Dylan Larkin turned down a big Sabres push

Chris Johnston just revealed the Buffalo Sabres made a big offer for Dylan Larkin, but the Red Wings center wasn't willing to go there.

The Larkin trade chatter has been building for weeks, and this is the first time a specific suitor has been tied to a specific no. Johnston, speaking on The Chris Johnston Show, put Buffalo right in the middle of it.

Johnston said, according to R i N K Y, that the Sabres were told it's "just not something they can do because Larkin isn't willing to go there."

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Read that carefully. Johnston believes Buffalo made "a pretty big offer at one point here in the last few weeks," and the answer came back as a wall, not a counter.

That fits what we've heard before. Johnston earlier suggested that half of Larkin's 10-team list isn't chasing him, which already made the market look thin for Detroit.

Now a team that did chase him reportedly hit a dead end. The Red Wings can't force a move when the player holds the key, and everyone calling Detroit knows it.

Why Larkin's no hurts the Red Wings most

Here's where I land: this is a bad spot for Detroit. A motivated buyer showed up, the player vetoed it, and the leverage went with him.

Larkin is 30 and has 649 career points over 818 games, so the value is real. His 2026-27 line is more modest, 2 goals and 4 assists in 10 games, but he's listed with no injury.

Buffalo isn't a desperate team, either. The Sabres sit 7th in the Atlantic at 7-4-3 and have won three straight, though their goal differential is -6.

Detroit is 8th in the same division at 7-5-3 with a goal differential of 0. Neither club is pulling away, and that makes any Larkin decision louder for head coach Todd McLellan, who has to keep a lineup together while the questions pile up.

Johnston has also pointed to the possibility that Larkin gets traded to a team outside his current list. If Buffalo's offer was blocked, that prediction looks a little sturdier today.

The Red Wings beat Florida 5-3 on Monday night and are in Tampa Bay tonight. The Sabres host Ottawa on Wednesday, and general managers Shawn Horcoff and Jarmo Kekalainen both still have decisions to make before this one settles.

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