That’s the news, and you’ve probably already heard that if you were anywhere near the hockey-based internet on Wednesday.

This morning, before both Robertson and Stars general manager Jim Nill have scheduled media availabilities, I want to break down what this means, how we got here, and what to watch going forward.

First, how we got here.

The Stars and Robertson, from my understanding, always had a very similar goal: Robertson in Dallas with a long-term deal. The problem was, financially speaking, they had very different ideas of what that looked like for this coming season.

Robertson wanted the eight-year deal, he wanted that security, but he also didn’t want to play at a below-value cap hit for the length of the deal. Robertson also believes in his own game, the past season after the Olympic snub he proved that, and he felt that he could continue to prove that this season.

With both sides looking at that reality, and both quietly stating in the background that $12 to $12.5 million for a one-year deal made sense, the call was made and the awkward arbitration process was avoided.

I’ve seen a lot of capital H, takes on this, and there are some things that I think are worth looking at here with important context. If Robertson really wanted the biggest payday, he would have taken the Seattle deal, if the Stars were really so sold on him being gone, they would have just traded him somewhere without an extension. While it was a fun summer of content, for some, the reality was both sides wanted the same thing.

I personally believe this was the best move for both sides, with them essentially bringing each other to free agency and a potential extension on January 1.

Robertson now gets to properly pick his long-term home, Dallas or otherwise for the following season, while the Stars have the opportunity to keep him, under market rate, for the final season of Tyler Seguin’s deal before the cap elevates.

There might have to be some roster manipulation this fall, Radek Faksa is potentially going to be traded, but the Stars get to “run it back,” with their current group in what feels like a final swan song for Jamie Benn and Seguin in Dallas.

Then, after this season, the Stars get to re-pivot, Seguin will be off the books, Robertson can get his raise, or the Stars can go wild and move him for oodles of cap space.

Yes, it was kicking the can down the road, but it was also a path that was probably the best path at this point, in my humble opinion.

There will still be podcast/talk show hot takes on this, I’m sure Robertson will still be on the top of all those “trade targets” lists people make, but I also firmly believe that the next true deadline is July 1, 2027.

January 1, 2027 can, and will be a pressure point to get something done, so will the trade deadline if Robertson isn’t signed, but this feels like something that has been properly kicked until late June if needed.

Anywhom, those are my thoughts this morning. Robert Tiffin and I will have more on this later today in our weekly show, Algorithmically Incorrect Hockey, which you can watch either at this site or on YouTube.

On a baseball front, the Texas Rangers have dropped the service are moving to BZZR. The Anaheim Ducks are also leaving Victory+, according to Sports Business Journal.

There’s a lot going on, and at this point A Parent Media Company, which emailed me back on Wednesday afternoon, has stated that there is no comment or update directly from Victory+ itself.

I also reached out to the Dallas Stars, who have said everything is “status quo,” for them and Victory+.

I think it’s also a good time to lay out some facts/notes on the situation.

• According to reports, and confirmed by an NHL source, Victory+ has missed payments to the Ducks.

• The Stars have a different type of agreement with Victory+, they own equity in the business, so there’s more than just rights payments here when it comes to the Stars and the streaming platform.

• The NHL is working on taking over broadcasts next seasons for about eight or nine NHL teams, a new reality with the state of regional sports networks, and there’s been some indication that may be the path the Ducks are headed on.

• When asked, one NHL source said Victory+ “isn’t dead, but it’s heading that way.”

• The WHL has its rights held by Victory+, from my understanding that’s not changed at this moment. I do know there is a strong push coming from Flo Sports to potentially add the WHL and complete the CHL collection with the OHL and QMJHL.

Steve Yzerman is out as the Detroit Red Wings general manager.

It’s unsurprising because in the short-lived world of NHL general managers, eight seasons without a playoff appearance is easily grounds for dismissal. In fact, for most organizations, three or four years without a playoff appearance are grounds for getting sacked.

But it’s stunning that Yzerman, who I felt had the longest rope of any executive in hockey history, was ultimately axed after what he’s meant to the franchise.

And to be clear, this is a demotion by promotion. Yzerman is technically going to still be with the organization working as a “senior advisor to Governor and CEO, Chris Ilitch,” according to the team press release. It’s corporate movement in the sports world, doing your best to save face by adjusting titles, but effectively cutting out any real responsibility.

Ilitch even admits as much, vaguely, in the press release with these types of statements.

"Steve's lifetime of contributions to the Red Wings has meant more to this franchise than words can truly express, and I have the highest level of respect for his continued commitment to our organization,” said Ilitch. “We are thankful for Steve’s hard work and dedication as General Manager and are grateful knowing Steve will remain where he belongs – here with the Red Wings family.”

