• As Larkin walks away from Red Wings, where does that leave Simon Edvinsson?
• Minnesota’s tricky situation with Quinn Hughes
• The most fitting endorsement ever
Honestly, it’s for the best.
The Dylan Larkin Detroit Divorce became official Thursday, with the team’s former captain informing the club he would no longer play for them; the Red Wings responded by suspending him without pay and removing his nameplate from the team’s dressing room.
Of all the players who, last summer, asked for trades or said they wouldn’t be re-signing once current contracts expired, several sources said Larkin had the toughest time handling the blowback. While others blocked it out, got their wish or stayed away, he threw himself into the fire, hoping playing for the winged wheel until a trade occurred would calm the storm. And, I was told on several occasions that he was concerned how commentary about his situation would be received by his teammates.
That said, less than one week after Connor Hellebuyck was sent east, Larkin’s agent, Pat Brisson, met face-to-face with his client and announced the player “had enough.” He’s not the only one.
Please God, use your omnipotent power to get Bill Guerin or Kent Hughes (or anyone else) to make the trade so we can all stop talking about it.
One of my working theories is that Brisson/Larkin are aware of an offer they deem acceptable, even if that feeling is not shared by interim GM Shawn Horcoff.
Anyone who covers the NHL will tell you things change with one phone call. But, as this situation went supernova, there was nothing close. Horcoff once again indicated he will act only when judging it to be in the best interests of the Red Wings.
Complicating all of this is that some of the most interested/motivated purchasers are not places he’s indicated a willingness to go to. There’s an awkward high-school prom dance with Montreal, while Buffalo and St. Louis are also believed to be searching for the secret password to enter this party. The Red Wings have not been shy about asking for a larger tent. To this point, Larkin has not agreed — again — to expand his list of acceptable destinations. Some, particularly Florida and Vegas, seem impossible due to roster/salary-cap reasons.
Minnesota is believed to be dangling rapidly-improving Danila Yurov, another veteran (trade protection has me uncertain of whomst) and a Costco of firsts. But it is hands off the core, as the desire is to strengthen, not go sideways. Educated guess: the Wild seem to be betting that their best offer beats the best offer from any other team Larkin is willing to go to. Let’s see if the Red Wings draw anything on the river.
Carolina is a perfect fit. An absolutely perfect fit for his game. But, are they willing to pay the forward for Larkin they weren’t for Hellebuyck? Right now, I don’t see it.
The biggest challenge in predicting the end of this saga is understanding Detroit’s goals. Ownership is also extremely sensitive to how it is perceived, which is why I was so surprised that, a day after scoring a major victory signing Alex DeBrincat, it undercut Horcoff by saying they were still looking for a President of Hockey Operations.
They badly want playoff action in their beautiful new building, but, as important as it is to get a good return for Larkin and for Simon Edvinsson (although they continue to publicly insist they will sign him), the longer they are out of the lineup, the more monumental that task.
I try to look at everything as an opportunity. For 25 years, Detroit was the NHL’s powerhouse, four Stanley Cups, Hall-of-Famers galore. Every dynasty crumbles. This is Detroit’s chance to remake their group, add something fresh.
Watch Horcoff’s Thursday-night media conference. HockeyTown is burning, but he’s calm. It’s not him I’m worried about. This was a rough summer for the organization. Indecision played a major part in getting us here. Larkin’s ready. So is Edvinsson. Are the Red Wings?
1. Teams I’ve heard took a long look at Edvinsson: Boston (although less chatter recently), Nashville, St. Louis, San Jose, Seattle. No doubt there are more. The talks with the Sharks are substantive, I believe, with at least one serious offer between them — an offer that was not accepted by Detroit, as the story goes. (That’s not to say the Wings were unreasonable.)
I can’t speak for certain about the Blues, but my information is the other four on this list have been asked about young centres. The Red Wings say they are willing to wait until Edvinsson’s Dec. 1 signing deadline. I wouldn’t expect them to admit anything different. We’ll see. It’s stressful.
2. I mentioned on a previous pod that Carolina, which has a history of threatening offer sheets, did so with Edvinsson. My understanding is it was right around July 1, and may have contained an added twist: they were going to trade him to a third team. Obviously, that didn’t happen, and I have no information this was re-visited any time after Detroit’s GM change.
3. Outside of Detroit, things are relatively calm on the trade front. There is Dmitri Voronkov, Ivan Miroshnichenko, Nino Niederreiter, some depth players and a couple of unresolved situations, including Shane Wright and Connor Zary. Zary, however, has missed three AHL Wranglers games in a row due to injury.
4. Before negotiating a CBA, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly will meet with each team to discuss what is important to them. Prior to the latest agreement, one owner said he heard there was a club that wanted no-trade and no-move clauses to be addressed. (“Protect us from ourselves!” Etc.)
