Larkin Trade Request: MEGATHREAD (keep it here)

10 years and counting. Why am I not even surprised. Bookmark this thread, we will be back here in October explaining how the rebuild is still on schedule.

NO. NO NO NO. our CAPTAIN?? i have his jersey ON RIGHT NOW. i feel sick. TEN YEARS we waited for the kids and the one homegrown guy who actually CARED is the one walking out the door?? i cannot do this tonight

the captain asking out is the most red wings thing thats happened since 2008

Okay everybody breathe. The math actually matters here:

- 8.7 AAV x 5 = he is the contract

- M-NTC means HE controls the market, not Yzerman

- 3 teams on the list = leverage is basically zero for us

You do not move a 30-goal 1C with a full NTC for a king's ransom when he handed the other GMs the leverage. Anyone promising you a 1st + top prospect + roster player is selling you a fairy tale.

Wings get: VGK 1st, Hague, Tomas Hertl

Vegas get: Larkin

thoughts?

@tj_morris said:

Vegas get: Larkin, Wings get Hertl + 1st + Hague

Hertl makes 6.75 through 2030 and Vegas is already up against the wall. This clears their cap how, exactly? You have them taking on 8.7 AND giving you their best pick. Open CapFriendly before you post, I am begging you.

its a starting point relax

@tj_morris said:

its a starting point

so is the lottery and we gave that pick to st louis too lmao

watch the list magically expand the second yzerman cant get his price. of course. its always us.

A captain asking out. Stevie Yzerman played 22 years here with a bad knee and never once whined his way out the door. These guys wouldn't last a shift in '97. Soft league, soft players.

Let's not turn this into a character trial 🙄. The man gave this franchise a decade through the worst stretch in 30 years and asked out ONCE, privately, after a 10th missed playoff. That's not a diva. That's a competitor who is 30 and watched the window not open. Keep it fair in here please. 🙏

@becca_w said:

That's a competitor who is 30 and watched the window not open

Fair. But let's be honest about the STANDARD here. This is a franchise that won FOUR Cups in my lifetime. Larkin is a very good player who would have been a really nice complementary piece on the '02 team. He is not a guy you build around and the last decade is the proof. If he wants out, get the haul and reload.

People keep saying "30 goals" like that's the whole story. Larkin drove play on a roster with no real 2C. His on-ice xGF% was the best of any forward who played 1000+ minutes, and the team was meaningfully worse with him off the sheet. You can want a bigger return and still acknowledge that replacing his minutes is the actual problem, not finding "a guy who scores."

hot take but DeBrincat for Tarasenko-ish picks was a HEIST and i will say it in every thread 🔥 if we move Larkin we better get a finisher BACK not another 200-foot guy. we have enough guys who backcheck hard and score 14 goals 💀

the we need scoring not two way guys thing is so tired honestly. larkin IS the scoring. you trade him you have LESS scoring not more. people act like theres a 40 goal center just sitting in the return

As a guy who still laces 'em up on Tuesday nights at Troy: you do not find another guy who wins a draw, kills a penalty AND pots 30. Those don't grow on the waiver wire. Easy to type "just get a sniper." Go try to find one.

hes also like a 54% guy on faceoffs and our next best center is what, low 40s. people forget the little stuff goes out the door with him too

we are NOT trading the captain. mark it down. Stevie talks him off the ledge, signs a 2C in july, we make the playoffs next year. LGRW. screenshot this.

@WingsInFour said:

we make the playoffs next year. screenshot this.

Screenshotted. Filed next to your October Cup pick, your "Kasper breaks out" guarantee, and the Faulk trade you swore would put us over the top. The folder is getting heavy, friend.

doug really keeps a folder 💀💀 throwing the octopus on the ice for that one 🐙

cooked

the funniest part of all this is going to be the presser where Stevie says "I don't comment on rumors" for eleven straight minutes and everyone treats it like the Zapruder film

Per LeBrun on the morning hit: this was apparently relayed privately weeks ago and the team sat on it. League sources frame it as Larkin wanting clarity on the timeline more than "get me out tonight." Yzerman, per multiple people, is in no rush and will not be bullied into a deadline. File under: this drags into July.

This is the part people underrate. Yzerman does not blink. Remember he sat on Fleury's situation in Tampa-era patience mode and waited out the market until the price was right. He is not handing Larkin to Florida for a discount because Friedman said a sentence on a Tuesday. Trust the process.

