- Dylan Larkin added the Dallas Stars as a fourth approved trade destination
- Detroit asked Dallas for Wyatt Johnston and got turned down
- Read below for why Chris Johnston thinks this could drag into September
Dylan Larkin’s trade request is a month old and still going nowhere.
The Red Wings captain added the Dallas Stars to his list of approved landing spots, giving Detroit a fourth team to shop him to. MLive’s Ansar Khan reported Larkin would sign off on a move to Dallas, which now sits alongside the Florida Panthers, Minnesota Wild and Vegas Golden Knights.
One more door open, same result. Detroit floated young forward Wyatt Johnston as the centerpiece of a return, and Dallas said no.
The Stars had been sniffing around Larkin for weeks:
Dallas has bigger business first. Jason Robertson filed for arbitration and can reach free agency in 2027, so getting him locked up is Jim Nill’s priority before he spends real assets anywhere else. There was even some chatter about a Larkin-for-Robertson swap, but it never had legs.
Insider Chris Johnston pegged it as Detroit or Minnesota, and while the Wild badly want Larkin, he doesn’t think they have the package to force Yzerman’s hand. He’s braced for a long, quiet summer, one that could stretch into September before anything breaks.
Yzerman has made it clear he won’t move his captain just to make him happy. Asked about the standoff, the GM kept it blunt:
“My job as the manager of the Detroit Red Wings is always to do what is in the best interest of the Detroit Red Wings, and I will act accordingly to that.”
No money is forcing anything either. Larkin, 29, has five years left on an eight-year, $69.6 million deal and a full no-movement clause, so he controls exactly where he ends up. The roots of this standoff run deeper than one summer.
Larkin is still one of the better two-way centers in the league, coming off a 34-goal season. Take a look at what Detroit would be moving:
Until a team meets Yzerman’s price, the captain who asked out stays exactly where he is.
