David Pagnotta: Market Rumblings with Pagnotta and Irfaan Gaffar on how contract negotiations are going between the Detroit Red Wings and pending UFA and team captain Dylan Larkin.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Gaffar: “Let’s get to a name right now and that’s the captain of the Detroit Red Wings, Dylan Larkin. What is the latest there?”
Pagnotta: “Ya, it doesn’t sound too good to be perfectly honest with you Irf. News that we received is that the recent offer made this week to Dylan Larkin and his camp was not received overly well.
It’s not, depending on who you talk too, it’s not really a final offer. They never really are. But it is something that Detroit thought was going to get them to the table and try and get something done. There’s a lot of work that still needs to be done on this side.
Now the caveat, he’s a UFA at the end of the season and if Detroit falls out of the race, they’re kind of teetering at the moment from a playoff side of things, do they consider trading him?
I don’t think they’re there yet but the latest I can tell you is the last offer, the recent offer that was presented to Dylan Larkin, was not received well. It doesn’t look overly good at this moment, and there’s really no clear indication as to what direction this is going to go in. Whether there’s going to be a counter. Whether they’re going to have to go back to the drawing board. We’ll find that out soon enough.
Gaffar: “Dylan Larkin did an interview a couple weeks back where he said he wants to be a member of the Red Wings for the foreseeable future. He wants to stay in Detroit.
But when you look at this, a similar situation, kind of what’s happening here in Vancouver as well with Bo Horvat.
If the Red Wings, here, let me paint you a picture actually. What do you think would be a deadline for the Red Wings and Dylan Larkin to come to an agreement because if you’re the Wings you say. ‘okay, are we going to trade him and when’s the best time to do it?’ But if you’re Larkin and you want to stay and kind of figure out what’s going on there.
Pagnotta: “Ya, good point, similarities between the two situations in Detroit and Vancouver. Both are captains. The one big caveat and difference at the moment is Vancouver has been engaged openly in trade discussions involving Bo Horvat.
I don’t think Detroit is there to that point, to that extent. Ya, teams have reached out, certainly. But I don’t think there, to that point, I’ve got to imagine that in the next five weeks, if they can’t figure something out with a week to go to the trade deadline, maybe Detroit changes their tune a little bit and decides to listen significantly. To give themselves, to give Stevie Yzerman their GM one week to kind of work his magic and try to create something there.
They could still talk contract within that time period, certainly. I would guess, I don’t know this definitely, just a guess and hunch that if they go a week before the deadline without a contract, Detroit would really have to do its due diligence if they realize there’s no clear pathway to a contract.
You could also look to the Filip Forsberg situation with Nashville. The difference there last season, was Nashville was in the playoffs. They were in the race and they made it. They got bolted in the first round pretty quickly, but they made it. Detroit? I don’t know if it’s the same boat.
Gaffer: “From Dylan Larkin’s side David, do you think it’s dollar, or term, or a little bit of both?”
Pagnotta: “Might be a little bit of both. I’ve got to imagine Detroit wants to lock him in long-term on an eight-year extension, so I got to think the dollars are the caveat at the moment.
I know they were a bit of an issue when they started talks in the offseason and continued them to start the year. So I got to think dollars are playing a big reasoning, they are a big reasoning I should say, as to why they’re not close to a deal at this point.”
