Dylan Larkin suddenly removed from Red Wings lineup due to trade escalation

Dylan Larkin is out of the Detroit Red Wings lineup tonight, and Todd McLellan says interim general manager Shawn Horcoff will be the one to address it.

Max Bultman of The Athletic passed along the news ahead of the home game against the Chicago Blackhawks at Little Caesars Arena.

That's a sharp turn from Wednesday.

Larkin skipped practice, and McLellan brushed it off as a routine rest day while saying he expected the center to suit up.

Now the plan has clearly changed, and nothing has been said yet about why.

Plenty of people will connect the dots, and Pierre LeBrun just gave them a reason to.

He is hearing that talks around Larkin have escalated.

LeBrun was careful, though.

Escalated doesn't mean a deal is about to land, and there are still several directions this could take.

Larkin asked out back in June, a request first reported by Elliotte Friedman, and the Red Wings stripped him of the captaincy in September.

He is 30, has a full no-trade clause through 2027-28, and is in the middle of an eight-year, $69.6 million contract he signed in 2023.

That clause matters, because he controls where he goes.

His approved list reportedly grew to at least 10 teams.

The Minnesota Wild have reportedly made the most offers to Detroit since this began, per LeBrun on October 21.

Detroit's staff has also been scouting Montreal, though the Canadiens aren't on his approved list.

On the ice, Larkin has two goals and six points through 10 games this season.

A decent pace given the noise around him.

Horcoff is running the show as interim GM, and what he says when he addresses this should tell us plenty.

Until then, Red Wings fans are left staring at a very loud question mark.

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