It’s firing a franchise icon 101, protect the image of the man and the No. 19 that hangs in the rafters, but rip out the roots of what’s happened to hockey operations for a once proud franchise.

The Yzerplan is dead, and this morning, Larkin is the equivalent of Javier Bardem walking away from the exploding car to go rob the pharmacy in No Country for Old Men.

I think we should start with Larkin, because while his relationship with Yzerman was icy, at best, this doesn’t rescind the trade request. In fact, barring a major kumbaya moment, which I’m not sure is possible, the next GM has to figure out how to best land the ship on that trade for the future of the franchise.

The Red Wings, on the ice, are now and should be Moritz Seider’s and Lucas Raymond’s team. Keeping Larkin around, in my view, is going to limit their ability to grow and take that command.

Whether that’s an in-house candidate figuring that out, like Kris Draper, or an external one, one of my key interview questions if I were in Ilitch’s chair would be, “how do we solve the Larkin trade?”

And that Larkin trade timeline, again in my view, now gets pushed back to whenever the next GM is hired. Yzerman is still handling the “day-to-day,” moves until that happens, but this trade is far from “day-to-day” business.

That likely gums up some timelines for other league activity, or forces some other teams to simply move onto play B if they aren’t patient enough.

Todd McLellan will probably still be the coach in Detroit, I don’t expect the Red Wings to make a change there, but his shelf-life is probably limited depending on whom the next head of operations will be.

On another front, I’m fascinated to see what this does to the culture of the Red Wings, and how open/friendly the organization is going forward. Yzerman kept things locked down to an extreme level, outside of the head coach and himself, no one from hockey operations was ever available to the media. There were also in-house limitations on the Red Wings public relations and content teams that no other team in the league had to deal with, it’s something I’ve personally witnessed in my role, and while there were never complaints from those people, you could see how the ethos from the top made their job more difficult.

For those people, and fan access to the team, this news should make their job easier, and I’m a firm believer that the GM truly sets the tone of how much an organization is and isn’t willing to live in a new media world.

That matters to me, obviously, because I’d love my job to be easier, and I’d love for the Red Wings to be more like the Dallas Stars, where the GM actually encourages members of his staff to be interviewed for stories, but for any Detroit fans, only one thing really matters.

Can the next GM, deliver on this comment from the owner?

“Clearly, we are not where we and our fans expect to be as an organization” said Ilitch. “I’m looking forward to bringing in new leadership to build the championship-caliber organization Hockeytown deserves.”

That’s a question that, frankly, we all will be watching closely.

From a soccer perspective, it was pretty clear the United States was outclassed and after beating some lesser opponents early on, a true match against a top-10 nation proved to be too much.

But I want to localize what happened here to a hockey perspective, and perhaps take a lesson from the circus and hoopla happened before the loss to Belgium.

Folarin Balogun got what is probably now the most famous red card in soccer history. I would argue before that it was probably Zinedine Zidane headbutt in 2006 World Cup final or the Eric Cantona flying karate kick of a fan in 1995, but neither of those incidents led to an American president and administration pushing FIFA, publicly, to change the rules and reverse the red card suspension.

Belgium, in my belief, wins this game either way, but for an American team that was thriving on the vibes and energy from the group stage, everything changed with the aftermath of the red card. When the red card got reversed, and in the public manner it did, it changed the perception. The Americans needed Balogun, it was such an injustice to lose a top player, according to the narratives, and it seemed like fighting to get him back was the equivalent of the Norwegians losing Erling Haaland (which is not the case).

The pressure also ratcheted up, not just the natural pressure of a knockout stage match, but the pressure that all of America had been righted of this wrong and now the United States would win this match against Belgium.

Instead the Americans struggled, they looked out of sorts, Balogun played very little impact, and in many ways the narrative had helped sink the United States before they ever stepped on the field.

Now let’s connect that back to hockey and some of the events currently ongoing in the NHL.

The Ottawa Senators traded Brady Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers this summer, a move that felt like it was always going to happen and was only further pushed by the ongoing podcast with his brother, which seems to have ticked off many within the Senators’ locker room. There was no pride in Ottawa, publicly, for Brady in his most public setting and it started to seep deeper into other players.

Ottawa, for any chance of success, had to move on from their captain, the narrative and cloud around it were hanging on too long.

Which brings me Dylan Larkin and the Red Wings, the trade request heard across the league, and how the team, one way or the other, will deal with this moving forward, especially as top-line centers making less than $9 million per season became that much more valuable in the past week.

The Red Wings have also been overly impacted by outside noise, Larkin included, the past few years and players have admitted as much. The culture of losing has infected Detroit in now annual March collapses, and players have taken the moments of booing and internalized them, frankly, in the wrong way and been almost indignant about it.

