First of all, Dylan Larkin is good, not great.
Now, that’s not to say he isn’t a top-six forward in the National Hockey League, but rather that he’s a first line center on the Detroit Red Wings and a very good second line center on any Stanley Cup-contending roster.
He’s the type of player that the Colorado Avalanche, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, Edmonton Oilers, Carolina Hurricanes and Vegas Golden Knights would be after on their way to their recent Stanley Cup Final appearances.
But there’s a clear difference between guys like Nathan MacKinnon, Nikita Kucherov, Aleksander Barkov, Connor McDavid and Larkin.
There’s “generational talent” and then there’s “very high-skilled.”
Larkin is more akin to Taylor Hall on the Hurricanes, for example. Both are great in their own right.
Hall won the Hart Memorial Trophy in the 2017-18 season with the New Jersey Devils and was the 1st overall pick by the Oilers in the 2010 NHL Draft. He’s now in his first career Stanley Cup Final appearance in his 16th season in the league.
Larkin has played 11 seasons, was drafted 15th overall by Detroit in 2014, and won gold with the U.S. men’s team in the 2026 Winter Games. He’s actually appeared in more Olympic games (six) than Stanley Cup Playoff games (five) since his NHL debut with the Red Wings in the 2015-16 season.
Sure, Larkin would easily slide in as a first line center for the Boston Bruins, but are the Bruins that competitive of a team regardless of whether or not they were to acquire Larkin?
Boston is not Colorado, Tampa, Florida, Edmonton, Carolina or Vegas.
Trying to acquire Larkin means giving up components of the current roster and immediate future. It’s not as steep of an asking price as some might be touting, though others hold fast to the claim that Larkin is a franchise center.
Larkin is a “franchise center” much in the sense that Shane Doan was the franchise player for the Winnipeg Jets/Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes.
Both players fall into a category of players that were loyal to a fault and played well enough to earn their rightful recognition, but never really broke out with all-time clutch performances that yielded Cup rings (in part because the teams they played for were never that competitive).
Some might even look at David Pastrňák as being in the same position on the Bruins as Larkin is in Detroit the longer that Boston waivers in what Jeff Marek refers to as “the mushy middle.”
Larkin is a six-time 30-goal scorer and recorded career-highs in assists (47) and points (79) in the 2022-23 season while notching a career-high 34 goals in 2025-26. He’s had 30 or more goals in the last five seasons and is pretty consistent in his offensive output with seven seasons of 63 or more points in his 11-year NHL career thus far.
With the Bruins, there’s a chance Larkin could be viewed as a slightly more glorified David Krejčí. What Krejčí may have lacked in regular season performance from year-to-year, however, he made up for in the postseason— elevating his game to the next level.
Acquiring Larkin runs the risk of becoming another Elias Lindholm on a roster that already has Elias Lindholm. He’s also signed for five more years through the 2030-31 season, which is the same length of time remaining on Lindholm’s contract.
Larkin, of course, hasn’t seen action in the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2016.
There are no guarantees that Boston is prime for another playoff run in 2027.
I’m a Red Wings fan, should I be mad about a player exercising their right that was previously negotiated in their contract?
This isn’t the first time a player has appeared as though they’d like to play for one franchise their entire career and later altered their plans as dreams and desires ebb and flow in life.
Dylan Larkin earned the right to negotiate a no-trade clause in his contract in accordance with what the players’ union and league itself collaborated on in the creation of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
Had he pivoted after the first season of his current contract or sooner, I’d understand the annoyance of his perceived “bad faith” towards the Red Wings organization– the franchise itself, his teammates and the fans.
But he spent the first three years of his current eight-year deal wearing Detroit’s crest with enough pride to be patient, if not begrudged, while Steve Yzerman worked to make the roster more aligned with playoff contenders.
Ultimately, Yzerman’s best intentions in acquiring guys like Justin Faulk and David Perron approaching this year’s trade deadline weren’t enough to the satisfaction of Larkin.
Despite spending most of the season in playoff position and having an ascribed leadership role as captain, Larkin and the Red Wings collapsed and missed the postseason yet again.
Who is in the running in the Larkin sweepstakes?
Helene St. James was first to report that Larkin submitted a list of a few teams he’d be willing to waive his no-movement clause for in the Detroit Free Press.
St. James alluded to the usual candidates like the Florida Panthers, Minnesota Wild and Vegas Golden Knights, while The Athletic‘s, Pierre LeBrun, simply confirmed that Yzerman received a “short list” of teams Larkin is willing to be traded to.
LeBrun has since noted that there may be more than a few teams at play after Yzerman asked Larkin’s agent, Pat Brisson, to expand their original list.
