that didn’t stop the Ducks from having to pay $18 million to their top center.
The Devils also made a move, bringing in Anthony Mantha on a two-year, $4.75 million deal with no trade protection. Several teams were in the mix, but the market never seemed eager to go beyond one or two years.
As Josh Yohe put it, “Mantha let the Penguins know during the regular season that a three-year deal was his starting point for extension talks. The Penguins didn’t want to give him three years or more. Neither did anyone else, apparently.”
In Other News...
Flyers Just Made Their Trevor Zegras Commitment Official
Trevor Zegras arrived in Philadelphia with plenty of intrigue, and his first season with the Flyers gave the organization a pretty clear answer about where he fits in the long term. Acquired from Anaheim last summer, he quickly became one of the most productive players on the roster, setting career highs across the board while handling a versatile top-six role that had him moving between center and wing as the season went on.
The bigger takeaway for the Flyers is how much Zegras mattered when the games got tighter. He played 81 games, led the team in playoff points and delivered the kind of all-around offensive season that made a commitment feel inevitable, even before the front office made it official. For a club trying to build something more stable up front, keeping a player who can drive play in a few different spots is a meaningful piece of the puzzle. [Read more 🡒]
Flyers May Finally Have A Goalie Prospect Fans Can Believe In
For a franchise that has spent years searching for stability in net, Yegor Zavragin is starting to look like more than just another name in the pipeline. The 20-year-old Flyers prospect landed at No. 10 on Scott Wheelers top 20 NHL goalie prospects list, and the buzz is backed by real production overseas, where he handled a brief run with SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL and turned in strong numbers in the VHL as well.
The bigger question for Philadelphia is whether that promise can eventually translate into something the organization can actually count on. The Flyers are set to open the upcoming season with Dan Vladar and Joseph Woll as their NHL tandem, but Zavragins rise gives the front office a potential long-term answer if his development keeps moving in the right direction. For a team that has waited a while to feel good about a goalie prospect, that alone is worth watching. [Read more 🡒]
Brieres Boldest Flyers Move Just Raised A Bigger Offseason Question
Daniel Briere has spent the summer trying to show the Flyers are not content with another quiet offseason, and the front office has already made that point in more than one way. Philadelphia has added a few pieces in free agency, but the bigger message came from the aggressive push for Leo Carlsson and the extension for Trevor Zegras, moves that signaled a willingness to be bold rather than merely patient.
What makes the next stretch interesting is that the Flyers still have room to keep working, with cap flexibility left to maneuver and a roster that could still change before the season begins. Briere has made clear the door is open for more if the right opportunity appears, which leaves Philadelphia in a familiar but more intriguing place than usual: active enough to matter, yet still waiting on the move that would tell everyone how far this offseason is really going to go. [Read more 🡒]