Yes, the Red Wings need better players, that’s a direct line from Steve Yzerman, but they also need a locker room that takes that adversity and either gets pissed off about it or uses it to find a solution.

Larkin, I believe, used to be the type of person that would have looked at it the other way, and wanted to dig his way out. But he eventually reached his breaking point, and I think it impacted others, and it greatly muted the intended “culture import” that the Red Wings tried to bring with return of David Perron at the trade deadline.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, my opinions have changed a bit here and there, and when it comes to Yzerman’s promise that he must do “what’s best for the Red Wings,” I think we’ve reached the point where for the Red Wings to have a proper narrative, which doesn’t drive the team negatively during the 2026-27 season, a deal needs to be done before training camp.

It’s not apples to apples to what happened with Team USA, an a short tournament is very different than an 84-game season, but to me there are some prime examples in front of Yzerman right now about how to at least put his team in a better spot to avoid the outside noise becoming internal, again.

Just some food for thought on a Tuesday in July, thanks for reading.

I did my best “Early July Canadian Hockey Writer,” impression last week and took the family to the lake last week after some of the dust settled on July 1.

It wasn’t Canada, we were up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, but it was a pretty good opportunity to get away for a bit, re-charge, and only think about hockey a little bit while driving through the forest.

So this morning I scribbled down some notes/thoughts on what’s happened in the past five days. Some of this is already out there, I’m sure, maybe all of it is, but it’s worth compiling in one place.

Jason Robertson has filed for arbitration, which as I posted on Substack Notes (does anyone read those?) and other social media platforms, leads to three quick observations from me.

1. This filing fits with what’s been his goal, to stay in Dallas but be paid closer to $14 million
2. This isn’t going to end anytime soon
3. Other players being miffed doesn’t track with some I’ve spoke too. Players get its a business

Let me expand a bit on each.

On the first note, as I’ve written multiple times, Jason Robertson from my understanding wants to stay in Dallas and he wants to be the highest paid player on the team, like someone that scores more than 100 points per season, which he is.

He turned down the Seattle offer for this reason, and while I’ve yet to get confirmation I truly trust on the St. Louis discussion, Robertson, long-term, isn’t really interested in anywhere other than Dallas at this moment.

The Pittsburgh Penguins, perhaps, could change his tune on that, especially after trading for his brother, but Robertson partially closed the path to other teams when he filed for arbitration.

And that’s why this isn’t really going to end anytime soon, and with some other signings in the books, Stars GM Jim Nill is willing to be way more patent than you and I. So is Robertson, while the outside world wants conclusion, the player and the GM seem content and OK with the fact that they have September to figure this out.

I don’t think that’s true for Stars owner Tom Gaglardi, who has gotten slightly better at hiding his public frustrations, but still is letting it be known through back channels that the Stars aren’t happy with Robertson. From a media literacy perspective, I ask you this, “who does it benefit if it looks like the Stars or their players are upset with Robertson?”

And to that matter, I’m sure some players are a little bit upset with things, Mavrik Bourque had some friends on the team, but from my conversations there’s also a pretty healthy understanding that Bourque was never going to get the type of money he got from Nashville to remain in Dallas.

Here’s another way to look at it, players tend to like money, and while they’ve gotten pretty good at saying, “I have an agent for that,” the reality is that Robertson signing for his market value is good for the rest of the NHLPA.

Esa Lindell, for example, told me directly that one of the reasons he pushed for more of his value on a contract negotiation was because he took John Klingberg’s advice to heart about realizing this is and always will be a business for the teams.

On the “hockey is a business” note, the Leo Carlsson signed offer sheet and the Anaheim Ducks pending decision to match the Philadelphia Flyers or not feels like it just juiced up Dylan Larkin’s value.

Larkin was already a highly-desirable asset as a top-six center making $8.7 million per season, but with the rising cap and the Carlsson deal, that cap hit for five more season became even more valuable. Now whether that means he’s more valuable to the Red Wings or more valuable as a trade asset is fascinating, but it feels like this is just another reason to see Steve Yzerman dig in his heels and be more patient than anyone else would like him to be.

That’s what I’m thinking about/got this morning. Thanks for reading and more importantly, hope everyone had a great holiday weekend, it means a ton to me that we’ve got a reader base here that understands/accepts some breaks in coverage so I can connect with the family.

Unrestricted free agents can start signing with new teams at noon ET today, so in roughly three hours there will new news and things to discuss.

As a quick preview/thought-provoking item before that, I highly encourage you to watch this episode of Algorithmically Incorrect Hockey that we did last week with NHL agent Allain Roy.

Allain happens to represent Nico Hischier, by the way, so it could be a busy day for him.

