Stagnant trade talks and a soaring market for elite centers have Steve Yzerman playing hardball, leaving the Red Wings captain in limbo despite a team-friendly contract.
On Tuesday, more reports emerged suggesting the saga between the Detroit Red Wings and Dylan Larkin has firmly hit a snag in the road when it comes to moving the 29-year-old center.
From the Detroit Free Press, Helene St. James reported that there has been extremely little movement on the trade front for Larkin, noting that in the near three months since his trade request, the Michigan native has not expanded his list from Florida, Minnesota, Vegas.
St. James added that Detroit has not received offers from those three clubs that have intrigued the Wings, and that the organization is looking to add immediate impact options in any deal for Larkin, whom she described as a legitimate number one center carrying a very favorable contract for the position.
This report comes on the back of Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman's comments Monday on his podcast, 32 Thoughts, where he explained that the Leo Carlsson offer sheet, which will pay the young center $18 million per season, has changed the calculus around Larkin entirely.
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Friedman relayed that he heard from some sources right after the offer sheet hit, asking how much more valuable Larkin had just become given he still has five years remaining at just $8.7 million annually. Friedman believes with the offer sheet that Yzerman will now "draw it even harder now," referring to how tightly Yzerman would hold the line in any trade talks going forward.
Friedman added that the offer sheet made Larkin more valuable not just in Yzerman's eyes, but in the eyes of the league's other general managers as well.
Larkin is coming off a career-best 34-goal season in which he added 33 assists for 67 points in 74 games. With the price of top-end centers rising fast around the league, what looked like a straightforward departure for Larkin a few months ago is starting to look far more complicated.
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