- Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin has requested a trade, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman
- Larkin holds a full no-trade clause and is signed through 2030-31 at $8.7 million per year
- Read below for details and video of Larkin’s end-of-season comments
Dylan Larkin wants out of Detroit.
The Red Wings captain has requested a trade, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. TSN’s Darren Dreger confirmed the request and added that the move “has been in the works for a while”:
Nobody involved is talking. Larkin, his agent Pat Brisson and GM Steve Yzerman all declined to comment, though Friedman pointed to a “frosty relationship” between the captain and his Hall of Fame boss as one factor behind the request.
The bigger factor is hard to miss. Detroit just missed the playoffs for the 10th straight year, and Larkin hasn’t played a postseason game since his rookie season in 2015-16.
He didn’t hide his frustration in April either. Larkin called out the front office at his exit interview for failing to add at the trade deadline.
“It was hard that we didn’t do anything,” Larkin said. “We didn’t gain any momentum from the trade deadline. Guys were kind of down about it. So it would have been nice to add something and bring a little bit of a spark on the ice.”
Watch Larkin’s season-ending comments in the video below:
The frustration in that video traces straight back to the deadline. Detroit sent first and second-round picks to St. Louis for Justin Faulk and a fourth-rounder to Ottawa for David Perron, then slid out of a playoff spot anyway. Yzerman admitted after the season that the roster is “just not good enough”.
Moving him won’t be simple. Larkin signed an eight-year extension in March 2023 that runs through 2030-31 at an $8.7 million cap hit, and his full no-trade clause stays intact through next season. He can hand-pick his destination, while Detroit has no obligation to deal him at all.
Larkin grew up in Waterford, played at the University of Michigan and has spent all 11 of his NHL seasons with the Red Wings. The kid who spent his whole life in Michigan hockey is now asking to leave it behind.
