Elliotte Friedman shares surprising update on Dylan Larkin's next destination
Elliotte Friedman put it plainly on Saturday: Dylan Larkin, the Detroit Red Wings captain, might not be heading to a Canadian market.
The quote posted by @TheMugNHL reads: "I don't know that [Dylan Larkin] is gonna come to Canada." That one line does a lot of damage to the Canadian teams' offseason narrative.
Larkin finished this season with 34 goals, 33 assists, and 67 points in 74 games. He had 14 power play goals. Nine game-winners. That's a number-one centre who produces when the game actually matters.
He's 29 years old and carrying an $8.7 million cap hit in Detroit. The Red Wings went 41-31-10 this season, finished 16th overall, and went 2-6-2 over their last 10 games. Not exactly a team on the rise.
So the question writes itself: if not Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, then where does he go?
The Canadiens finished third in the Atlantic at 48-24-10 with 106 points. Kent Hughes has built something real in Montreal, and adding a centre of Larkin's caliber would turn a playoff team into a contender. That pitch should write itself too.
Larkin's next contract will define the Red Wings rebuild
Detroit went 2-2-0 against the Canadiens this season. They got blown out 5-1 at home in October, then won 4-0 in Montreal in January. The head-to-head isn't what makes this story move. The contract is.
Larkin at $8.7 million is already expensive. A new deal in a Canadian market, in a city with no salary cap on attention, would almost certainly cost more. Maybe that's part of what Friedman is reading between the lines.
And Steve Yzerman is not going to let his captain walk without getting full market value back.
But Montreal or Toronto fans who spent the last hours convincing themselves Larkin was already packing boxes for a move east might want to slow down.
Friedman doesn't hedge like that unless there's genuine smoke. He said he doesn't know that it happens. For a market starved for a top centre for years, that's not the answer they were looking for.
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YESTERDAY
JUNE 6, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mitch Marner | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
| Tomas Hertl | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jordan Staal | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Shea Theodore | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Brayden McNabb | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Taylor Hall | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Martinook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jackson Blake | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Seth Jarvis | - | 1 | 1 | |
| William Karlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Eric Robinson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jaccob Slavin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Logan Stankoven | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||