Take the Minnesota offer. Take it this week. Every extra day Detroit waits for something better is on Shawn Horcoff, and it's getting more expensive by the hour.
Dylan Larkin is a 30-year-old center who told the Red Wings he didn't want to play for them anymore, got suspended without pay on Thursday, Oct. 29, and has been forfeiting more than $41,000 a day since. As of Nov. 10 he'd lost more than $520,000. He has a no-trade clause and has capped his list at ten approved teams. His agents turned down Horcoff's request to widen it, and as of this week that hasn't changed.
That's close to the weakest hand a selling team can hold, and it's all public. Rival GMs can read a calendar. An unhappy, unpaid center who's publicly limited his own market to ten teams gets cheaper the longer Detroit sits on him. Larkin had two goals and four assists in the ten games he played before the suspension froze everything, and that number isn't moving while he sits.
Minnesota's the only team actually paying up. The Wild have put a Yurov-centric, pick-heavy package on the table, and it's the most aggressive bid Detroit has seen. Elliotte Friedman put it plainly: "The impression I really get from talking to people around the league is that Minnesota thinks they have a great offer on the table... Danila Yurov, another player, and I think two or three (first-round picks)." The exact pick count keeps moving, but the shape doesn't. Washington and Utah get mentioned as teams worth watching, which mostly means they're not the ones making the offer. Montreal, Boston, Buffalo and the Kings would love Larkin, but none of them are on his list, so their interest doesn't count for much.
Detroit says it wants NHL-ready help instead of futures, and that's where the stall lives. It sounds disciplined, but it's what's costing them. A young, cost-controlled forward plus multiple first-round picks is a real return for a center in Larkin's spot. It just isn't the exact return Horcoff walked in wanting, and refusing to adjust the ask is how a strong offer turns into a mediocre one by the time the deadline forces his hand.
Horcoff's own words show he's dug in. "With the teams that Dylan has on his list, it's difficult to get something done," he said. "Really, we're just trying to find something that is fair for a return for someone of Dylan's caliber." Then the line that should worry Detroit fans: "But I'm prepared to wait as long as necessary to make sure that the return that we get is something that is good for the Red Wings overall." That's the kind of thing a GM says right up until the other nine teams quietly stop calling.
The hold-out argument makes some sense on its face: late first-round picks are soft currency, and nobody wants to cash in a near-top-line center for lottery tickets that turn into the 28th overall pick. But that argument only works if a better bidder exists, and the reporting says one doesn't. Larkin isn't playing for Detroit, and he isn't going to. His value isn't improving. Waiting out a market that's already shown its ceiling won't get him a better return.
Complicating Horcoff's week: Simon Edvinsson is unsigned and has to sign by Dec. 1 or miss the season, and Detroit wants to move both players in the same tight window. Fine, that's reason enough to move now. Sitting on the best Larkin bid on the table while waiting for everything to line up doesn't make sense.
Horcoff is interim, appointed Sept. 15, reporting to CEO Chris Ilitch, and still a candidate for the permanent job. Nothing tanks an audition like turning a good offer into a worse one because you wouldn't say yes. The Wild are bidding against themselves. He should let them win.
