Nine games into the young 2026-27 season, the Detroit Red Wings have yet to find a solution for disgruntled forward Dylan Larkin, the star player stripped of his captaincy after requesting a trade earlier this year.
After missing some time due to injury, Larkin, 30, surprisingly returned to the Red Wings to play this season, rather than conduct a holdout like Connor Hellebuyck in Winnipeg.
Larkin, at the time of this writing, has one goal, four assists, and five points in seven games this season, plodding forward with Detroit until a trade solution is reached.
That's been the most difficult part of this whole deal, given that the ex-Red Wings captain has a full no-move clause in his contract, allowing Larkin to dictate where he wants to go and when. Up until now, Larkin's list of approved trade destinations has been extremely limited, much to the chagrin of fed-up Red Wings fans.
The good news for the fans and for Red Wings interim GM Shawn Horcoff is that Larkin has, apparently, expanded his trade list to now include 10 total teams.
Where can Dylan Larkin be traded?
On Tuesday night, Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press reported that, according to a source familiar with the situation, Larkin's trade list has expanded to 10 teams, including some previously rumored favorites.
Those teams are, in no particular order, the Florida Panthers, Minnesota Wild, Vegas Golden Knights, Dallas Stars, Washington Capitals, Carolina Hurricanes, Utah Mammoth, Tampa Bay Lightning, New Jersey Devils, and Colorado Avalanche.
Of the 10, Florida and Minnesota make the most sense, with the Panthers in desperate need of forward reinforcements having lost Aleksander Barkov and Brad Marchand to injury in recent weeks. As for the Wild, they're desperately hoping to retain Quinn Hughes, and their weak center depth is the one thing preventing them from evolving into serious Stanley Cup contenders.
The reigning Stanley Cup champion Hurricanes have $8.62 million in available cap space and could easily fit Larkin's $8.7 million cap hit on their books with minimal effort, and it helps that someone like RFA defenseman Alexander Nikishin could be a starting point in trade talks.
The Devils, who have been active early in Sunny Mehta's tenure as general manager, could also be a team to watch, having two of the three brothers and likely looking to ramp up their efforts to recruit Quinn to Newark.
Of all this, it is important to note that, with how long this has dragged out, Larkin has already begun to make concessions on the teams he's willing to play for, which is no doubt a boon for a Red Wings organization in desperate need of one.
With improved trade leverage, Horcoff and the Red Wings are now in a better position to land a meaningful package from a Cup contender, even if the possibilities are still fairly limited.
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