00:00It's Dylan Larkin.
00:02Look, when it's this bad, nobody's safe.
00:05So let's tackle the Larkin conversation.
00:07It's another March collapse.
00:09There's a lack of fight.
00:10He is the captain.
00:11He's taking the heat.
00:13Do you want to trade Dylan Larkin this summer?
00:16We'll go through this.
00:18I would just caution people.
00:21He is the team's only playoff quality center.
00:24He's a winning player on Team USA.
00:27Five straight 30-goal seasons.
00:28And I'll use last night.
00:30On one leg, he's got a goal.
00:31He's got an assist.
00:33He had five shots and four hits.
00:36Do you want to trade Dylan Larkin?
00:38He has a no trade clause.
00:40So if this is the way things go,
00:44he would have to agree with the destination,
00:47which shrinks the pool and minimizes your return.
00:50And if I'm trading Dylan Larkin,
00:52I don't want spare parts back.
00:55I want a quality, comparable,
00:57ideally better player.
01:00He's a consensus top 50 player.
01:02So take away the McDavid's and the McKinnon's
01:06and the goalies and the defensemen.
01:07How many viable players are you trading Larkin for
01:11that are better?
01:12Are those destinations places that he wants to go to?
01:16And are those teams making the deal?
01:17See, it's not as simple as he's the captain.
01:20It's his fault.
01:22Tar and feather him and kick him out of the city.
01:24My conclusion is you're not trading Dylan Larkin.
01:28Now, maybe the best compromise would be
01:31someone else needs to be the leader of this team.
01:34Like with Team USA, he's not the captain.
01:37Someone else shoulders that burden.
01:39It weighs heavy on him.
01:40These collapses.
01:41Does someone else need to wear the seat?
01:43Is that the compromise?
01:44Because I just don't see a world where trading Larkin is happening this summer.
01:49I don't see that world either.
01:51I don't know that that's even an option.
01:53And fans can want whatever they want.
01:55But what reality is, is he's going to, and really the only way it happens
02:01is if he wants out of Detroit.
02:04And I mean, we celebrate the fact that he's from here, played his college hockey here,
02:09like his family's here.
02:11What would it take for him to say, I can't take it anymore.
02:14I just want a fresh start.
02:16I want out of Detroit.
02:17Well, you know, the comparison would be, and it's not a perfect comparison,
02:20but it's a player who was scapegoated, original six franchise.
02:25It's his fault.
02:27Mitch Marner.
02:28Now, he left as a free agent, but he was like, I'm out of Toronto.
02:32Right.
02:33And it's not like Toronto has been just fine without him.
02:38That's what I'm saying.
02:39Like you get something in this case.
02:40It's a trade as opposed to a player leaving in free agency.
02:43But what are you getting back?
02:44Right.
02:45And so that's going to be the question.
02:46And the only chance that you have to get anything decent is if he opens up the options
02:51because he wants out of Detroit.
02:54And I don't think that's the case.
02:56No, we don't have that indication.
02:57And even if he reached that boiling point, like he just becomes that broken, like we're
03:01all kind of broken right now.
03:02If he was truly that broken where he said, look, this is tough to say, but might be best
03:06for both parties.
03:07I would okay a trade.
03:08It's only going to be to a handful of places.
03:10Right.
03:11I mean, it doesn't even become an option.
03:13Like his no trade clause gets pared down to 10 teams or 12 teams, but that's a couple
03:18of years from now.
03:19Right.
03:20So the question is, do you want him traded?
03:23That might be part one, but how feasible is it to actually trade him?
03:27And how do you make it work with him still here?
03:30Because I think that's the more likely outcome.
03:32All right.
03:32So if that is the second part of the question, does he keep the C?
03:40Who else would wear it?
03:42I know.
03:43And so if you trade again, hopefully you would get a better option.
03:49If you're going to take the C away and give it to someone else, you want a better option.
03:55So the challenge is you aren't going to add those kind of players in free agency.
04:02They just don't hit free agency.
04:03Right.
04:04You'd have to swing a trade involving someone other than Larkin to get that type of player,
04:10or you'd have to give the C to someone who's also been part of the March collapses.
04:14I mean, you could say to bring it grew up here.
04:17He stepped up.
04:18He's played well.
04:19This is his best year.
04:20He's do a contract extension.
04:21Maybe that comes with it.
04:22He has the C or you say most cider is the pillar of, you know, Ironman toughness.
04:28He hasn't missed a game in his NHL career.
04:30He won't win a Norris because he doesn't score enough like Rewinsky, but he is regarded as
04:34one of the better players at his position.
04:35You could give it to cider.
04:36I mean, these are the things I would throw out.
04:39Right.
04:43So then I would ask the question, and I don't care really what this, what goes on with team
04:49dynamics because something major has to happen.
04:52If they are eliminated, which spiritually they already were.
04:55Right.
04:55And I say, if they're eliminated, there needs to be a major shakeup.
05:02Um, and what the, if they take the C off of him, make him the scapegoat and they give
05:09it to most cider.
