Dylan Larkin's agent Pat Brisson spoke to Pierre LeBrun Saturday, and his words landed somewhere between reassuring and carefully vague.
"The process is that we've had discussions for the last month or so. And we've agreed that we'll be working together on this. I do understand that Steve and the organization have to do what's best for the Red Wings. We're trying to work as a 'team' together on this to reach each of our goals so to speak."
Translation: nothing is resolved, but nobody is blowing the building up either.
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Larkin posted 34 goals and 67 points in 74 games this season for Detroit. Nine game-winning goals.
He's 29 years old and at his prime. His current cap hit sits at $8,700,000, a number that would need significant upward movement on any extension.
Detroit finished 41-31-10, sixteenth overall, scoring only 241 goals, one of the lowest offensive totals in the Atlantic Division.
They went 2-6-2 in their final ten games of the season. This is not a team trending in the right direction.
GM Steve Yzerman is known for patience and for protecting asset value.
Moving Larkin would be an admission that the rebuild needs a reset. Keeping him means committing real money to a team that still has significant structural problems.
Brisson's careful language suggests a trade remains a live option
Read Brisson's quote again. He says they're "working together" and that Yzerman has to "do what's best for the Red Wings." That's an agent who isn't closing the door on anything publicly.
An agent protecting a player who genuinely wants to stay typically sounds different. More direct. Less diplomatic.
The Dallas Stars have been linked to Larkin. So has the interest from multiple contenders. A 29-year-old center who scores 34 goals is not the kind of player that sits on the market long once real traction starts.
Yzerman has about four or five days before the summer really moves. After that, the leverage shifts.
Larkin's future in Detroit is far from settled.
Should the Red Wings trade Dylan Larkin this offseason?
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