Ranking the Best Fits For Dylan Larkin On His 4-Team Trade List
Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin might be having the most awkward offseason of anyone in the NHL.
The 29-year-old requested a trade out of Detroit, and Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman sounded like a guy who wasn't going to be bullied into making a move just because the player wants it.
Yzerman is also hamstrung by the fact that, according to MLive, Larkin is currently willing to waive his noโtrade clause for only four teams: the Minnesota Wild, Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights or Florida Panthers.
Because Larkin's extension includes a full noโtrade clause, Detroit can't deal him without his consent, which effectively gives him control over where he's willing to be traded. Even with five years remaining at an $8.7 million cap hit, Yzerman can only explore options on the list of teams the player agrees to waive for.
While Larkin and Yzerman have the world's most uncomfortable staring contest, it gives us the opportunity to rank which of the four teams he'd accept going to would be the best fit for him. If it's going to be the Wild, Golden Knights, Panthers or Stars, we've got the answers.
4. Dallas Stars
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The Stars are in a bit of a strange place right now. They know they'll have Jason Robertson signed, somehow, before the season starts, but they also know his price tag will be sky-high and if they can extend him, that cost will last a long time.
That sticker shock on top of Mikko Rantanen's $12 million cap hit and what they're already paying Roope Hintz, Wyatt Johnston, Thomas Harley and Miro Heiskanen means things will be a lot tighter around the edges.
If Dallas is at all worried about Robertson leaving next summer in free agency, wouldn't it make a lot of sense to add Larkin on the comparative cheap to soften that blow?
Making such a trade gets interesting because something has to get shaken up to make it work despite how sneaky good of an addition Larkin would be to the roster.
It gets easier if Tyler Seguin's knee issues prevent him from playing and his $9.85 million cap hit goes to LTIR again. Dallas already moved out Mavrik Bourque (to Nashville) to prepare for what Robertson's contract will be, but its only high-ticket player without trade protection is Johnston and you'd have to think the Stars would not go that far to add Larkin.
With Johnston, Hintz and Matt Duchene as their top three centers, the fits don't really make sense here regardless of how much Larkin would like to go there.
3. Vegas Golden Knights
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If anything stands out most about Larkin's list of teams he'd accept a trade to it's that all of them have shown signs in recent years of wanting to win it all every year rather than a more scientific approach.
No team exemplifies that more than Vegas, and it just so happens that it has one of Larkin's best friends in Jack Eichel there, too.
The big issue with getting Larkin to Vegas is what in the world could the Golden Knights even trade in the first place? Tomรกลก Hertl would be an obvious candidate, but he only has three teams he'd allow a trade to in his contract right now, and the chances of Detroit being one of them would seem to be pretty low.
Any other veteran players either have no-move clauses or no-trade clauses of varying protection as well.
If Detroit wanted high draft picks, Vegas has two first-round picks in 2028, its own and a conditional pick from the New York Rangers. But in 2027, Vegas doesn't have a first- or second-round pick. Since the Golden Knights have traded most of their top picks over the years, they're lacking in top prospects as well.
Vegas can absolutely find a way to make a Larkin trade workโGM Kelly McCrimmon usually does. But moving Pavel Dorofeyev to the Rangers has left a small hole after losing a 30-goal scorer, and Larkin would fill that need in short order.
Larkin to Vegas makes sense, but the "how" of such a trade is difficult to piece together.
2. Florida Panthers
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Everyone wants to go to Florida. That's not just a thing this offseason, it's an every offseason thing while the Panthers aggressively try to keep winning Stanley Cups.
That Larkin wants to go there is kind of a "take a number" thing, except Florida keeps finding ways to make these kinds of trades happen.
From both Matthew and Brady Tkachuk to Brad Marchand to Seth Jones and Sam Reinhart, the Panthers get their guys. The only hangup with doing that is you start to run out of ammunition and as long as Florida doesn't want to include Anton Lundell in any trade discussion, they're probably out of luck in getting Larkin. But should that really be a roadblock for them in this case?
As good as Lundell has been as he's grown into the NHL (around 18 goals and 45 points in a second/third line role each season), Larkin has scored 30 or more goals for five straight seasons and around 65-70 points each year.
Although Lundell has shown to be a strong defensive forward, Larkin stepping in on a line with one or both Tkachuk brothers or Reinhart makes the Panthers that much more terrifying.
A trade for Larkin isn't as simple as swapping him for Lundell and calling it a day. The Panthers would have to navigate a much more complex package to make the money work and absorb Larkin's $8.7 million cap hit, and in the wake of the arms race that has exploded in the Atlantic Division and across the Eastern Conference, their case to add him is more about pure luxuryโanother glove in the face during a scrumโthan about necessity.
1. Minnesota Wild
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One of the players Larkin hit it off with instantly during the Four Nations Face-Off and at the Olympics was Wild forward Matt Boldy.
The instant chemistry those two had in both tournaments was probably enough for everyone involved to wonder, "what if?" When you factor in Quinn Hughes' play during Team USA's gold-medal run to go along with Boldy, you can almost not blame Larkin for wondering if the grass is that much greener in Minnesota.
After all, the Wild were one of the best teams in the NHL last season while the Red Wings missed the playoffs for the 10th straight season and now own the NHL's longest playoff drought. Given that Wild GM Bill Guerin was also Team USA's GM, the connections are easy to make.
Viewed through the middle of the ice, Larkin turns Minnesota from solid to scary. With Eriksson Ek and Yurov in the top six and Hartman and McCarron in the bottom six, inserting Larkin on the first line would give the Wild a true top playmaking center and a better counter to Western Conference heavyweights such as MacKinnon, McDavid and Eichel.
You can make a strong case that, within reason, any package Minnesota has to pay in players or picks is worth it to land an impact center like Larkin.
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