That team was told this is a peace-time CBA, so it wasn’t a priority. That’s going to be different in three years, and the NHLPA already sees it coming. As Phil Esposito used to say, “We could all be hit by buses by then,” so who knows the landscape. But if the cap continues to rise as predicted, that’s another peace-time CBA, so it’s going to be interesting to see how deep the trenches will be.
5. I was surprised to hear two current NHLers recently say they feel if you make a trade request, you should lose your protection. Would love to know how many more share that opinion. Detroit (then-GM Steve Yzerman) and Winnipeg made the same arguments to Larkin and Hellebuyck last spring when both asked out. They were rebuffed, not surprisingly. Larkin started with three teams, and is now at 10. Hellebuyck initially said Florida, before adjusting to anywhere he thought he could win.
One of the aforementioned two current players added, in exchange, no team should be able to even ask a player with a clause to waive. That is also Kelly Hrudey’s position. Does that solve the problem? If you get a no-trade, you can’t be asked. If you ask, you lose all coverage.
6. Excellent start for the Kraken, who could have folded Wednesday night when Toronto charged back from 4-2. It’s well known Seattle is sleepless for scoring, but word is they are taking a serious run at keeping Vince Dunn. That’s going to be a big number, but he said on a recent podcast he’d like to stay. He would be the second-most-wanted free-agent defender, after Quinn Hughes. One hang-up: they seem to be considering a few things — extending Dunn, examining Edvinsson, pursuing wingers — potential puzzle pieces to place. Apropos of nothing, I really like Berkly Catton. He’s going to be a great player for them.
7. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what to make of Quinn Hughes’ future. I do believe he is driven to prove it’s possible to excel amid uncertainty and speculation. The best-of-the-best lust for such challenges and he’s got that mindset: “Don’t think I can do it? I’ll show you, loser.”
If I was the Wild and thought I could win the Stanley Cup, I’d go for it anyway. They’ve never made a final. They’ve made one Conference Final. They’ve won one round in 12 years — last season, with Hughes. As brutal as the playoffs can be, are you going to have a better shot than you do right now? What Carolina did with Mikko Rantanen should teach everyone to be unafraid of an unconventional path. If something doesn’t work, pivot. The challenge is that the gap between Hughes and what you can get for him looks like a chasm compared to Rantanen and Logan Stankoven.
8. Someone made another good point: Rantanen gave the Hurricanes teams he would extend with, allowing market creation. As promised, he immediately signed in Dallas. Hughes has shown no inclination of doing that. He has been up-front and honest, making no guarantees.
9. As for Nikita Kucherov, we’re always guessing with the vault-like Lightning, but it doesn’t take a genius to recognize the biggest issue is finding a sweet spot in the post-Leo Carlsson world. Kucherov is 33. The Lightning gave Victor Hedman four years of term ($8 million AAV) at 33. How much is a four-year deal for Kucherov in today’s NHL financial climate?
10. Winnipeg did an awesome job with the Heritage Classic. A weekend I won’t forget.
11. One last item of business between the Jets and Hellebuyck. Does he wish to appeal his 18-day suspension? He cannot do anything about the money lost from the start of training camp until he informed Winnipeg of his desire to report. That’s gone, because he stayed away without permission.
Under the CBA, the team had the right to suspend him for a “reasonable” amount of time once he informed them he was coming back. Because it was initially his choice to sit 18 days, the NHL advised a suspension of the same length fit the definition of…reasonable. He has until the first week of December to appeal.
12. It’s been widely reported that Buffalo and Winnipeg were deep in Hellebuyck discussions at the draft, but someone told me last weekend that wasn’t the first time the Jets and Sabres discussed him. In the summer of 2023, before the goalie signed his long-term extension in Manitoba, the two teams took a looooooooooong look at it. Person wouldn’t say why it fell apart.
13. New Jersey trading for Hellebuyck reminded me a lot of Alex Anthopoulos getting David Price in 2015. The Blue Jays were a .500 team (I think 52-51 when they acquired him) averaging one more run per game than the second-best team in the sport. Their defensive metrics were also strong, but their pitching was at the bottom of the American League. Post-Price, they went 41-18. The Devils’ underlying numbers defending the slot at even-strength (per Sportlogiq) are consistently top five, but the save percentage numbers aren’t. If Hellebuyck is himself, he will make a big difference.
14. Among those still hoping for NHL employment: Patrik Laine, Nick Leddy, Reilly Smith, Vladimir Tarasenko and James van Riemsdyk. Wondered if Dallas, which could use a scorer, might have interest in Laine, especially since they have such success with Finns. Didn’t sound like that was a fit.
15. One of the reasons the Stars signed David Perron is his outstanding play along the boards. They felt they needed an upgrade. Teammate Luke Gazdic said, at 38, Perron’s still one of the best at it. Good nuance thing.
16. I will be watching Utah/Philadelphia Sunday. After Philadelphia’s last game versus Washington, Sean Couturier used the “S-word” on his teammates: soft. I once used it on the air to describe someone or something. Then-partner Glenn Healy said it was the worst thing you could call a player or a team.
