The story today is Dylan Larkin. Not just because he reportedly asked for a trade, although that alone would be one of the biggest stories of the NHL season. The story, at least for now, is how this became public in the first place? With a player this important, a captain this rooted in the organization, and a general manager as private as Steve Yzerman, the leak itself becomes part of the story. It changes the way people talk about Larkin, the Red Wings, and what comes next.
Emily Kaplan was the first to report it, and because Kaplan is known to have strong relationships around the league, including with high-profile agents, like Larkin’s agent Pat Brisson, a lot of people immediately wondered whether the agent’s side was the source
Pat Brisson is not just any agent. He is one of the most powerful and respected agents in hockey, maybe one of the best the sport has ever seen. So when something this big gets out, people naturally ask who had the information, who had the relationships, and who might have had something to gain.
But I have mixed opinions on whether Brisson would actually benefit from leaking it. I understand why people would connect the dots. Kaplan had it first, Brisson has relationships, Larkin is his client, and agents sometimes use public pressure to move a situation along. That happens. But in this specific case, I am not sure the leak helps the player very much. In fact, it probably puts Dylan Larkin in a really bad spot.
Larkin is not some rental winger on an expiring contract who can quietly signal that he wants to chase a playoff run somewhere else. He is the captain of the Detroit Red Wings. He is from the area. He has carried the face-of-the-franchise burden through a long rebuild. He has sold hope to that fan base year after year. If he wants out, that is already emotionally complicated. If the entire hockey world finds out before anything is close, it becomes even more complicated. Now he has to answer for it. His teammates have to answer for it. The organization has to answer for it. The fans have to process it in real time.
And then there is Yzerman.
If there is one thing everyone knows about Steve Yzerman, it is that he does not like his business in the open. He comes from the Lou Lamoriello school of operating. Keep everything internal. Say very little. Control the message. Make decisions when you are ready, not when the public conversation demands it. For a situation involving his captain to leak like this, especially if it came from outside the organization, would almost certainly infuriate him.
Yzerman does not have to trade Dylan Larkin just because Larkin asked. Larkin is under contract. Detroit can listen, decide what the market is, and also simply say no. That is exactly why this could drag on much longer than people expect.
There is recent history with Yzerman that should not be ignored. In Tampa Bay, Jonathan Drouin asked for a trade in 2015. It became public. The agent leaked it in 2016. It became messy. And what happened? Yzerman did not immediately move him. Drouin wasn’t even Tampa’s best player or captain.. Drouin went on to play two more full seasons before he was actually dealt. By the time the trade finally happened, it no longer felt like a dramatic fulfillment of a trade request. It was just a trade. The heat had cooled. The leverage had shifted. The organization moved on its own timeline.
That history tells you how Yzerman views these things. He is not going to let the public clock dictate the hockey decision. If he believes the best deal is not there, he can wait. If he thinks the noise will die down, he can wait. If he thinks Larkin is too important to move unless the return is overwhelming, he can wait. And if he is angry about the leak, that might make him even less inclined to reward whoever was trying to create pressure.
So if it was not the player, the agent, or the team, then who would leak it?
One source I spoke to thinks it was leaked by a team interested having discussion with Detroit, but felt Yzerman was asking for a ridiculous return.... That would be dangerous. If a team involved in the process leaked this, that is not something Yzerman would like at all. Again, this is where the Lamoriello comparison fits. Lou has always been the type of executive who would rather kill a trade than complete it after the details got out. Yzerman may not be exactly Lou, but he is built from that same hockey culture. The last thing a team should want to do is make him feel exposed or pressured.
As for the famous short list that Larkin will accept a trade to, that part of the reporting and conversation is still just speculative. I was told by a team involved that all parties are guarding the short list and absolutely do not want it out. That makes sense. Once teams are named, pressure builds in every direction. Fans build mock trades. Players hear their names. Front offices worry about leverage and optics. If Larkin has a list of preferred destinations, the people involved are going to do everything they can to keep it tight.
But speculation is inevitable, and it starts with relationships.
Larkin’s closest hockey relationships are believed by many to be connected to USA Hockey. That is where names like Quinn Hughes, Jack Hughes, and Auston Matthews enter the conversation. Larkin has deep roots in the American hockey world. Quinn Hughes and Jack Hughes were both mentored by Larkin in the Detroit area, and that kind of connection matters when people imagine where he might want to go. It does not mean Minnesota or New Jersey is automatically on a list. It does not mean a deal is realistic. But it explains why people around the league will naturally look there first.
