The 10-team getaway list
Well, would you look at this — the Larkin trade list: the ten teams he’d suit up for instead of Detroit. Picture it, folks — his name and 71 on the back of every one of them, in somebody else’s colours, like a little parade of what-ifs rolling through town. The first three were the whole list. Then October rolled around, and seven more doors swung wide open.
Stylized jerseys in team colours — no official logos. Hover to hold the parade still for a spell, folks.
How the list grew
It started small, the way these things usually do. When Larkin first asked out, he handed Detroit just three doors: Florida, Minnesota and Vegas. Three contenders, three exits — a couple of ’em a sight warmer than a February night in Detroit — take it or leave it. Detroit, apparently, left it — so in October the list grew to ten teams, adding Dallas, Washington, Carolina, Utah, Tampa Bay, New Jersey and Colorado.
Now look at the pattern in that parade up there: every stop is a U.S.-based contender. Not one Canadian team made the cut — not even Montreal, after Canadiens fans chanted “We want Larkin!” during a recent visit. Wanting him, it turns out, is not quite the same as being wanted. Funny old game, isn’t it, folks?
The fine print still runs the show, though. Larkin holds a full no-trade clause, so the kid picks the suitors — but Detroit still has to find a price it can live with, and so far the two sides haven’t met in the middle, not even close. As of Oct. 29, the Red Wings have suspended him without pay while they work on a deal.
And for the record, because getting it right is this site’s whole personality: being scratched for trade reasons doesn’t start the meter. Sitting out while your agent shops you around does not forfeit a dime. A team suspension without pay — Detroit sitting him and docking his pay — starts the meter — and as of October 29, 2026, that’s exactly where we are: waiting on a deal. A completed trade ends the suspension, and the meter stops with it. So now, folks, we wait on the trade — and patience, like a good penalty kill, is a virtue.
Trade list as reported by Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press (via Sportsnet), confirmed by ESPN. Jerseys are stylized colour tributes, not official team merchandise.