This means teams like the Carolina Hurricanes, Dallas Stars, Tampa Bay Lightning and Utah Mammoth could try to make an effort to persuade Larkin by presenting Yzerman with an offer he (Yzerman in this case) can’t refuse.
Larkin holds leverage over where he may ultimately end up before the 2027-28 season, since he has a full no-movement clause in the first five seasons of his current contract.
By the 2028-29 season, however, Larkin will have to submit a list of 10 teams he would be willing to be traded to as the final three years of his current contract carries a modified no-trade clause.
Steve Yzerman’s been through this before, right?
Correct. He was general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning when Martin St. Louis asked to be traded for a chance at a second Cup ring as a player in 2014.
Yzerman swapped captains with the New York Rangers, acquiring Ryan Callahan as part of a package in the St. Louis-Callahan trade.
There were conditions attached to the draft picks involved, but the Bolts ultimately sent St. Louis to the Rangers with a 2015 2nd round pick in exchange for Callahan, a 2014 1st round pick, a 2015 1st round pick and a 2015 7th round pick.
It’s fun to note that all of the draft picks involved in the St. Louis-Callahan trade were later flipped in other trades.
Both the 2014 and 2015 1st round picks ended up being 28th overall in each draft and property of the New York Islanders, who drafted Joshua Ho-Sang and Anthony Beauvillier in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
The 2015 2nd round pick was later traded to the Calgary Flames, who selected Oliver Kylington 60th overall. Meanwhile, the 2015 7th round pick ultimately ended up in Edmonton, where the Oilers drafted Ziyat Paigin 209th overall.
St. Louis and the Rangers ended up losing in the 2014 Stanley Cup Final in five games against the Los Angeles Kings, while Callahan and the Lightning later eliminated the Rangers with a, 2-0, win on the road in Game 7 of the 2015 Eastern Conference Final.
Though Tampa didn’t win the Cup while Yzerman was general manager, things worked out pretty well shortly afterwards in 2020 and 2021.
Anyway, Yzerman is destined to trade yet another captain as a result of Larkin’s trade request.
Yzerman’s main goal is maximizing the return on the deal and has no prerogative to rush things similar to how Joe Sakic handled the Matt Duchene trade almost a decade ago with the Colorado Avalanche after Duchene asked out.
O.K., but do the Bruins have a shot?
There’s no doubt that Don Sweeney will be one of 31 general managers who will do their “due diligence” in exploring the market for Dylan Larkin.
But let’s keep in mind what some other teams have to offer.
The Minnesota Wild could help Detroit’s goaltending woes by including Jesper Wallstedt in a potential Larkin trade. The Dallas Stars– should negotiations sour with Jason Robertson– could trade Robertson to the Red Wings as part of a Larkin trade.
Both of those teams are Cup-contenders for the foreseeable future and can risk moving a young player in their burgeoning prime for Larkin to address a need down the middle and increase their depth for a Cup run.
The Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning have a decent stockpile of current and emerging surefire NHL talent to attract Yzerman.
The Boston Bruins, meanwhile, do not.
It’d be unwise to trade guys like James Hagens or Dean Letourneau for Larkin when the whole point of the retool is to get younger, faster and more skilled.
How did it work for the last guy?
Dylan Larkin is just the latest on the list of players that spent a decent amount of time with one organization only to be left burning bridges on their way out as a result of organizational ineptitude, lack of playoff success or lack of support for the player on or off the ice.
Jack Eichel was drafted 2nd overall by the Buffalo Sabres in 2015, and amassed 139-216–355 totals in 375 career games with Buffalo from 2015-21. Then the Sabres wouldn’t allow him to get surgery that had never been performed on an NHL player before.
He was stripped of his captaincy, failed his physical and was placed on long-term injured reserve before the saga culminated in a trade with the Vegas Golden Knights on November 4, 2021.
Buffalo sent Eichel to Vegas in a package that included Peyton Krebs and Alex Tuch going to the Sabres, while Eichel was able to finally get the surgery he desired and later made his Golden Knights debut on February 16, 2022.
Vegas acquired Eichel at a point where “average” NHL players are just starting to reach their prime. He was 25 when he made his Golden Knights debut in 2021-22, and won the Cup with Vegas the following season at 26.
Elite players can tap into their prime anytime from when they’re drafted at 18 through 20-years-old and make it last into their mid-to-late 30s (think Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Macklin Celebrini or Patrice Bergeron, for example), while the average NHL player typically reaches their prime from about 25 through 32 or 33-years-old.
Goaltenders are usually an outlier regardless, if you’re wondering.
