Dylan Larkin's trade request: A damning indictment of the Steve Yzerman era and what (if anything) it says about Dylan Larkin

The first major story of the NHL offseason is here.

Even though he seems to have the strongest job security of any general manager in the NHL, this still feels like it could be (and almost certainly should be) a make-or-break offseason for Steve Yzerman with the Detroit Red Wings.

• The franchise now has the longest active playoff drought in the NHL at 10 seasons.

• He has been the general manager for seven of those seasons.

• The past few seasons have seen the Red Wings look to be on a solid playoff footing in the second half only to watch as the team completely melted down in the stretch run.

• The 2025-26 season was arguably the worst of those meltdowns. On Jan. 24, with only 29 games to play in the regular season, the Red Wings were in first place in the Atlantic Division, tied for the most points in the Eastern Conference, and were 12 points clear of the conference’s non-playoff teams. It should have been nearly impossible for a team in that position to miss the playoffs. They not only missed the playoffs, they finished in sixth-place in the Atlantic Division and were seven points behind the two wild-card teams. They were 14 points behind the third-place team in the Atlantic Division.

If the Red Wings were treating Yzerman like a normal general manager and not a franchise icon that everybody wants to love and believe in, his seat would not only be scorching hot, he probably would have already been fired. If not prior to the 2025-26 season, then certainly after it.

But he is still in the general manager’s chair, and he seems to be pretty secure in it.

Even so, it’s really time to poop or get off the pot here. It was already going to be a complicated offseason. It became even more complicated this past week when Dylan Larkin, the team’s captain and longest-tenured player, requested a trade out of Detroit.

It’s a devastating blow to the Red Wings and the Yzer-plan.

And while it’s certainly a surprise, it’s not really shocking.

Consider it from Larkin’s perspective. He’s spent more than a decade playing with one team and has only appeared in five playoff games, all of which came during his rookie 11 years ago.

He was already mad after the 2024-25 season when he felt Yzerman and the Red Wings front office didn’t do enough to help the team at the trade deadline.

Since then, Larkin got a taste of winning as a part of the United States Gold Medal Olympic team, got a chance to have teammates that have won big, and then returned to the grim reality that has been the Red Wings situation and watched as the team (including himself at times) wilted down the stretch. Again.

At some point a soon-to-be 30-year-old veteran is going to want to do something to change his situation if the situation around him is not going to change.

I get that.

On some level (emphasis on some), I can respect it. In fact, I do respect it. People want to win.

That’s where the trade request comes in, and it’s a damning indictment of what the Red Wings have become under Yzerman’s watch. How do you look at this situation as Red Wings ownership and see your longest-tenured player, your captain, and a player that is from Michigan demand a trade away from your team because he feels he can’t win there and seemingly doesn’t see eye-to-eye with your general manager?

It’s brutal.

While there are some good players here, this team is not close to contending given some of the major holes that still exist.

This can’t be what anybody signed up for when Yzerman was hired.

That alone is a big enough headache.

But then came the report on Monday that Larkin, who has full no-trade protections in his contract and can dictate where he goes, has submitted a three-team list to the Red Wings on acceptable teams.

Long-time Red Wings writer Helene St. James speculates that list includes the Vegas Golden Knights, Minnesota Wild and Florida Panthers.

• Three teams that should be contenders next season.

• Three teams that have players Larkin won with as a member of Team USA.

• Three teams where he would not have to be the focal point or do the heavy lifting.

• Two teams in states without state income tax.

Assuming those are the three teams, it would put Yzerman in an almost impossible spot, and one that could result in a very lengthy and messy resolution.

It’s also not the first time he has faced a situation like this.

So let’s talk about his options, how he might play it, how he has played it in the past, and what this says about everybody involved.