- Dylan Larkin spoke Thursday for the first time since asking the Red Wings to trade him
- He refused to explain why, calling it “a lot of personal stuff”
- Read below for what he said about losing the captaincy and the injury keeping him off the ice
Dylan Larkin finally talked. He just did not say much.
The former Red Wings captain met reporters Thursday on the opening day of training camp, his first time answering questions since asking Detroit for a trade this offseason. Asked what pushed him to that point, he said he is not ready to go there.
“There’s a lot there. A lot of personal stuff. I understand that there’s answers that fans and people that care about this organization around the world want to know, but I’m really not ready to go there. And it’s maybe something that I may never be.”
Watch the full media availability:
What he would say is that the request took a long time to arrive at, and that his teammates had nothing to do with it.
“It wasn’t easy to get to that decision. It was very hard. It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing. I don’t take what I did lightly.”
Those conversations happened before he met the media, and Larkin said what was said stays in the room.
Detroit stripped Larkin of the captaincy last week and will open the season without a C on anybody’s sweater. He is not fighting that one.
“I asked for a trade from the Detroit Red Wings as the captain. Actions have consequences. I understand why that decision was made. I’m going to be professional about it. I’m excited to be a part of this team and, you know, back at the bottom of the totem pole, which is maybe kind of nice.”
He was not on the ice for the first session either. Interim GM Shawn Horcoff announced the upper-body injury on the eve of camp, and Larkin cleared up where it came from:
“I got hurt in the gym working out. I’m pushing to get healthy. I want to be out there. It was very unfortunate timing.”
Reports circulated all summer that Larkin handed Detroit a short list of teams he would waive his no-movement clause for. He shot those down Thursday, saying he stopped reading them because they were not true.
Larkin is signed through 2031 at an $8.7 million cap hit. Owner Chris Ilitch said this week the Red Wings may keep him all season, and the 30-year-old is still on a roster that has missed the playoffs 10 years running. Detroit opens the regular season Oct. 2 against the Rangers.