The Detroit Red Wings were around the playoff bubble— even on the right side of making the postseason early in Larkin’s NHL career— far more than the Buffalo Sabres had ever been during Eichel’s tenure with the team.
When Buffalo drafted Eichel, they hadn’t made the playoffs since 2011.
Detroit lost Nick Lidström to retirement in 2012, but still made the playoffs through Larkin’s first NHL season— dropping a First Round matchup in five games against the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2016.
The Bolts had just made an appearance in the Stanley Cup Final in 2015, so Detroit losing to a team that had much of the core in place that led Tampa to Stanley Cup Final appearances in 2015, 2020, 2021 and 2022, isn’t that surprising in hindsight.
Especially as the Red Wings veteran players were in the twilight years of their prime after Detroit won the Cup in 2008, before losing their rematch with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Final in 2009.
More recently, Mitch Marner did a sign and trade on June 30, 2025, in order to get the maximum length of a contract and end up in a more desirable place than the Toronto Maple Leafs who were his hometown team growing up and drafted him 4th overall in 2015.
Marner had 741 points (221 goals, 520 assists) in 657 games in Toronto after making his league debut in the 2016-17 season. He had a career-high 102 points in 81 games with the Maple Leafs in 2024-25, but at 27-years-old he had only advanced as far as the Second Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs twice.
Enter the Golden Knights, who, for Nicolas Roy, acquired Marner in the midst of his prime– similar to Eichel– and are now in the Stanley Cup Final in Marner’s first season with the organization.
Oh, and it helps that Marner is a big part of why Vegas is in the Final against Carolina currently, since Marner has set a franchise record for the most points in a postseason for the Golden Knights with 10-19–29 totals in 20 games played at the time of this writing.
Eichel, Marner and Larkin were all 1st round picks and in their prime at the time of their trades/upcoming trade, but Larkin is turning 30 on July 30th.
He may only have two, three or four years tops in his prime remaining.
How is this relevant to the Bruins?
After being reverse-swept by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2010 Eastern Conference Semifinal, the Boston Bruins needed a little bit of a shakeup.
Everyone in the organization wanted to not just avenge the series loss to the Flyers, but exceed external expectations and win the whole damn thing.
So then-general manager, Peter Chiarelli, faced a situation not entirely dissimilar to Don Sweeney’s current Mason Lohrei problem.
Dennis Wideman wore No. 6 in a Bruins sweater long before Lohrei donned it for the first time in the 2023-24 season. Wideman wore it with pride from the 2006-07 season through the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Wideman was an offensive defender with 36 points (13 goals, 23 assists) in 81 games for Boston in his first full season with the club in 2007-08. He improved to a career-high 50 points (13 goals, 37 assists) in 79 games the following year as the Bruins finished one point shy in the entire league standings of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning San Jose Sharks in 2008-09.
Then Wideman dropped to 6-24–30 totals in 76 games with Boston in 2009-10.
Despite an impressive 12 points (one goal, 11 assists) in 13 playoff games that spring, Wideman’s plus/minus rating had gone from a plus-32 in the regular season in 2008-09, to a minus-14 in 2009-10.
Now, plus/minus isn’t everything, but a drop like that is pretty significant.
His mistakes became glaringly obvious. He shot the puck wide, man. It was in his name all along!
He was also 26-years-old by the end of the 2009-10 season. Coincidentally, Lohrei will be 26 by the end of the 2026-27 season.
Chiarelli needed to boost Boston’s offense while the defense would take care of itself as a young Johnny Boychuk had emerged during the 2009-10 season— complimenting the rest of the blue line in Zdeno Chára, Andrew Ference, Dennis Seidenberg and Adam McQuaid pretty well.
The Bruins had a style that Wideman just… …didn’t fit.
So Chiarelli traded Wideman, a 2010 1st round pick and a 2011 3rd round pick to the Florida Panthers for Nathan Horton and Gregory Campbell.
Horton was the 3rd overall pick in the 2003 NHL Draft. In his first season with the Panthers, he had 14-8–22 totals in 55 games played in 2003-04.
He doubled his scoring output after the 2004-05 lockout canceled season with 28 goals and 19 assists (47 points) in 71 games with Florida in 2005-06.
Horton continued to be a consistent scorer for the Panthers at a time where the team never made the playoffs in his Florida tenure.
Though he only reached the 30-goal plateau once in his career (31 in 2006-07), he had the knack for scoring clutch goals when the Panthers needed it most.
He was also only 25-years-old when the Bruins acquired him on June 22, 2010. That’s five years younger than what Dylan Larkin is going to be by the time Larkin hits the ice this fall.