@SuburbanWings said:

Trust the process.

ten years of process and the only thing thats cooked is us. but sure

can we please not let this turn into a teardown thread 😤 Seider is a top pairing RD on a value deal, he is the build. you do NOT move him because the captain wants out. completely different conversations

IF ANYONE IN THIS THREAD SAYS THE WORDS "TRADE SEIDER OR EDVINSSON" I AM CALLING A MOD. Edvinsson is a 6'6 Norris track guy on an ENTRY DEAL. you build the new core around HIM. larkin leaving makes the young D MORE important not less!!!

From a pure asset standpoint, if you're truly entertaining a teardown the order goes: rentals first, then Larkin for the best center-or-pick package, and you absolutely do NOT touch Seider, Edvinsson, Raymond, or Kasper. Those four are the only reason a reload is even plausible. Selling a 23-year-old cost-controlled top-pair D to soften a Larkin exit would be franchise malpractice.

nobody talking about the crease in all this. if larkin goes and the D gets younger, who saves us. gibson cant do it alone again man

@gibby35 said:

who saves us. gibson cant do it alone again

Thank you. Everyone blames goaltending but the shot quality against was brutal because the D was scrambling all year. You lose Larkin's defensive minutes up the middle and the goalies inherit even more high-danger looks. It's all connected.

the diva dylan crowd makes me SICK. this is a guy who took a hometown DISCOUNT to stay and bled for a team that missed the playoffs every single year of his prime!!! you would ask out too. and dont you DARE bring raymonds name into a teardown hes UNTOUCHABLE

"Diva Dylan" has a nice ring to it though.

@GrumpyInGrosse said:

"Diva Dylan" has a nice ring to it

imagine being this old and this wrong at teh same time

I have rooted for this club since the Howe and Lindsay days, through the Dead Wings years that make this stretch look like a golden age. A captain's heart breaking is not new. Yzerman himself nearly went to Ottawa once, long ago, before this town fell in love with him. Sometimes the men who beg to leave are the ones who care the most that it isn't working. Be gentle with the kid.

I have been in that building for almost every home game for 14 years. I have watched this man play through a broken back and a broken everything for a team that gave him NOTHING to win with. I'm not mad at Dylan. I'm mad that we WASTED him. That's the part that actually hurts. 💔

Well said, Molly. That's the whole thing in one line: we wasted him. Wherever this lands, I hope the kid gets to play a game that matters in June. He earned that much from us. Now let's see what the next two weeks bring.

this thread aged from rage to grief in 24 hours, classic hockeytown

Quiet practical note while the dust settles: a Larkin move has zero retention room issues for us as the seller, but it complicates the Edvinsson RFA talk. If you bring back a center on a real contract in the return, the raise for Edvinsson (likely north of 8) gets tighter to fit. Just flagging that these dominoes touch.

five days of silence from the team. the leak well has run dry. this is the calm before they trade him for a conditional 3rd and a guy named Brayden.

UPDATE, per Detroit News (Khan) Yzerman has reportedly gone back to Larkin's camp to ask him to EXPAND the no-trade list beyond the original three. Reading between the lines: the FLA/MIN/VGK markets aren't producing the return Steve wants, so he's trying to widen the auction. This is the Duchene/O'Reilly playbook: refuse the discount, force more bidders.

@DetroitTom said:

Yzerman asked Larkin to expand the list

This is exactly right and it's the only smart play. O'Reilly went to Buffalo for a HAUL (Sobotka/Berglund/1st/2nd/etc) precisely because there were multiple bidders. Three teams = three lowball offers. Five or six teams = an actual market. Whether Larkin agrees to widen it is the entire ballgame.

Told you. Stevie does not blink. He's running the exact O'Reilly/Duchene template: make the player and the market come to YOUR number. This is what process looks like when it isn't comfortable.

@SuburbanWings said:

He's running the exact O'Reilly template

or the player says no, sits on his full NTC, and we get the worst of both worlds: a sulking captain AND no deal. but yeah. process.

asking him to expand the list after he asked out is kind of a power move by stevie ngl. like ok you want out? fine. open it up then. cant have it both ways

ok if the list opens up:

Wings get: UTA 1st (2026), Logan Cooley, prospect

Utah get: Larkin

NOW we talking

@tj_morris said:

Utah get Larkin, Wings get Cooley + 1st

Cooley is a 21-year-old ascending 1C on an ELC. No team on earth trades that for a 30-year-old at 8.7x5 with a partial NTC. You'd flip those two players in real life and Utah would still hang up. The framework you want is a late-1st + a good-not-great center prospect + a B-prospect. That's the realistic O'Reilly-adjacent ceiling.

