Dylan Larkin Requests A Trade - My Initial Thoughts

Author Note: I accidentally hit publish missing a chunk of this so apologies if you read this in the first 15 minutes of it being up

Today, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Red Wings’ captain Dylan Larkin has requested a trade.

Immediately, Larkin becomes the #1 player on the trade board, plays a premium position, and is under contract for five more seasons at a team-friendly $8.7 million AAV. There should be a MASSIVE bidding war for him and the Wings have a golden opportunity to turn a bad situation into a positive. But boy if that doesn’t change the outlook for this offseason and the next few years. I’ve collected my initial thoughts here to organize what’s rattling around my brain.

Heading in to the offseason, I’ve been pretty clear that the Wings’ chances of building a contender around Dylan Larkin were relatively slim. This offseason would have been critical for the Wings to make a clear decision - either build aggressively (and quickly) around Larkin and Alex DeBrincat (turns 29 later this year) OR sell high on Larkin, DeBrincat, and other veterans to try and retool the roster around Moritz Seider (age 25) and Lucas Raymond (age 24). It would have been tough to find the pieces to build around Larkin/DeBrincat but even so, there was still a path forward to do so.

Now? Everything’s up in the air. If you sell Larkin, it’s highly unlikely you receive a player of comparable skill (maybe Rob Thomas of St. Louis is the only one that fits that bill). The likelihood of that drops even further knowing that Larkin has a full no-trade clause, allowing him to dictate his preferred destination. Instead, the Wings will likely have to accept a “package” of roster players, prospects, and picks, similar to what Calgary received for Matthew Tkachuk and Buffalo received for Jack Eichel.

I don’t think this is the end of the world and in all likelihood this is the path that would most likely allow the Wings to build a multi-year playoff contender. This offers the Wings a golden opportunity to reset around a younger core by trading the top player in a buyer’s market with no one close to his talent. However it also stings because it means we’ll most likely be waiting at least a couple more years for a potential playoff team in Detroit.

There’s precedent for teams selling aggressively and bouncing back within 3-4 years such as Ottawa moving Duchene, Erik Karlsson, Mark Stone, and Jean-Gabriel Pageau over an 18-month period. There’s also examples where teams haven’t bounced back as fast such as Chicago selling Brandon Hagel, Alex DeBrincat, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Marc-Andre Fleury, Brent Seabrook, and Nikita Zadorov to bottom out. It all depends on where Larkin is willing to go with his no-trade clause.

Ideal teams for me based on picks/prospects/roster players would be San Jose (Michael Misa, 2nd overall pick 2026), Utah (Tij Iginla, Caleb Desnoyers), and Seattle (Matty Beniers, Berkly Catton, Jake O’Brien). We’ll see what happens but boy this is not the way Wings’ fans wanted to start the offseason. Even still, this is a golden opportunity for the front office to get things back on track with a clear direction.

P.S. I was planning on writing my annual “If I Were Steve Yzerman” this weekend…boy did this throw me a curveball.