05:11Sure.
05:12What is, what does that do to, to, to Larkin psyche?
05:16What does it do to, to what?
05:18But, but I make the pitch to you.
05:20Look, it could go very poorly, but maybe it would be a relief from the standpoint of
05:24you're not going to be the guy taking all the bullets.
05:26Now you're still a good quality.
05:28You don't think he's still going to take the bullets.
05:31Like, even if he's not wearing the C, like we're still going to see him, view him as
05:37such.
05:38My point is, if you just said, is he a good hockey player?
05:40The answer is, of course, he's a good hockey player.
05:42I think he's a winning hockey player, but is he more of a follower than a leader?
05:45Right?
05:46Like some people are more followers than leaders.
05:48That doesn't mean you broom them out of your organization.
05:50You just need someone else to lead them.
05:54That might as painful as that conclusion might be.
05:56It might be, Hey, this is team USA.
05:58You can still have a voice in the room, but someone else is going to take the bullets and
06:04they're going to have to address the room after the losses and they're going to have
06:07to be the guy who's who leads.
06:08It's not you.
06:10And maybe that's the the chip that the wings play to get him to say, mercy, I give trade
06:18me.
06:18That also might necessitate a trade.
06:21Yeah.
06:22Maybe you get that.
06:24It's a cauldron, right?
06:25There's a lot, a lot bubbling up right now.
06:27When you are this bad, when you have nosedived again, you're right.
06:30A shakeup is needed, but I don't see a trade as a super viable option right now, given no
06:37trade clause.
06:38Yeah.
06:39Given you trade them away.
06:41What's your center depth?
06:42How are you better?
06:43Okay.
06:44Well, I need to get a center in return.
06:45So I need a better center than Dylan Larkin via trade.
06:48How many centers are better than Larkin in the league available and available is what
06:53I was going to stress.
06:54Yeah.
06:55All right.
06:55So you guys are beginning the show.
06:57We were talking about the bad loss last night and John, you were talking about the mounting
07:02frustration of 10 years and you said, no, it's really more four or five.
07:06Okay.
07:07So the core of this team is Larkin cider Raymond.
07:12They were guys that you develop.
07:15Okay.
07:15Larkin has been here a long time, but they're all guys that developed.
07:19And then you timed that a couple of years ago with bringing in to bring it.
07:23You went and got your free agent.
07:25It was a trade.
07:25So you went and got the outsider.
07:27So these four have been together now two years.
07:30Right.
07:32And they didn't, they couldn't break through before they got the outsider.
07:36They bring the outsider in and they still can't break through the core of the team.
07:41Can't get this done between those four players and what you're paying them in the makeup
07:46of the NHL and salary structures and all that.
07:49But they've got to be able to get you in no matter who else is around you and they can't
07:55do it.
07:56So therefore, for me, something has to be shaken up with the core.
08:00So who are the four guys you're saying?
08:01Larkin, to bring it, Raymond and cider.
08:04Okay.
08:04And you say one has to go.
08:06They can't break through.
08:08It's very similar.
08:09It's similar.
08:09It's like the, the, the little core four in Toronto.
08:12You know what I'm saying?
08:13They couldn't break through.
08:14And again, you lose Marner and you go backwards.
08:15So there's a very real possibility.
08:17That's how this goes.
08:18But if you're going to tell me, I got to pick one from that core four to move, who would
08:22it be?
08:22I'll play along, right?
08:23I'm not moving cider.
08:25I'm not right shot defenseman who play as tough as he does and play all situations
08:29as he does.
08:30I'm not trading him.
08:31He would be the furthest from the four to bring it to me.
08:34I just made a case could be the captain of this team as a guy who doesn't play like he's
08:37five, eight.
08:39He checks, he hits, he scores, he plays hard.
08:43I'd keep him.
08:44So who are my other two options?
08:46Larkin and Raymond Larkin has a no trade clause.
08:49You're not getting better at center trading your only playoff quality center.
08:53So what conclusion did I just reach?
08:54Who doesn't have a no trade clause?
08:56Who plays on the perimeter?
08:58Let me ask you this.
08:59Of the four who's maybe had the most disappointing season?
09:05I think it probably goes to the same conclusion that you're coming up to.
09:10Yeah.
09:10Look at a real game here.
09:11And both of them are hurt.
09:13But again, you don't get excuses in the game of hockey.
09:15Right.
09:16He won't shoot.
09:17His coach tells him to shoot.
09:18And I don't speculate it.
09:20It's like a peck issue.
09:21I don't know.
09:22But I would tell you, he's attractive to another team.
09:25I mean, the conclusion can't be, I'm going to trade Bernard Docker and fix this.
09:29Like, that doesn't work.
09:31I agree with you.
09:32Yeah.
09:32And that's why you probably have to move somebody from the court.
09:35That can't get it done.
09:37That keeps repeating the same thing over and over.
09:40248-539-9797.
09:42This is very interesting.
09:43We'll get some calls, get some feedback.
09:44It's 97-1.
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