The Florida Panthers placed Aleksander Barkov on long-term injured reserve on Saturday, meaning their captain will miss at least 10 games and 24 days after hurting his left leg in San Jose on Thursday. It took very little time for attention to swing toward Detroit.
Dylan Larkin requested a trade from the Detroit Red Wings in June and has since been stripped of the captaincy, with the club opening the season without one at all. Florida has been reported as one of the destinations he would accept.
Marco D’Amico of RG connected those two facts, though he was careful to frame it as a scenario rather than a report.
“If the Florida Panthers received the worst-case scenario news on Sasha Barkov, you have to wonder if they bite the bullet and make an aggressive play for Dylan Larkin,” D’Amico wrote. “Can’t see Bill Zito chancing another year of their core’s Cup contention window.”
The logic is sound enough on its face. Florida is chasing a third title in four years, has now lost its first-line center for an extended stretch, and employs a general manager with a long record of aggressive moves. Larkin is a 30-year-old number one center with five seasons left on his contract who has made clear he wants out.
Is Dylan Larkin going to the Panthers?
The condition D’Amico attached to all of this hasn’t actually been met. ESPN’s Emily Kaplan reported that sources say Barkov’s MRI over the weekend did not reveal the worst-case scenario, and that Florida is optimistic the injury is not season-ending. Barkov is due to see doctors again on Monday for a clearer picture.
A Panthers team expecting its captain back inside a few months has far less reason to surrender significant assets for an expensive replacement, particularly one carrying an $8.7 million cap hit through 2031.
READ MORE: Dylan Larkin slammed over ‘cowardly’ press conference
The timing is awkward for Larkin regardless. He was placed on injured reserve himself last week with an upper-body injury picked up in the gym, and was booed by the home crowd at Little Caesars Arena before Detroit’s loss.
Barkov, meanwhile, had played just two games since returning from the torn ACL and MCL in his right knee that wiped out his entire 2025-26 season. He went scoreless in both, after putting up 782 points in 806 regular-season games across his career.
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