Washington has become the first club publicly tied to Detroit’s suspended captain, and the Red Wings spend the next two nights playing teams that sit on the same approved trade list.
Washington makes the first move
Larkin has been on the suspended list since 29 October, and until Sunday no team had been named as a bidder. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reported that the Washington Capitals have entered trade talks with Detroit about the forward, with any deal likely to be built around winger Ilya Protas and to include multiple draft picks. Washington sits at 8-4-0 and has won three in a row. The Capitals are pushing for a playoff place in what has been reported as Alexander Ovechkin’s last season.
Nothing in that report says a deal is close. It does establish, for the first time since the suspension, that a club on Larkin’s own list of acceptable destinations is engaged.
How the standoff reached this point
The break came less than two hours before a home game against Chicago. Interim general manager Shawn Horcoff put out a statement at 5:40 p.m. Eastern on 29 October saying that Larkin had informed the club he would no longer play for the Detroit Red Wings, and the team suspended him without pay the same evening. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported that Larkin’s camp had decided he would sit until a trade was made. His agent, Pat Brisson, told reporters that Larkin had enough of the situation and had been professional and cooperative throughout.
Larkin is in the fourth year of an eight-year contract that pays him $8 million this season against a cap charge of $8.7 million. Suspension without pay stops that money, and the figure reported for each day he stays on the list is more than $41,000. By Monday that was four days.
Horcoff said he had no timeline and that his phone had rung a lot. Detroit recalled centre Sheldon Dries from Grand Rapids under emergency conditions and played the Chicago game without its captain, winning 4-1.
The list, and the itinerary
Larkin asked to be traded at the end of last season, when the club’s run without a playoff series reached 10 years. He named three teams he would accept: Minnesota, Florida and Vegas. That list has since grown to 10, adding New Jersey, Tampa Bay, Colorado, Utah, Washington, Dallas and Carolina, with ESPN reporting on 20 October that Carolina, New Jersey and Utah were among the late additions.
Two of those 10 are on the schedule this week. Detroit, 6-5-3 after losing 5-4 at home to St. Louis on Halloween, flies to Florida for a 7 p.m. start on Monday and then to Tampa Bay on Tuesday. The captain who will not play for them, and who would accept a move to either opponent, travels nowhere.
The second clock
Larkin is not the only unresolved contract on Horcoff’s desk. Restricted free agent defenceman Simon Edvinsson remains unsigned, and under league rules a deal has to be done by 1 December or he cannot play this season. Horcoff has described that situation as still trying to get something done.
Both files sit with an interim general manager rather than a permanent one. Steve Yzerman stepped aside on 15 July, and Horcoff was given the job in September with authority to make trades.
Leave a Reply