man let me dream

"let me dream" is the official slogan of this franchise since 2016

i hate that this is dragging out so long. just RIP the bandaid off or KEEP HIM. this limbo is killing me. checking twitter every 4 minutes like a lunatic

poured a glass of wine for the friedman segment and there was no friedman segment. devastating. anyway whats everyone else doing while the captain's future hangs in the balance lol

nobodys saying it but if larkin goes our PP1 has no bumper and the umbrella falls apart. he was the only guy who actually moved in the high slot. wel be back to four guys standing still passing it along teh perimeter for 90 seconds

@andy_v said:

our PP1 has no bumper and the umbrella falls apart

This is an underrated point. McLellan's PP is already too static and over-reliant on the one-timer from the off-wing. Remove the one center who actually attacks the seam and you've got a special teams unit that finishes 28th. Larkin's exit is a systems problem, not just a points problem.

In my day the power play was: shoot the puck and go to the net. Now it's a PowerPoint presentation. No wonder nobody scores.

🚨 BIG ONE. Friedman on 32 Thoughts this morning: FLORIDA HAS MADE AN OFFER on Larkin. Rumored framework is the Panthers' #9 overall pick plus Anton Lundell. Caveat: that's the chatter, not confirmed terms, and Florida fitting 8.7 in is its own puzzle. But this is the first concrete shoe to drop. Discuss.

@DetroitTom said:

#9 overall + Anton Lundell

Okay THIS is a real offer and a good one. Lundell is a 24-year-old 200-foot center signed at 5.0 through 2030, and that's GREAT term and a usable 2C immediately. Plus a top-10 pick to replace the 1st we gave St. Louis. The cap actually works because Lundell coming back offsets a big chunk of Larkin's 8.7. If this is the real offer you have to think very hard about it.

#9 overall in THIS draft is a legitimate top-of-the-lineup swing, and pairing it with a cost-controlled 2C is the closest thing to the O'Reilly return anyone realistically floated in this thread. I'd want a B-prospect sweetener but the bones of that deal are exactly the "maximize return" outcome people demanded. Hard to do better given the 3-team list.

WAIT a top 10 pick AND a 2C?? thats actually a HAUL 🔥🔥 i take that and i dont even let stevie finish the sentence 😭 finally getting young scoring back in the door

lundell is good but hes another two way center lol. we just spent this whole thread saying we need scoring and the return is.... a defensive minded 2C. its a fine hockey trade but its very on brand for us

@chris_l said:

the return is a defensive minded 2C

Right, but the #9 pick is the scoring swing. You're not replacing Larkin's offense with Lundell, you're replacing it with whoever #9 becomes in 3 years, and using Lundell to not collapse down the middle in the meantime. As a process, swapping a 30-yo for a 24-yo + a top-10 lottery ticket is the textbook seller win. I'd do it.

i dont WANT to be convinced but youre all convincing me and i HATE it. a top 10 pick and a real center. ugh. if it has to happen at least its not a salary dump 😭😭

THIS is what I meant by getting the haul. You don't keep an unhappy 30-year-old to finish 9th again. #9 + Lundell + a sweetener and you reload around Seider, Edvinsson, Raymond, Kasper and the kid you draft. That's a path back to the STANDARD. Take it, Steve.

i'm watching this board talk itself into being EXCITED about trading our captain in the span of one Friedman segment. eleven years from "NO NO NO" to "take it Steve." hockeytown is undefeated.

the seven stages of grief but its one tuesday

reminder florida will probably back out, leak that WE were the unreasonable ones, win the cup, and then we trade larkin to minnesota in september for a 2nd. calling it now.

Mod note: keeping this as THE Larkin thread, all the spinoff "blow it up" threads will get merged here. So far the consensus crystallizing is: if the Florida offer (9 + Lundell, ideally + a prospect) is real, you do it; you do NOT touch Seider/Edvinsson/Raymond/Kasper to do it. Good debate in here today, thank you all for keeping it mostly civil. 🙏🐙

To summarize where we landed after 60-odd posts of bloodletting: nobody actually thinks Larkin is a "diva," most of us are just grieving a decade that got wasted around him. The Florida package is genuinely good and addresses both needs (pick = upside, Lundell = the center hole). The line in the sand is the young core. That's a remarkably reasonable place for this board to end up. Now we wait on Stevie.

Couldn't have put it better, Rusty. We'll keep the thread pinned through the draft on the 26th. Whatever happens, this town raised that kid and we'll wish him well if he goes. Onward, friends.