The Minnesota Wild‘s pursuit of Dylan Larkin did not end when free agency opened. A month after Detroit’s captain submitted a three-team trade list naming Minnesota, Florida and Vegas, The Athletic’s Michael Russo reported on his Worst Seats in the House podcast that general manager Bill Guerin remains in regular talks with Steve Yzerman and that the Wild believe there is still a path to a deal this summer.
More striking is what Russo said about the competition: there isn’t much. “Florida definitely doesn’t” have interest at this point, he said, and Vegas doesn’t appear to be positioning itself for Larkin either — leaving Minnesota, in Russo’s words, the only bidder at the table that Larkin is willing to join. The Hockey News reported last week that Larkin has since expanded his approved list to add the Dallas Stars, which puts a second Central Division team in the conversation without, so far, changing who is actually negotiating.
Why it matters
The obstacles are real. Larkin carries an $8.7 million cap hit and Russo puts the Wild’s remaining space at $2.9 million, so any trade requires Minnesota to move money out first. And the asset question cuts against how this front office has built: Russo was unequivocal that Matt Boldy is not going to Detroit in any version of the deal, while Yzerman, per Russo, hasn’t been excited by the prospects Minnesota is willing to part with. That is the whole negotiation in one sentence — the Wild’s untouchables are the players Detroit would actually want.
From a roster-building standpoint, patience is defensible on both sides. Larkin has left Yzerman a market of essentially one team, which erodes Detroit’s leverage the longer this sits. Minnesota, meanwhile, filled its immediate holes in free agency and can wait to see whether the price on a legitimate top-six center comes down closer to camp.
For fantasy purposes, a Larkin trade to Minnesota would be quietly significant on both ends: Larkin would step in as the Wild’s top-line center with first-unit power-play time, and his arrival would stabilize the wingers’ value — particularly Boldy’s, who by every account isn’t going anywhere. Until money moves out of St. Paul, though, treat it as a situation to monitor rather than price in.