New Jersey is always going to come up because of Jack Hughes and the American star power there. Minnesota is always going to come up because of Quinn Hughes. Toronto is going to come up because Auston Matthews will almost certainly want the Maple Leafs to get involved if a player like Larkin is even remotely available. Players talk. Stars recruit. That is how the modern NHL works, even if executives pretend it does not.
Florida might be the most interesting fit. Matthew Tkachuk is there. The Panthers have a winning environment. They have an aggressive front office. And financially, there is a path that becomes easier when Sergei Bobrovsky’s $10 million comes off the books. If Florida can create the room and find the assets, they might be my favorite to land him. Larkin in Florida would make sense competitively. He would fit their identity, give them another high-end center, and extend their window.
Still, the challenge is not just cap space. The challenge is the asking price.
The reason I do not think anything is happening quickly is that Detroit’s ask is going to be massive. The price, as I understand it, would likely start with a center of equal value or close to equal value, plus more. And that is where the whole thing gets difficult. Centers are at a premium across the NHL. Everyone wants them. No one has enough of them. And the teams that do have centers of equal or near-equal value usually are not trying to trade them, because contenders need more than one center.
That is the reality of a Larkin trade. You can build fantasy packages with wingers, prospects, picks, and defensemen, but if Yzerman is moving his captain and top center, he has to answer a simple question: who plays center for Detroit after the trade? If the Red Wings do not get a legitimate center back, they risk creating an even bigger hole than the one they are already trying to solve. A team under pressure to make the playoffs cannot just move its most important forward for futures and sell that as progress.
That brings us to Yzerman’s own situation.
He is already on the hot seat in Detroit. This rebuild has gone on for a long time. The Red Wings have improved in some areas, but the playoff drought is still the defining fact. At some point, patience runs out, especially in a market like Detroit, where the standard was once championships, deep playoff runs, and elite players wearing the winged wheel every spring. Yzerman has a legendary history in that city, but being a franchise icon does not make you immune forever.
The Larkin situation adds another layer. If Detroit misses the playoffs again, and if the captain has asked out, then ownership has to ask what exactly the direction is. Is the problem the roster? Is it the coach? Is it the relationship between management and the player? Is it the lingering tension from Larkin’s last contract negotiation, which was not exactly smooth? Or is it simply that the rebuild has not reached the point it was supposed to reach by now?
That is what makes this so confusing. No one seems to know exactly why Larkin wants out. He is from the area. He has always loved being a Red Wing. He understood the responsibility of being the captain in Detroit. This was not supposed to be the player who looked around and decided the grass was greener somewhere else. So if he really wants a change, the reason matters.
Maybe it is coaching. Maybe it is frustration with losing. Maybe it is a relationship issue with Yzerman that goes back to the last negotiation. Maybe it is a combination of all of those things. But whatever the reason, it has to be significant.
That is why I am not convinced the most likely outcome is a quick trade.
It is very possible Larkin remains in a Red Wings uniform for another year. It is very possible Yzerman waits out the market, refuses to take anything less than a massive return, and dares everyone else to meet his price. It is also possible the season plays out, Detroit misses again, and the person who moves on is not Larkin, but Yzerman. If that happens, the entire situation could change. A new general manager might repair the relationship. A new coach might change the environment. A new direction might convince Larkin that staying is still possible.
That is the part people should not overlook. This is not automatically a countdown to a trade. It might be a countdown to a larger organizational decision. The whole thing reminds me of the classic scene in movies where someone is trying to move wires around on a bomb to stop it and instead something they do triggers the countdown clock to go from two hours to 20 seconds....
If Yzerman stays, maybe he eventually makes the deal on his terms. If Yzerman goes, maybe Larkin stays. That sounds strange today, but it might be just as realistic as any trade scenario being thrown around. The captain wanting out is a crisis. But in Detroit, it might also be a symptom. And if it is a symptom, the Red Wings have to figure out whether the solution is moving the player, changing the leadership around him, or finally building the kind of team that makes him want to finish what he started.
For now, the only certainty is that the quietest organization in hockey suddenly has the loudest story. And for Steve Yzerman, Dylan Larkin, Pat Brisson, and every team watching from the outside…this is just the beginnin