17. Teuvo Teravainen as an Ottawa short-term injection made sense, but that idea was denied to me.
18. Leon Draisaitl, asked if Connor McDavid can break Wayne Gretzky’s record 215 points in a season: “I wouldn’t put anything past this guy…215? It’s a lot, but he’ll get close.”
19. One reason Auston Matthews is off to a hot start? In the first four years of data for the NHL’s Edge stats, he never had a hardest shot below 90.56 mph — until last season, at 88.35 mph. This year, he’s already got something at 90.48, in the 94th percentile. That’s as high as he’s been, compared to his peers.
20. Games are much better, things are humming, but that was one ugly start to this season. No fitness testing, shorter training camp, fewer exhibition games, things were sloppy. Was there any appetite maybe for at least a few more days of camp to sharpen things? Nope. The NHLPA is doing its fall tour of players, and there is basically zero desire to adjust. No one weeps for training camps or exhibition hockey.
21. Logan Stanley was born and raised in Kitchener-Waterloo, where current Islanders coach Peter DeBoer led the OHL Rangers from 2001-08. He played pickup with Logan’s father, Jeff, and, when Stanley signed on Long Island right before the season, sent a text that read, “I’ve been looking forward to coaching you since you were seven years old.” That resonated with Stanley, who had a tough summer.
One of the stories I’ve never forgotten came from Wade Redden, when the Rangers sent him to AHL Hartford in 2010. He was understandably in an awful headspace, but Curtis Leschyshyn told him, “You’ve given your entire life to hockey, you can’t retire angry at the game.” That started a path where Redden would return to the NHL for one final season with St. Louis and Boston.
Stanley said he looked for the positives. For example, he was able to take and pick up his young daughter from her first day of school, something he wouldn’t have been able to do under his previous schedule. That kind of thinking is so, so important. Now, he’s Matthew Schaefer’s defence partner — never a bad thing.
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22. As incredible as Schaefer’s five minutes of overtime were during Tuesday’s 4-3 shootout win in Nashville, don’t ignore Ryan O’Reilly’s 4:27 during the same span. At 17 years older, he could be Schaefer’s father — and was killing a penalty. O’Reilly is a pending UFA, Nashville appears ready to accept a retool, and other teams have been lusting after him for years. Don’t believe there’s been much conversation about an extension, either.
23. Vitali Pinchuk came to Tennessee with much fanfare, but it’s been a rough start, with one assist in five games. A quick change of scenery might be coming here.
24. Small flow-of-play change this NHL season: during nationally-televised games, puck drop was moved from 35 seconds after a goal to 45 seconds after.
25. A few social media followers asked if the league’s crackdown on properly wearing helmets and visors extended to mouthguards, since so many players openly chew them outside their mouths. The answer is no, because there is no rule about using them.
26. The league also warned coaches about the way they interact with officials. Two weeks ago, Kevin Bieksa and Luke Gazdic had a neat piece on Saturday Night Hockey about coaches taping a note at the bench with all of the officials’ names and faces. A fan at a Panthers game sent a photo of Paul Maurice’s version, which adds the letters ‘STFU’ as a personal reminder at the bottom. I assume that’s meant for himself, not the stripes.
27. Apparently, Calgary rookie Jonathan Castagna is a true thespian. He played Freddie Mercury in a school play. Did very well, I heard.
28. If Tim Stutzle’s goal call is not, “I have a chef at home,” we have failed as a society.
29. The ECHL announced Wednesday that Iowa Wild GM Matt Hendricks will be inducted into its Hall of Fame. His first pro season was with the Florida Everblades, before he graduated to the AHL and then 607 NHL games with Colorado, Washington, Nashville, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Minnesota.
Todd McLellan, who coached the Oilers from 2015-19, has told a story about McDavid asking him to allow Hendricks to take warmups before a playoff game, even though Hendricks wasn’t playing. The youthful Oilers wanted him around as they prepared for a big game. It’s rare for McLellan (or any coach) to allow that, but he did for the highly-respected Hendricks — who, someday, will be a GM in the NHL. Congratulations to him, alongside fellow honourees Jeff Jakaitis and Derek Nesbitt.
30. San Jose’s Kiefer Sherwood switched to Sherwood for this season and, on Oct. 1 vs. Florida, debuted a signature “Kiefer” stick. That will go down as the most fitting endorsement ever.
31. Wanted to shout out the WHL for running its own “In-Season Cup.” (There are many worse things that could have been a high school legacy.) Defending champion Everett lost its first game to Portland. Current holder Calgary took it from Red Deer on Oct. 16 and has defended it five times. Next challenge is tomorrow night from those same Rebels. Official tracker is here:
32. Finally, wanted to correct something I got wrong last week on Matt Marchese and Mike Futa’s The Fan Hockey Show. I said there were two Devils defencemen who used their no-trade protection last season. One, as previously reported, was Dougie Hamilton. I named Brenden Dillon as the other. That’s a moronic mistake. It wasn’t him.
