Дилан Ларкины солилцооны хүсэлт болон Патрик Кэйний гэрээний асуудал шийдэгдээгүй байгаа нь Детройт Ред Уингс багийн зуны солилцооны цонхны үйл ажиллагааг дүгнэхэд хүндрэл учруулж байна.
Детройт Ред Уингс баг 2025-26 оны улиралд 5-ын эсрэг 5-ын тоглолтод илүү үр дүнтэй байх зорилгоор Виктор Арвидссоныг эгнээндээ нэгтгэлээ. Тэрээр өнгөрсөн улиралд 5-ын эсрэг 5-ын тоглолтод 18 гоол оруулсан үзүүлэлттэй байсан юм. Мөн багийн доод эгнээний тоглолтыг хүчирхэгжүүлэх зорилгоор Вегас Голден Найтс багаас 270 удаа өрсөлдөгчөө мөргөсөн үзүүлэлтээр лигт дээгүүрт бичигдсэн Киган Колесарыг солилцоогоор авч, Флорида Пантерс багийн хаалгач Даниил Тарасовыг нөөц хаалгачаар нэмлээ.
Дилан Ларкин болон Патрик Кэйн нарын ирээдүй тодорхойгүй байгаа нь багийн Атлантик дивизион дахь байр сууринд сөргөөр нөлөөлж болзошгүй байна. Хэрэв Дилан Ларкин багаа орхивол Детройт Ред Уингс дивизионы хамгийн сул багуудын нэг болох эрсдэлтэй байгаа юм. Хэдийгээр Мориц Зайдер, Симон Эдвинссон, Лукас Рэймонд болон Алекс Дебринкэт зэрэг чадварлаг тоглогчид бүрэлдэхүүнд байгаа ч баг ирэх улиралд өрсөлдөх чадвараа хадгалахын тулд томоохон сорилттой тулгарч байна.
Стив Айзерман Дилан Ларкины хүсэлтийг биелүүлэх баталгаа өгөөгүй ч баг одоогоор Марко Каспер, Эммитт Финни, Нейт Дэниелсон, Майкл Брандсегг-Нюгард болон Картер Мазур зэрэг залуу тоглогчдод илүү их боломж олгох замаар ирээдүйгээ бэлдэх боломжтой. Энэ нь багийн сүүлийн 10 жилийн турш плэй-оффт шалгараагүй нөхцөл байдалд хүндхэн шийдвэр байж болох ч одоогоор Детройт Ред Уингс багийн хувьд хамгийн бодитой зам нь энэ болоод байна.
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DETROIT — It is almost impossible to assess the Detroit Red Wings’ offseason moves when their biggest, defining piece of business still hangs in the balance. Let’s get that out of the way to start.
As long as Dylan Larkin’s trade request remains unresolved, we’re all looking at an incomplete picture. There’s also a big question mark around Patrick Kane, Detroit’s future Hall of Fame winger who, as of Wednesday night, remained unsigned.
The Red Wings still accomplished some business on Wednesday, addressing their two biggest perceived needs entering the summer. They needed to find more five-on-five scoring, so they signed Viktor Arvidsson, whose 18 five-on-five goals last season were more than any Red Wing managed in 2025-26. They needed to get tougher in the bottom six, so they traded for Vegas Golden Knights forward Keegan Kolesar, whose 270 hits ranked seventh in the NHL.
That’s all well and good, and those players will help the Red Wings next season — even if Arvidsson’s absurd 3.06 points per 60 at five-on-five (third most in the league last season) is an outlier relative to the rest of his career, and unlikely to repeat in Detroit.
The small-statured Arvidsson is quick and can really shoot it. His 25 goals last season were his sixth NHL season with 20-plus goals, and his fifth with at least 25. That should earn him a spot in Detroit’s top six. Meanwhile, Kolesar brings physicality and forechecking to a bottom six that struggled in both departments last season. They also added a decent backup goaltender in Daniil Tarasov, formerly of the Florida Panthers.
But with the bulk of the top free agents now off the board and other movement around the league bringing competing rosters into view, perhaps the simplest way to evaluate the Red Wings right now begins with a question: As things stand today, how do the Red Wings stack up in the Atlantic Division?
With Larkin and Kane in tow, that answer likely would have been somewhere in a jumble of teams — including Toronto, Boston, Ottawa — jostling for the fifth spot in the division, and a puncher’s chance at a wild card. Without either? They could very well be headed for last in the Atlantic.
Technically, of course, Larkin is still on the roster, and Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman has said he made no guarantees about fulfilling his captain’s request. But barring a stunning walk-back — and hey, it wouldn’t be the first — it’s hard to seriously pencil in Larkin atop the Red Wings’ lineup for next season.
The Red Wings will, of course, get something for Larkin whenever they trade him, whether it’s picks, prospects or ready-made players. Even if it’s the latter, though, it’s hard to see Detroit getting back a true No. 1 center ready to give Larkin-level impact in 2026.
Without that, even factoring in the needs addressed elsewhere, the Red Wings are likely to take a step back next season. That’s especially true in a division where so much of the competition is taking steps forward.
Yes, the Red Wings still have one heck of a building block in Moritz Seider — their 25-year-old franchise defenseman who just finished top five for the Norris Trophy. Simon Edvinsson, his defense partner, continues to rise, too, forming an enviable top pair on the blue line. Add wingers Lucas Raymond and Alex DeBrincat, two premium offensive talents, and you have a decent core, not unlike that of the Bruins, who made the playoffs last season.
But keep in mind, Boston already finished ahead of the Red Wings with Larkin. The Bruins have one of the top goaltenders in the sport in Jeremy Swayman. Maybe Ottawa falls off in the wake of Brady Tkachuk’s exit, and who knows how Toronto’s Darren Raddysh and Sergei Bobrovsky experiments go, but start stacking up the Red Wings against the bottom half of the division, and you find yourself straining to see who Detroit is clearly better than. That alone says a lot about where they stand.
Again, this offseason isn’t over, and there is presumably more (perhaps a lot more!) coming. If and when it does, Detroit’s outlook will be updated accordingly.
Right now, though, it looks like the Red Wings’ best path may be to simply steer into the skid, giving lots of prime ice time to young forwards Marco Kasper, Emmitt Finnie, Nate Danielson and Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, as well as Carter Mazur, who re-upped on a two-year deal Wednesday. Surrounding them with players like Arvidsson and Kolesar doesn’t make the Red Wings a contender in a post-Larkin world, but it does round out the lineup with the elements Detroit wanted, and now it can offer some opportunity to the players who will need to step up going forward.
That could be hard to accept for those who have lived through the Red Wings’ ongoing 10-year playoff drought, including ownership and even for Yzerman, whose own status has to be under scrutiny in all of this.
What’s the alternative, though? Scramble to find a mid-to-late-20s player around Larkin’s level, and they could get back into the cluster of teams fighting for a wild card. It’s an option, and a possibility, but it’s hard to call it a particularly good one.
Granted, taking it on the chin for a year and re-assessing isn’t ideal, either. But that’s the crux of where the Red Wings sit right now: There aren’t many appealing options in front of them. That reality was setting in before Larkin’s trade request, and this saga has exacerbated it.
Maybe, as the offseason continues, the Red Wings can turn over the right stone and find a path back to contention. Crazier things have happened, and there are still good players with uncertain futures around the league, albeit more so on the trade market than in free agency.
Right now, though, the Red Wings’ outlook for 2026 isn’t pretty. That was true entering July 1, and it’s true exiting it, with a whole lot of work still to do.
