Wantaway Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin has added a fourth team to his list of acceptable trade destinations.
MLive’s Ansar Khan reports Larkin would sanction a trade to the Dallas Stars. Dallas joins the Minnesota Wild, Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights.
Khan notes that the Red Wings and Stars have had exploratory conversations about a deal with Detroit asking for Wyatt Johnston to go the other way as part of the return.
Johnston is signed at a cap hit of $8.4 million, which would largely offset Larkin’s $8.7 million average annual value. The Stars currently have $10.6 million in space, per PuckPedia, but all of that and perhaps more appears earmarked for restricted free agent Jason Robertson, who has filed for salary arbitration.
The Stars appeared to have a deal in place to trade Robertson to the Seattle Kraken ahead of the draft in June, but the trade fell apart as Robertson declined an eight-year contract offer from Seattle that carried a cap hit of roughly $15 million.
Robertson led the Stars with 96 points in 82 games last season. Johnston finished tied with him for the team lead in goals with 45 and posted 86 points in 82 games.
The Panthers appear to be out of the Larkin sweepstakes after adding Brady Tkachuk in a massive trade with the Ottawa Senators last month, while the Golden Knights are also right up against the salary cap after re-signing Rasmus Andersson on a seven-year deal at a $8.5 million cap hit on July 1.
The Wild are still believed to be interested in a Larkin trade after a quiet off-season so far, but the team has just over $1 million in cap space to work with and may also lack the assets to appease Detroit.
News of Larkin’s trade request came in early June. The 29-year-old native of nearby Waterford, MI has five years remaining on an eight-year, $69.6 million deal and a full no-movement clause. He was originally taken with the 15th overall selection of the 2014 NHL Draft out of the USA U-18 Development Team.
Larkin has spent the past 11 seasons with the Red Wings, notching 276 goals and adding 367 assists in 808 career games. He registered a career-high 34 goals and posted 67 points in 74 games this past season.
Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman finds himself in an unenviable position with Larkin’s request. Yzerman has held firm that he will not make a trade simply to appease Larkin.
“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,” Yzerman said at the draft last month. “I cannot make any guarantees, or did not make any guarantees, that that request could or would be met.”
Detroit now owns the longest postseason drought in the NHL at 10 years. After a 32-16-5 start to this past season, the team won just nine of its final 26 games to miss out on the playoffs.
The team made the playoffs for 25 consecutive seasons prior to 2016.
