Where does Dylan Larkin land after his request to be traded from the Detroit Red Wings? His list of desired destinations is short.
Larkin’s wish to leave the Red Wings after 11 years – and 10 consecutive years without a playoff berth – sent shockwaves through the NHL when the news emerged Thursday, June 4.
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Neither side – Larkin’s camp or general manager Steve Yzerman – has commented publicly on the situation.
Larkin, who turns 30 on July 30, is signed through 2030-31 and currently has a full no-trade clause. The latter means Larkin is in control of where he goes. In such cases, it’s the players’ onus to submit a list of teams that fit where he wants to land.
TRENDING: Dylan Larkin’s request for a trade fires up Red Wings fans
The Free Press has learned from a person within the NHL – granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly – that these are the three teams on Larkin’s list, in no particular order:
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Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin (71) steals the puck from Florida Panthers left wing Matthew Tkachuk (19) during the third period at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023.
Larkin in February won the gold medal for the USA at the 2026 Milano Olympics with Panthers star forward Matthew Tkachuk. Florida does not have a state income tax, and there’s little media scrutiny. The Panthers missed the playoffs this season, but are poised to return to contender status in 2026-27 with the return of captain Aleksander Barkov, who missed all of the season with an injury. The Panthers won the Stanley Cup in 2024 and 2025.
The return would have to be phenomenal, though, for Yzerman to trade Larkin within the Atlantic Division.
Since entering the NHL in 2017-18 on the strength of an incredible expansion draft, the Knights are in their third Stanley Cup Final in nine seasons and partied with the Cup in 2023. This is a franchise that does whatever it takes to stay competitive; just this season, it fired highly respected coach Bruce Cassidy – the guy behind the bench in 2023 – with eight games to go and brought in John Tortorella.
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Last summer, the Knights pulled off a blockbuster by acquiring 100-point Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner, who wanted out of Toronto. Vegas is two wins from a second Stanley Cup, leading Carolina, 2-1, ahead of Tuesday’s Game 4 in Vegas.
Here, Larkin would be reunited with fellow U.S. gold medalists Quinn Hughes, Matt Boldy and Brock Faber. Wild GM Bill Guerin has shown he’s all-in on guiding the team to its first Stanley Cup championship since entering the league as an expansion team in 2000-01, pulling off the Hughes trade in December 2025. Hughes had made it clear he wouldn’t re-sign with the Vancouver Canucks, and since he was in the fifth season of a six-year deal, the Canucks decided to get value while they could.
Yzerman pursued Hughes as well, but pulled out when Hughes, who played at Michigan, would not commit to re-signing.
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[ Don’t blame Larkin for not wanting to waste his prime under Yzerman ]
Larkin may be asked to expand his list if there’s not a favorable deal to be worked out with one of his preferred teams. In that case, these three other teams make sense.
Other teams that make sense
A star who just made history by becoming the first defenseman ever to win the Calder Trophy unanimously in Matthew Schaefer. A star goaltender in Ilya Sorokin. A star forward group that includes Mathew Barzal, a high-end playmaker and top scorer. Another star forward in Bo Horvat, a top goal-scorer and excellent on face-offs. A veteran captain in Anders Lee. This is a team on a meteoric rise after winning the draft lottery in 2025 and adding Schaefer.
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The Islanders finished with 91 points (43-34-5) in 2025-26.
The Ducks (92 points) are another team on the rise, emerging from a rebuild on the guiding hands of GM Pat Verbeek, who was Yzerman’s right-hand man for years in both Detroit and with the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Ducks have a tremendous young core headlined by Leo Carlsson, the second overall pick in 2023, along with Cutter Gauthier (fifth overall, 2022), and Mason McTavish (third overall, 2021). They’re guided by veteran coach Joel Quenneville, a three-time Stanley Cup champion with the Chicago Blackhawks.
A proven veteran center is just what this team needs after the Ducks upset the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the playoffs this year, before falling to Vegas in the second round.
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Tampa Bay Lightning
The team isn’t dominating like five years ago, but there’s a strong, if aging, core in superstar defenseman Victor Hedman and superstar goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, and one of the NHL’s most elite forwards in Nikita Kucherov. Under the guidance of longtime coach Jon Cooper, the Bolts pushed the Montreal Canadiens to a seven-game series in the first round before bowing out this spring.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Dylan Larkin trade request has 3 places he wants Red Wings to send him
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