Dylan Larkin expands his list to 8 teams, but did he?

I did an article two weeks ago where I talked about how Larkin could expand his list to 12 teams Minnesota would still have the best offer assuming that offer was something like Yurov, Stramel/Brodin and two firsts. That is the equivalent of four first rounders or three first rounders and a good roster player. On my live show I talked about how I figured Larkin's camp would keep adding teams that they were sure would not want to trade for him or at least not willing to offer as much as Minnesota would. (See previous articles for reasons I came to this conclusion). Dylan and his agent have seemed to leak information now that the list is 8 teams and names Tampa, a team I thought would be on his original list of three teams, Colorado, Dallas and Washinton plus one mystery team. I am going to guess that team is Utah.

When you look at this list, Colorado has no real tradeable assets and no cap space. The guy's Detroit would possibly be interested in have no trade clauses and I doubt they would waive the to go to a team that has not made the playoffs in ten years and does not have Larkin on it now.

Dallas was an interesting one because it was leaked that Larkin added them to the list during trade talks that the Red Wings were having for Jason Robertson. That leak came out about the same time that iy came out that there was no trade to be made. My theory then was that Larkin's camp added Dallas when they knew there was no trade to be made and with the cap space being in a worse position now I imagine there is still no trade to be made.

My theory that Utah would be the mystery team is based on the idea that it wouldn't be the worst place to go to as far as being a contender if a trade did happen, but with Trocheck picked up in the off season to play center for the Mammoth they have no need for centers and it is doubtful they would trade Cooley, or Schmaltz in a lateral deal. 

Washington is the most interesting one as you can make a very good case that Larkin would be an upgrade over the center used in the number 1 spot most often Dylan Strome. The problem I see here is threefold. 1) Although Strome does not have trade protection his 5 million per year deal is finished after next year. Detroit would have to hope he would be willing to resign, or he would basically become a rental that may get them a late first if they traded him but Detroit has stated that they are not looking for a "futures" type trade. 2) Dylan Strome is nowhere near the player Larkin is and has played very sheltered minutes for Washinton mostly alongside Ovechkin as his 56 percent competition rating on the card above suggests. This would suggest he was played more as a second line centerman with a little more than second line minutes. He would be playing top line in Detroit, but Larkin received some of the toughest minutes in the league. If Strome received those minutes he would get crushed, I am sure. Maybe Washington could throw in a 3rd liner like Beauvillier and a couple 1sts that will likely be very late rounders and as a whole this deal is not really any better than what Minnesota is offering. 3) Capitals G.M. Brian McLellan and his scouting staff have been raving over Ilya Protas for years now and lifting him up as the future number one center for them. His brother Aliaksei also plays for them and I imagine the prospect of both brothers being on the same team is something Washington would favor maintaining. IIlya's brother already signed a very team friendly deal at 3.7 million to remain a Cap and i wouldn't doubt that the opportunity to be on a team with his brother is part of the reason why. I cannot see Washington now jumping ship and getting Larkin who would be way more expensive and would block Ilya from the number one roll that they have been grooming him for. Washington has done a fantastic job of setting themselves up for the future after Ovenchkin retires while being very competitive now, I would be very surprised if they upset that balance now.

                          Why would Larkin give teams that are not good trade partners?

 By continuing to add teams like he has Larkin makes it look like he is sort of complying with the narrative that he must expand his list to appear reasonable. This gives better optics that Larkin is being "fair" in the process which puts a little more heat on Detroit to get a deal done. It also makes that Minnesota deal look more reasonable since he has expanded his list and it is still the best deal out there. We are getting close to the season starting and Detroit has to ask themselves how much they are willing to endure the disruption of this situation carrying on. This situation looks really bad for corporate sponsors as well who are probably not too happy with how this is playing out. Negative media every day and unhappy fans are not really what they signed up for. I personally think the Dylan Larkin "injury" was a hand-shake agreement to keep Larkin away right now. That tells me that that is exactly what Detroit wants to have be the case. Is Detroit willing to pay Larkin to stay home and for how long? Will they let Larkin play and have that awkward every day experience with booing hard-core fans and average fans having there nice family outing turn into an angry negative experience? We will see.. I say he ends up in Minny as I predicted.

More in this from my show this morning here