Can the Detroit Red Wings turn Dylan Larkin’s trade request into boosting their team’s chances of advancing a rebuild that has dragged on for more than a decade?
Maybe.
Larkin is under contract through the 2030-31 season for $8.7 million a season, a very agreeable salary cap hit in a league that has a salary ceiling of $104 million in 2026-27. He’s turning 30 this summer, so he’s in the prime of his career. He’s also a center, and that’s a coveted position in the NHL. He’s a proven 30-goal scorer and a leader who has worn the captain’s letter for the Original Six Wings since being named by general manager Steve Yzerman in January of 2021.
Larkin has a full no-trade clause both this season and next, so he controls where he lands. But the Wings also have a say, and to put it bluntly, they pretty much need to get back what they’re giving up: A center who play on the top line.
They cannot trade Larkin for draft picks or prospects and expect to improve. A running storyline through the past several seasons has been the Wings’ inability to field a second-line center. Now imagine they don’t have Larkin, either?
It’s a potential disaster.
They have to get a proven NHL center, preferably in Larkin’s age range, maybe a bit younger. There’s no one in the organization who is going to fulfill that role.
Yzerman does have a good bargaining hand from the standpoint that Larkin is a center and signed to a good contract. There’s a chance of a blockbuster trade, if Yzerman can package Larkin and goaltender Sebastian Cossa, a 2021 first-round draft pick who the organization no longer appears to see fitting into the future.
For the Wings, there’s no rush on accommodating Larkin. Yzerman, known for being a savvy manager, can take his time to assess the best deal he can get – knowing it has to be something that improves the Wings in the immediate.
Contact Helene St. James at Hstjames@freepress.com. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: What Steve Yzerman must get for Red Wings in trade for Dylan Larkin
Reporting by Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
