from Ansar Khan of Mlive,
The Red Wings have three games in four nights this week before an eight-day hiatus – their bye week which leads into the All-Star break. Larkin will make his third appearance at All-Star weekend (Feb. 3-4) as the team’s lone representative.
When the Red Wings return to action on Feb. 7, the trade deadline will be 24 days away.
That is often viewed as the deadline for getting key players re-signed. Teams not in the playoff hunt typically don’t want to risk losing them for nothing in free agency, so they get whatever assets they can.
Yzerman under ordinary circumstances wouldn’t hesitate to move or cut ties with a prominent player if contract talks were at an impasse or if there were some other issue. He showed it in Tampa Bay with the likes of Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier and Jonathan Drouin.
Larkin is different. He’s a metro-Detroit native whose love for being a Red Wing has been clear since the day they drafted him 15th overall in 2014. He has played eight seasons for the team and seems destined to be a lifetime Red Wing.
Never mind that trading him also would set back a rebuild that’s seven years deep, since they would be more apt to get futures (young player, prospect, picks) than a player of equal ability who could make an immediate impact.
A trade, even with the aggressive Yzerman in charge, is highly unlikely.
from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,
I've gone from hoping the Wings are buyers at the trade deadline to hoping we can sell some middling pieces to get more picks and hopefully pull off the kind of trades that get us guys like Jake Walman. We have a logjam of forwards at the moment and need to thin the herd.
....there's another UFA whose contract expires after the year. 1 who has proven to be difficult to sign in the past. 1 who has had issues with injuries. 1 who right now would be viewed as a premium playoff rental. A 30 goal scorer last year. He also fits the criteria of trimming the logjam at forward. He turns 28 in Feb--so he'll be past his prime years before the Wings are competing for a Cup--yet is at the age of being in his prime for another team now. So there's one. But do it quietly--he's beloved by some.
Suter is two. Sundqvist is 3. Def'n Oesterle is another piece. If you can get anything more than a bag of pucks for Erne, Hagg, Vrana, or Nedeljkovic go for it....and if there is any hockey trades out there--get them done.
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