Analysts Debate If Dylan Larkin Will Hold Out From Red Wings Training Camp

Monday, August 24, 2026
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The Dylan Larkin drama has dragged on all summer. He put in a request to be traded after the end of last season. That request was made to former president of hockey operations Steve Yzerman.

Now, about three months later, Yzerman is gone, and Larkin is still the Detroit Red Wings' captain.

Some are saying that Larkin has not rescinded his trade request, even though Stevie Y is out of the hockey ops picture. But Detroit currently doesn't have a GM in place who could even work on a trade, if there were one to be made. 

Training camp is about three weeks away, and the question of a possible holdout from camp for Larkin looms. 

But Wings beat writer 
Ted Kulfan
 of The Detroit News says the team is not worried about their top-line center holding out. 

"People around the organization—I wouldn't want to say the word 'confident' but— the thing is, they kinda feel like when the time comes, Dylan Larkin is gonna be in camp. I mean, the options are limited. Does he want to hold out? I doubt that. You're leaving $8 million on the table, that's a lot of money."

$8M is Larkin's base salary for each of the next three seasons, and it drops into the $7s for the last two years of the deal. His contract was front-loaded, so Detroit was on the hook for a pretty big chunk of the $69 million contract in the first three seasons of the 8-year deal (another reason why they're extra perturbed about being 'forced' to trade him now). 

Add to the fact that a new general manager, whenever one is named, "is not going to have enough time to delve into that situation, and make a trade that's so important to the organization," said Kulfan.

"As we get closer, day by day, I do think there's a pretty darn good chance he'll be there the first day of training camp."

Bob Duff of Detroit Hockey Now echoed the same sentiments: A holdout is not an option for Larkin:

He’s not going to give the team a reason not to pay him that money. And a holdout seeking to force the team’s hand into trading him more quickly would only play into the team’s hands. 

If Larkin were to withhold his services, it would allow management not to pay Larkin all that money. The Red Wings could simply suspend Larkin for refusing to honor his contract. 

You can call Larkin a lot of things, and certainly, a definitive portion of the Red Wings faithful has applied a plethora of colorful adjectives to Larkin’s name this summer. 

One thing you can’t call him is foolish. And he’d have to be a fool to take this course of action.

From the sounds of it, it should be an interesting scene on Day 1 of the Wings' camp at Little Caesars Arena on September 17th. 


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