- Canadiens fans chanted “We Want Larkin” at the Bell Centre
- Larkin has a trade request in and a full no-movement clause
- Read below for the video and where his situation stands
Canadiens fans want Dylan Larkin, and they made sure the Red Wings center heard it.
The Bell Centre crowd chanted “We Want Larkin” over and over early in Saturday night’s game against Detroit. The noise got louder once the puck dropped, and the message was pretty clear: Montreal would love to have him.
Check out the chant, which Marco D’Amico caught on video:
Larkin was one of the last Red Wings players off the ice after warmups, and Montreal fans cheered him on his way out, according to Daily Faceoff.
That is a far different welcome than he got in Detroit, where fans booed him after he asked the Red Wings for a trade in June. The club stripped him of the captaincy in September, and an upper-body injury kept him out of the preseason and the first two games of the year.
Saturday was his third game of the season. The 30-year-old has 277 goals and 368 assists for 645 points in 810 NHL games, all with Detroit, since the Red Wings picked him 15th overall in 2014.
His contract runs through 2030-31 at $8.7 million per year, so Larkin should have plenty of suitors. But he also has a full no-movement clause, which means he has to approve any deal.
Montreal also was not among the teams reported as his preferred destinations back in September. Those were Minnesota, Vegas and Florida.
Nobody knows yet whether Larkin would want to play in Montreal. A Bell Centre crowd chanting his name at least makes the pitch for them.
