the reception Larkin got from Canadiens fans<\/a> \u201cmoved the needle a bit\u201d when they were chanting at the Bell Centre that they wanted him to come. He also said in that Sunday interview with Jackie Redmond, \u201cThe only way (a trade) could happen is if Montreal and Detroit were in a situation where they felt they could make a deal and then they would have to go to him.\u201d<\/p>\nFriedman echoed those comments on 32 Thoughts: The Podcast, saying this would have to be \u201creverse engineered,\u201d and that the Wings would have to present a trade to Larkin to see if he\u2019s truly willing to go to Montreal.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve heard buzz he is, but without speaking to Larkin, there\u2019s no way of knowing for sure.<\/p>\n
We do think there\u2019s a big difference between preferring other destinations and not wanting to come to Montreal \u2014 a nuance that must be considered when you take into account how heavily Draper is scouting the Canadiens.<\/p>\n
Unless this is all to set up a move involving six-foot-six, left-handed defenceman Simon Edvinsson, who\u2019s currently holding out on the Wings and demanding a trade, Detroit would be spending a lot of time and money for absolutely nothing, knowing there\u2019s no chance Larkin would come to Montreal. They\u2019d have to think there\u2019s more than just a chance investing this much.<\/p>\n
We think Larkin is also helping the Wings maintain his top trade value by not officially listing the Canadiens, which should count for something in how the Michigan native will be viewed down the line in the only market he\u2019s ever known since being drafted in 2014.<\/p>\n
Larkin stood on the bench on opening night at Little Caesars Arena and took the booing of a lifetime until eventually retreating to the dressing room. He knows what comes with asking out, and he\u2019s taken it, still suiting up for all these games and competing to help the Wings win. And if he can net them the best possible trade they can make\u2014even if it\u2019s not to one of his preferred teams\u2014he has a chance of at least preserving some of the legacy he built in Detroit.<\/p>\n
It will always be stained by his exit, but that shouldn\u2019t erase Larkin topping 30 goals and being close to a point-per-game centre in each of his last five seasons. He played hard, with pride through injury, and suffered a lot through the disappointment of the Wings getting so close but falling just short of breaking their playoff drought.<\/p>\n
That, and a really digestible contract, is what should make the price for Larkin\u2019s services exorbitant. Even with the market limited by his list.<\/p>\n
So long as it\u2019s prohibitive, no team is currently stepping up to pay the price.<\/p>\n
But the Canadiens can pay an exorbitant one for a player who\u2019d slot perfectly underneath Nick Suzuki for the next four seasons after this one. They have roster players Draper\u2019s been watching \u2014 like 23-year-old centre Oliver Kapanen and 22-year-old left-handed defenceman Adam Engstom, among others \u2014 who could prove appealing to help supplant what\u2019ll be lost when both Larkin and Edvinsson are out. They have two NHL goaltenders behind Jacob Fowler. And they have premium prospects in forwards Michael Hage and Alexander Zharovsky, and defencemen David Reinbacher, Bryce Pickford and Luke Mittlestadt, who\u2019s currently leading the AHL in scoring.<\/p>\n
They won\u2019t give them all up. And if they\u2019re willing to give the very best of them up, we don\u2019t think they\u2019d be rushing to pile much else into the package.<\/p>\n
But this still could go down in time.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not about to go away with Larkin still in Detroit and Draper following the Canadiens around. But barring a major skid for the Wings, the price isn\u2019t likely to drop any time soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The price for Detroit\u2019s Dylan Larkin, according to league sources, isn\u2019t just exorbitant. It\u2019s currently prohibitive. \u201cIt should…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-944686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=944686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}