- Red Wings announce Dylan Larkin is no longer captain, and nobody replaces him
- Larkin says he will report to training camp next week despite his trade request
- Read below for both statements and what happens once Detroit hires a GM
Dylan Larkin is no longer the captain of the Detroit Red Wings.
Detroit announced Friday that Larkin will not wear the C in 2026-27 and that nobody else will either. The team plans to start the season without a captain and sort the job out after it hires a new head of hockey operations.
Our post laid out the split screen pretty cleanly: Larkin will be in the room next week, the room just will not have a captain in it.
Larkin released a statement through the club that never mentions the captaincy at all. He talked instead about the conversations he has had with the front office since asking for a trade in June.
“Over the past couple of weeks, Red Wings leadership and I have had several in-depth discussions. I’ve appreciated those candid conversations and I will be at training camp with my teammates. When new leadership is in place, we’ll talk further about the direction of the team. We will keep those conversations private, and I will keep my focus on the season ahead and on the guys in that room.”
The team went even shorter. Detroit said Larkin is under contract, that his future gets discussed privately once a new hockey operations leader is named, and that it would not say another word about it.
Here are both statements side by side:
All of this is happening with nobody actually running the hockey department. Steve Yzerman confirmed the trade request before the Red Wings moved on from him on July 15, and the GM search has dragged on ever since.
That C had been his for nearly six years. Detroit named him the 37th captain in franchise history on Jan. 13, 2021, a 24-year-old Michigan kid handed the letter Steve Yzerman and Nicklas Lidstrom used to wear.
Watch the announcement that started it:
He is coming off the best goal-scoring year of his career, 34 goals and 67 points in 74 games, second on the roster behind Alex DeBrincat. He also won Olympic gold with Team USA in February.
Five years remain on his eight-year, $69.9 million deal at an $8.7 million cap hit, and his full no-trade clause runs through 2027-28. Detroit opens against the Rangers on Oct. 2, and whoever takes the first faceoff of the season will not have a letter on his chest.
