Dylan Larkin's frustration with the Detroit Red Wings didn't disappear Wednesday when word broke about Steve Yzerman's shifting role in the organization.
If anything, it got more complicated.
Larkin just wrapped a 74-game season with 34 goals, 33 assists and 67 points, numbers that make him one of Detroit's most productive forwards and its highest-paid one at an $8,700,000 cap hit.
He's not a player you move on a whim. But this isn't about his production. It's about years of quiet tension boiling over in public.
According to Jason Gregor, citing sourcing from Khan, the strain traces back to Nicklas Zetterberg's retirement, when the captaincy sat vacant and everyone but Yzerman reportedly expected Larkin to get the "C."
Detroit went years without naming one.
Khan's quote lands like a gut punch: "I think that bothered Larkin." Then came Larkin's public comments a few years back about frustration over the club standing pat at the deadline, comments Yzerman reportedly did not appreciate one bit.
Why the captaincy fight never really ended for Larkin
That's the part that lingers. A front-office relationship doesn't fracture over one bad season. It cracks slowly, deadline by deadline, until neither side trusts the other to fix it.
Larkin was excellent down the stretch too, five goals and six assists over his last 10 games, then four goals and five assists in his final five.
That's a player still delivering while reportedly wanting out. Sit with that for a second.
Detroit finished 41-31-10 for 92 points, a minus-17 goal differential, and closed the year on a three-game skid capped by an 8-1 collapse at Florida.
Head coach Todd McLellan inherited a roster with real skill and shaky results. Now he may be reporting to a front office that looks nothing like the one that hired him.
Here's the uncomfortable read: even with Yzerman's role reportedly changing, Khan isn't convinced a new voice running hockey ops flips Larkin's mindset.
"I'm not sure if a new GM will change Larkin's mind on needing a trade," the quote reads.
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Trading a 29-year-old, point-per-game center with term left would be a mistake for any rebuilding-adjacent club, and Detroit knows it. That's the tension nobody in this situation seems eager to resolve.
Should the Red Wings trade Dylan Larkin this offseason no matter who runs the front office?
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