- Alex DeBrincat is entering the last year of his deal after a career-best 41 goals and 85 points
- The Hockey News raised the question of whether a Dylan Larkin trade pushes DeBrincat out of Detroit too
- Read below for the 16-team no-trade list that hands him control of any deadline deal
Dylan Larkin already asked out of Detroit. The scarier question is whether the guy who scored 41 goals for the Red Wings comes to the same conclusion.
Adam Proteau of The Hockey News wondered this week whether watching Larkin get moved convinces Alex DeBrincat to look for the exit as well. DeBrincat has one season left on his contract and becomes an unrestricted free agent next July, and Proteau floated the version where he simply refuses to extend and leaves the next general manager holding the bag.
Losing him for nothing would be a disaster in Detroit.
DeBrincat put up 41 goals, 44 assists and 85 points in 82 games last season, setting career highs in assists and points. He is the first Red Wing to reach 40 goals in a season since Marian Hossa in 2008-09.
Take a look at a two-goal night from him against Washington:
The other side of the argument comes from Bob Duff of Detroit Hockey Now, who wrote in July that DeBrincat has no interest in leaving as long as the Red Wings pay him market value. He grew up in Farmington Hills, his parents are in Michigan, and his kids get to see their grandparents.
DeBrincat was asked about his own future when Detroit cleaned out its lockers in April, and he did not hedge much.
“I love it here. This is my home. I’ve loved every bit of playing here. I think this is definitely a team I want to be a part of for a long time, and I think everyone knows that.”
He did add the caveat every player adds. “It’s a business, so we’ll see what they want to do,” DeBrincat said.
Money is the part nobody has settled. DeBrincat carries a $7.875 million cap hit in the final year of a four-year, $31.5 million deal, and a 28-year-old coming off 85 points is going to cost a lot more than that on the next one.
His deal also carries a 16-team no-trade list, so he gets a say in where any deadline move sends him.
Larkin is the piece that has not moved. Detroit wants a first-line center back and none of the clubs on his list will pay that, per Helene St. James, which has left reconciliation on the table as a real outcome.
Whoever takes the job inherits both files. Steve Yzerman moved into an adviser role in July, and Shawn Horcoff is running day-to-day hockey operations without the power to make trades while Chris Ilitch works through an outside search firm.
Detroit has already watched Patrick Kane walk to Chicago in free agency this summer.
An extension tells the league Detroit is retooling around Lucas Raymond, Moritz Seider and DeBrincat. Reaching March with him still unsigned means the Red Wings spend the winter taking calls on the only 40-goal scorer they have had in 17 years.