Of course, if you’re a Bruins fan reading this, you already know that Horton and Co. won the Cup in 2011, and appeared in the 2013 Stanley Cup Final.
Boston acquired Horton in the midst of his prime and got the most out of him before he left in free agency while injuries ultimately ended his career prematurely.
But the Bruins aren’t a Cup-contender currently?
Yes, exactly! You’re catching on. Good for you.
Boston can’t make the jump next season like they did from 2009-10 to 2010-11.
The Bruins signed Elias Lindholm to a seven-year contract at the age of 29, on July 1, 2024– two years after he amassed career-highs in goals (42), assists (40) and points (82) with the Calgary Flames in 82 games in 2021-22.
In 13 NHL seasons since making his league debut with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2013-14, Lindholm has only reached the 70-point plateau twice.
His production with the Flames reached a pinnacle in 2021-22, and fell to 64 points the following season before splitting time between Calgary and the Vancouver Canucks after being traded during the 2023-24 season. That year, Lindholm had 15-29–44 totals in 75 games with the Flames and Canucks.
He registered 47 points in 82 games with Boston in his first season, but injuries kept reappearing in his sophomore season as a Bruin– limiting him to 69 games in the regular season in 2025-26, though he managed to record 48 points in the process.
If he had been completely healthy, Lindholm probably would’ve finished with just shy of 60 points.
There’s just one problem– that’s not good enough for a first or second line center. Especially if you’re looking at adding Dylan Larkin to the equation to answer the question “who will replace Patrice Bergeron and David Krejčí as the No. 1 and No. 2 centers in Boston?”
It gets even worse if you clog up the opportunities that should otherwise go to someone like Fraser Minten or James Hagens to grow into if you have any hope for either or both to become the long-term plan down the middle.
Remember how Charlie Coyle was deadweight in the middle of the lineup by the end of his Boston tenure? Lindholm and Larkin could expedite that– especially if they can’t keep up with the wingers around them at a time where you’re looking to capitalize on speed and skill by the midpoint of their current contracts.
Lindholm was signed via free agency in the twilight of the average NHLers’ prime.
It’s not worth overpaying for a step above Lindholm for the sake of saying “well, at least he’s better than him and gives us a little more depth down the middle.” Especially if the cost outweighs the reward.
O.K., but I’m still reading this and my team isn’t the Bruins, so what if you’re trying to win the Cup as soon as possible?
Well, buyer beware.
Dylan Larkin would be a great addition to a Cup-contending team that needs a second line center.
If you’re trying to recreate what the St. Louis Blues did when they acquired Ryan O’Reilly from the Buffalo Sabres ahead of the 2018-19 season, you should note that O’Reilly was turning 27 at the time and had more prime left in the tank than Larkin currently has in his.
O’Reilly could play up in the lineup because he was a force and not just a nice complimentary asset to have in the arsenal.
Speaking of St. Louis, it’d be great if you could simply pry Robert Thomas from the Blues. But Andy Strickland has already reported that Thomas isn’t going anywhere and will be on the St. Louis roster when training camp begins in September.
Jordan Kyrou, on the other hand….
That’s who you should want to target if you’re the Bruins or any team, for that matter.
Kyrou is only 28-years-old and has 67 or more points in four out of the last five seasons. That’s some pretty good consistency that will lend itself to being the type of player that still amasses about 50 points a year even after he turns 33 or 34.
Maybe he’ll do that even up to about the time he’s 37. He could pull a Joe Pavelski and just go off on a scoring tangent.
Winning trades isn’t always immediate
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but if you’re the Boston Bruins in a retool looking to get better long-term, you want to acquire someone that is already on the cusp of or in the midst of their prime between the ages of, say, 20 and 26.
The Montréal Canadiens acquired Nick Suzuki and Tomáš Tatar as part of the package from the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for Max Pacioretty on Sept. 9, 2018.
Suzuki had just been drafted 13th overall by Vegas in 2017, and was a promising young center that wouldn’t make his NHL debut with Montréal until the 2019-20 season at 20-years-old.
He put up 41 points in the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season and another 41 points in the 56-game 2020-21 season before amassing 61 points in 2021-22, 66 points in 2022-23, 77 in 2023-24, 89 in 2024-25 and breaking the 100-point plateau with 29-72–101 totals in 2025-26.
He’s a 26-year-old that’s really just getting started in the early part of his prime and now has won the Frank J. Selke Trophy– living up to the comparisons to Patrice Bergeron when he was drafted by the Golden Knights and later introduced to the Canadiens’ prospect pipeline.
Boston would benefit significantly in any trade where they identify the type of player like Suzuki that’s ready-now or growing into their prime and will become certified top-talent on their roster.
