Dylan Larkin asked the Detroit Red Wings to trade him in June and handed them three teams he would waive his no-trade clause for. Four months and no deal later, he has made life considerably easier for his general manager.
Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press reported on Tuesday night that the list now runs to ten clubs, with ESPN confirming it through a source of its own.
The full list reads Carolina, Colorado, Dallas, Florida, Minnesota, New Jersey, Tampa Bay, Utah, Vegas and Washington. Florida, Minnesota and Vegas were the original three, with Dallas added shortly afterwards, which means six new names have arrived at once.
Some of them are eye-catching. Utah have won seven of their first ten, Carolina are the defending Stanley Cup champions, and New Jersey is the one most people didn’t see coming.
Why isn’t Montreal on Dylan Larkin’s list?
Montreal supporters spent two periods chanting “We want Larkin” at the Bell Centre earlier this month, and he described the atmosphere there afterwards as the best in hockey. None of it moved him an inch.
Every club on the list plays in the United States, and a source told ESPN that Larkin isn’t looking to move to a Canadian team at all.
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The timing suggests somebody is in a hurry. ESPN’s John Buccigross said on the Frankly Hockey podcast, recorded Friday, that he expects a trade within seven to ten days and confirmed he meant Larkin. Elliotte Friedman has suggested Detroit are weighing how long to let this run and whether they want to risk their captain getting injured in the meantime, with the Connor Hellebuyck standoff in Winnipeg having concentrated a few minds.
St. James also noted that it may take a multi-team deal to satisfy everybody, which gives interim general manager Shawn Horcoff a fairly substantial problem to solve.
Larkin, 30, is in the fourth season of an eight-year, $69.6 million contract carrying an $8.7 million cap hit through 2030-31. He has a goal and two assists in six games this season, having missed the first two injured, and was stripped of the captaincy in September.
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