The infamous trade request by Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin is shaping up to have been a considerable miscalculation on his part.
Fans of the Detroit Red Wings were stunned when news broke in early June that captain Dylan Larkin had officially requested to be traded, despite having five years left on his contract.
About a month and a half earlier, Larkin and the Red Wings missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the 10th consecutive season. It was also the third straight year they failed to hold onto a comfortable lead in the standings after entering March in a strong position.
It's now been three months since the trade request was made public, and as of September 5, he remains on the roster. Reports also emerged that Larkin would only accept a trade to the Vegas Golden Knights, Minnesota Wild, or Florida Panthers.
This further tied the hands of now-former GM Steve Yzerman, who vacated his role in an equally surprising move just over a month later in mid-July.
The Red Wings are less than two weeks away from the start of Training Camp (Sept. 17), and still haven't named Yzerman's successor. With each passing day, the chances of Larkin still being with the club by the time Camp begins grows stronger.
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Larkin, who recently turned 30, has only played five postseason games, all of which were in 2016 during his rookie season.
Understandably, he wants an opportunity to compete for the Stanley Cup while he's still in the prime of his career. He got a taste of what that experience could be like when he helped Team USA capture its first Olympic gold medal since 1980 at the Milano Cortina Winter Games.
However, Larkin's apparent stubborn refusal to expand his trade list is proving to be a major miscalculation on his part.
Simply put, the Golden Knights, Wild, and Panthers did not have the type of assets the Red Wings were looking for in a Larkin trade. Unless Larkin is willing to expand his list of teams, his other option may be to reach an agreement with Yzerman's eventual successor and withdraw his trade request - at least for now.
There's also no way he isn't aware that a good portion of the Red Wings fan base did not take kindly to his trade request, and that he reportedly limited Detroit's options of trading him to only three teams.
The Red Wings open the regular season at Little Caesars Arena on Oct. 2 against the New York Rangers. If Larkin remains in the Detroit lineup, he's almost certain to hear loud boos cascading down from large swaths of fans who viewed his trade request as a betrayal.
While Larkin's teammates may be more willing to view his trade request as a business decision, plenty of Red Wings fans are unlikely to see it the same way.
Larkin had every right to ask for a trade, but Detroit was under no obligation to make a deal if the offers did not meet its expectations.
By reportedly limiting his preferred destinations to just three teams and refusing to expand that list, Larkin has put himself in a difficult position.
If he had known he would still be on Detroit's roster on Sept. 5, with Training Camp less than two weeks away, he might have approached the situation differently.
But he didn't. And now, he's likely going to have to deal with an increasingly awkward situation.
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