Only One Team Aggressively Pursuing Dylan Larkin Trade
Wild Are The Lone Aggressor
Detroit Hockey Now's Kevin Allen's latest reporting confirms that of the three teams on Larkin's list, the Florida Panthers, Vegas Golden Knights and Minnesota Wild, only Minnesota is aggressively trying to complete a deal right now.
Florida and Vegas have effectively fallen off, with the Wild left standing as Detroit's only real trade partner. It's easy to see why Minnesota is the one still pushing.
Kevin Allen: Re Dylan Larkin trade request: The Wild are the only team of the three [on his list] that aggressively wants to make a deal. But they want to primarily give up prospects and draft picks - Detroit Hockey Now (9/15)
— NHL Rumour Report (@NHLRumourReport) September 17, 2026
The Wild's top six is loaded with talented wingers in Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy, but they've lacked a true difference-making center to play between them, and Larkin gives them that kind of speed and secondary scoring punch down the middle.
He'd also reunite with fellow U.S. Olympic gold medalists Quinn Hughes and Brock Faber, a connection that's been part of the appeal since Larkin's list first became public back in June.
Draft Picks Versus A Proven Player
Detroit's position under Steve Yzerman was that any Larkin trade needed to bring back an established, proven offensive player, not just draft picks and prospects.
Minnesota's problem is that its cupboard of exactly those kinds of NHL-ready complementary pieces is thin, a direct consequence of trading away Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium and Liam Ohgren, along with a 2026 first-round pick, to originally acquire Quinn Hughes from Vancouver last season.
"I'm going to try to be honest with you guys today and I'm not ready to go there yet,"
— Alex Crescenti (@alex_crescenti) September 17, 2026
Here is Dylan Larkin's full response to being asked why he requested a trade from the Red Wings pic.twitter.com/OHxppOX0sV
The Athletic's Michael Russo reported that names like Danila Yurov and Charlie Stramel have been discussed as centerpieces of a Minnesota package, but as Russo put it, those names "haven't moved the needle" in getting a deal done.
With Shawn Horcoff now running Detroit's front office as interim GM instead of Yzerman, there's a real open question about whether that same insistence on a proven player in return still holds, or whether a new decision-maker might be more open to betting on futures instead.
Nobody currently knows the answer, including, it seems, the Wild themselves.