So you need another Fraser Minten, right? And a little patience. You know, like how the Canadiens did with Suzuki.
The Bruins swindled the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Brandon Carlo trade that yielded Boston Minten and draft picks in return.
There are contenders willing to part with decent prospects or young players all around– just look at how the Colorado Avalanche jettisoned Cal Ritchie to the New York Islanders for Brock Nelson or how the Dallas Stars parted with Logan Stankoven in the Mikko Rantanen trade (part II) with the Carolina Hurricanes.
This is where offer sheets get interesting this summer and Mason McTavish becomes somewhat of a desirable solution on the trade market with the Anaheim Ducks.
Anaheim is looking to take the next step up in their game and postseason plans, while McTavish could use a little bit of a reset and probably a ceiling adjustment.
You could likely convince the Ducks to take someone like Mason Lohrei or Pavel Zacha as a starting point for the frameworks of a trade.
At 23-years-old, McTavish is still entering his prime, though if he were to be an annual 50-point scorer for the next decade, that’s probably better than what you’d get out of Dylan Larkin by the end of Larkin’s current contract.
If anything, McTavish gives you a certified middle-six forward while your top prospects in James Hagens, Dean Letourneau, Will Zellers and young players like Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov sort themselves out among the first and second lines with David Pastrňák leading the way as your most important player, if not captain, of the franchise long-term.
But we already have Nick Suzuki at home
Look, I love Matthew Poitras dearly and I’m not opposed to saying “just give him a little more time,” but if Boston won’t give him a chance on the NHL roster full-time in 2026-27, well, we have a major philosophical development problem to address.
Missing out on Larkin would be fine
I would’ve loved to have signed Marián Hossa when he hit free agency after losing back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances with Pittsburgh and Detroit in 2008 and 2009, but he was never coming to Boston with the way the roster looked at the time.
Sometimes the seemingly right player just isn’t available at the right time.
Yeah, the Bruins could’ve signed Hossa, but what kind of butterfly effect would that have had on the Dennis Wideman trade for Nathan Horton and Gregory Campbell?
And, you know, quite literally everything else given the salary cap space that Hossa’s contract would’ve eaten up.
It’s a lot like when John Tavares hit free agency and left the Islanders for the Leafs.
Sure, the Bruins could have made an attractive offer, but how would their hands have been tied in the process thereafter?
That, and David Krejčí already existed in the presumptive role for Tavares.
In any case, this is going to be quite an offseason, isn’t it?
Yeah.
It’s fair to ask “what, exactly, is the current core of the Boston Bruins?” when another year has come and gone for guys like David Pastrňák, Charlie McAvoy and Jeremy Swayman, while Morgan Geekie, Elias Lindholm, Hampus Lindholm and others sort themselves out as they’re pressured by younger talent in Fraser Minten, Marat Khusnutdinov, James Hagens and the next prospect up.
That’s the part that’s going to be quite a balancing act for Don Sweeney.
It wouldn’t hurt the Bruins to have a guy like Viktor Arvidsson around as a stable, veteran presence in the dressing room, but at what cost for the pending-unrestricted free agent and with how many other guys already like him on the roster?
Many of whom are expendable by the 2027 trade deadline if the playoffs aren’t looking likely.
How much of the forward progress that occurred for Boston from 2024-25 to 2025-26, was a direct result of trading everyone they did and adding to their prospect pool and draft pick capital leading up to the 2025 trade deadline?
There’s a difference between “draft capital” and “draft capital surplus” when making a big move to acquire a player in their prime that can make an immediate impact on your roster.
The former implies that your organization has a stockpile of prospects that you’ve hit on or are developing in a timely manner and can move on from early enough into their professional careers to maximize value and meet your trading partner where they’re at in acquiring certified high-end talent.
But you can’t make too many of those moves without running the risk of stunting your own organizational growth and development in the depth charts.
You also don’t have tremendous draft capital if your prospects are four years out or more from their draft year, like Fabian Lysell.
The latter implies that you have three first round picks in the next draft or two— or something like that— where you can create mobility in the upcoming first round to land a core piece. That, or you can flip anyone with one of those first round picks and still be able to incorporate whoever else you draft and develop within the usual timeframe from draft day to NHL regular.
Right now, the Bruins would be better off continuing to build the foundation of prospects and picks— especially since they haven’t had a lot of hits in recent years.
Taking the best available is a good strategy, though ensuring that the best prospects truly live up to their potential is a whole other story.
Boston is going to need to have a difficult conversation with many coaches, scouts and development staff members outside of goaltending coaches this summer.
It’s time to start producing results or someone else will do it for you while you update your LinkedIn profile.
Down the Frozen River 
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