Larkin Asks For Trade

Lots percolating during the dwindling days of the NHL season . . . let’s pour a couple of cups of swill.

 

LARKIN WANTS OUT

This is intriguing, and really, not unexpected.

One year ago (give or take), Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin expressed his disappointment that the team-he-has-called-home for 11 straight years did zippo at the trade deadline to improve the roster.

The Wings’ captain this spring has reportedly asked management for a trade.

Can’t blame him.

If you think Ottawa general manager Steve Staios is slow on the gas pedal, check out Steve Yzerman. The Nepean product makes Staios look like the roadrunner. Yzerman is ridiculously sluggish at pushing the trigger on deals. The request by Larkin is representative of years of wait and see. Hence the trade nudge.

But I can question how this became public.

If Larkin wants/wanted out, wouldn’t it be in his and the team’s best interest to keep it silent?

Not sure how this reached the mouths and fingers of the hockey media, but man-o-man, not a good way to do business.

At 30 years old and with an Olympic gold medal dangling from his neck, Larkin is a desirable asset.

Here’s what Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman posted on Thursday – ‘Larkin’s involvement in the trade market is massive. He has a full no-trade clause both this season and next, so his control over the situation does not change July 1. He’s a top-line centre in a league desperate for centres, so there’s going to be a ton of interest. His play at the 4 Nations and Olympics was stellar. That’s going to excite potential trade partners.’

Again though, the leak doesn’t do anyone any good, particularly Detroit.

 

IS ANYONE WATCHING THIS?

By ‘this’ I mean the Stanley Cup final.

Seriously – Vegas and Carolina?

Credit to the two teams for making it this far, but from an NHL marketing tool, this one’s broken.

Yeah, I get it – two wonderfully managed franchises that make it all work. One is coached by a guy you can’t help but cheer for in Rod Brind’Amour, the other is coached by the guy I covered for four seasons in the OHL. Sean Avery outlined his feelings on Vegas coach John Tortorella in his tell-all book:

‘Tortorella has a reputation as a hard-ass, but not if you know him as a player. We used to laugh at him all the time. There was always someone in the dressing room who wanted to take their skate and decapitate him or take their stick and whack him over the head with it. Marion Gaborik despised him with every bone in his body. Even Hank Lundqvist, an even-keeled Swede who was usually in his own world, thought Tortorella was a terrible manager of pro athletes. And he can’t skate and stickhandle a puck at the same time, and he doesn’t realize we don’t take him seriously because of that.’

Well now, say what you really think Sean.

Say what you want about Avery, but the guy was a reporter’s dream and the best quote in hockey for years.

But back to the matter at hand.

The only rooting interest for this corner is . . . let the Cup rise in Carolina. To see Mitchell Marner raise it as a Golden Knight would be hard to cheer for.

Marner screwed the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Big time.

Knowing full well that he was on his way out at the end of last season (he’d already targeted Vegas as a landing spot after reportedly chatting with Golden Knights players at the Olympic Games), Marner was ‘offered’ a deal to go to Carolina for Mikko Rantanen. He vetoed the swap.

After the trade deadline, Marner entered the post-season and did his usual disappearing act.

Former Leaf enforcer Jay Rosehill nailed it with his comments that Marner was “timid,” “played from the perimeter,” and in pivotal moments, “was a ghost and played like a mouse.” This also was not a small sample size, Marner was invisible in the big games year after year.

Now, the Toronto native is in the discussion for playoff MVP.

To his credit, Marner’s been dynamic but on a team that’s easy to root against.

The Knights landed a sweetheart expansion draft deal from Gary Bettman et all in 2017. Since then, it’s been entitlement after entitlement.

The Senators got the screw job in the Vegas-to-Evgenii Dadonov deal that cost them a first-round pick (since rescinded, somewhat).

Circumvention of the rules has become commonplace.

Clearly, the club was in full chat mode with Marner prior to last summer’s free agency period, forcing the Leafs to surrender and make a trade, landing third-line plumber Nik Roy for Marner’s rights.

As well, Vegas fired former Ottawa 67 Bruce Cassidy as head coach two weeks before season’s end and now the organization has the stones to tell Butch he isn’t allowed to negotiate a new deal with a new team.

It’s a team easy to root against.

Carolina in seven?

thegrossgame@yahoo.com

Photo: Courtesy espn.com