Dylan Larkin has asked the Detroit Red Wings for a trade, and Steve Yzerman now has a full-blown roster crisis on his hands heading into the offseason.
Larkin, 29, is coming off a 67-point season in 74 games, including 9 game-winning goals and a 9-point surge over his final five games of the year.
He carries an $8.7 million cap hit. Moving him won't be simple.
But the bigger problem for Yzerman isn't the Larkin trade itself. It's what happens around it.
Pagnotta was explicit: the Larkin situation will have a direct effect on Alex DeBrincat's future in Detroit as well.
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DeBrincat, 28, just posted 85 points in a full 82-game season, 41 of them goals. He's signed at $7.875 million. A legitimate top-six scorer in his prime.
If Larkin is gone, does DeBrincat want to stay? That's the question every rebuilding team dreads.
Patrick Kane's UFA future now tied to the Larkin fallout
Pagnotta also floated a name that no one had connected to this story yet: Patrick Kane.
Kane becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1. He's 37, still on a $3 million deal in Detroit, where he put up 57 points in 67 games this season, racking up 41 assists.
Pagnotta asked publicly whether Kane could be an Alex Tuch replacement in Buffalo, given that Tuch struggled badly down the stretch, held scoreless over his final five games and posting a -4 rating.
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Buffalo finished 4th in the league with 109 points and a 50-23-9 record, so GM Jarmo Kekalainen isn't tearing anything down.
But Tuch at $4.75 million with that kind of late-season fade? That could create a conversation.
Kane in Buffalo at the right price isn't insane. It might actually be a reasonable short-term fit if the Sabres want an experienced playmaker who can drive a power play.
Detroit's season, in contrast, was a 41-31-10 mess with a -17 goal differential. They went 2-6-2 in their last ten games and finished 16th overall.
Todd McLellan did what he could, but a locker room with a captain who wants out is not a situation that gets better on its own.
Yzerman has handled worse. But losing Larkin, Kane and DeBrincat in the same offseason window would essentially reset the franchise's timeline by three years overnight.
Whether DeBrincat formally requests his own exit or simply becomes available in trade talks because of Larkin's departure, the effect is the same: Detroit's top two forwards could both be playing elsewhere by October.
That's the actual story here. Not the Larkin trade. What happens to everything around it.
Should the Red Wings fire Steve Yzerman?
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TSN insider Darren Dreger reports an active trade underway that will be a blockbuster