On that note, for today, there was some big news last night from Elliotte Friedman that the Dallas Stars and Columbus Blue Jackets had worked out the framework for a trade featuring Thomas Harley and Zach Werenski, but it was ultimately nixed by the Blue Jackets defenseman.

As Friedman reports, it sounds like Werenski is more interested in an Eastern Conference team and wants to pick his location.

It’s eerily similar to the trade the Stars tried to make with the Seattle Kraken, but was nixed by the player, who from my understanding, has no interested in playing for the Kraken and was turning down the designation not the $15 million per season salary.

For Dallas, there’s some awkwardness in this, Harley’s name is now being floated as a trade target and he happens to have the same representation as Robertson — Andy Scott.

Nill and Scott are battling right now, possibly all the way to arbitration later this summer, on Robertson’s deal and while I don’t expect the potential Harley trade to impact the Robertson deal, it is something both sides will certainly have in the back of their mind when dealing with each other.

It also feels like, right now, that the Stars and Robertson are going to end up paired together for next season. I don’t know if that’s going to be a long-term deal, in fact that feels a bit more fraught, but it seems like with other pieces falling apart, like the potential Werenski deal, they might try and run this back and kick future negotiations into next season, and perhaps trade Robertson before the trade deadline if needed.

Nothing new on Dylan Larkin, for what it’s worth, I think Steve Yzerman is going to wait on this and he has no issue making Larkin come to camp if he doesn’t get a deal in place that he likes.

Mavrik Bourque has been getting calls from my understanding, he’s a restricted free agent now with a qualifying offer, but teams are pushing hard to find out what might be able to pry the young forward out of Dallas either via trade or an offer sheet.

Alex DeBrincat has also been getting trade interest from other teams, but there’s a big difference between teams calling the Red Wings and the Red Wings actively “shopping” him, which is not the case.

That’s what I’ve got right now on what I know. We should have more later today.

Enjoy!

It’s OK, I didn’t do anything wrong.

I was drinking coffee in the media area around 9:15 am, when they were going through security protocols for the next shift and the security guard, who I had been talking with earlier — side note, always talk to the security guards in this business, they have great stories — asked me to try and walk through to the restricted area so he could show the next shift how my badge wouldn’t let me into that area.

Sure enough, my badge, buzzed red on the monitor, so the system was working.

OK, onto some things you want to read about…

As Robert Tiffin and I spoke about yesterday on an impromptu live episode of Algorithmically Incorrect Hockey, it feels like we are on the precipice of a conclusion to the Jason Robertson-Dallas Stars drama.

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I’m headed to the NHL Entry Draft tomorrow in Buffalo, late-night flight, and figured it was a good time to drop in some notes/thoughts/etc… on what I’ve heard/know/feel before we get into the draft tomorrow.

To be clear, all of this is based on my conversations with people around the league and what I feel confident enough in reporting.

First, the ongoing Jason Robertson situation.

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So, let’s get into it.

Mike Babcock is back in the NHL, he’s coaching the Edmonton Oilers and, frankly, showed very little remorse or even understanding of his past transgressions at his introductory press conference yesterday.

In fact, when asked about what happened with his brief time in Columbus, Babcock resorted to an answer where he said it was his wife’s idea to step away from the Blue Jackets, and not related to anything else.

It’s a sad state of affairs, honestly, because from a coaching perspective it’s been well documented that Babcock is a bully who demeans his players. There are numerous stories to look up, and while the Oilers were flaunting his championships in their presser yesterday, the reality is below the top players, he’s horrible to work for.

Connor McDavid, who allegedly was involved in this process, will be fine. But he’s helped sentence some of his teammates and the Oilers depth players to a pretty horrific existence if Babcock’s tone in his opening presser is truly indicative of who he still is.

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If you missed it, yesterday was a pretty big day in the hockey world as the Florida Panthers swung big and traded for Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, sending three first-round picks and a second-rounder to Canada’s capital.

It’s a move that feels like it’s been in the works for a couple years now, Tkachuk hasn’t been shy about wanting to play with his brother, Matthew, and this offseason has already been defined by rumors and actual trade requests by members of the gold-medal winning USA Olympic team.

Now that Tkachuk has been traded, there’s been some natural speculation and rumor mongering about what the Senators will do with their newfound cap space and draft capital.

Which, of course, brings us to the Senators and the potential of trading for Jason Robertson. There have been multiple reports that the Senators are interested in Robertson and apparently making a push to trade for the Dallas Stars forward. This, in theory, could be done through either a trade with the Stars or via offer sheet since Robertson is restricted free agent.

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When the Professional Women’s Hockey League held prospect media availability earlier this week at Little Caesars Arena, Petra Nieminen and Andrea Brändli were paired together in the makeshift interview pods.

It made a ton of sense, not only are Nieminen and Brändli both coming over from the Swedish Women’s Hockey League (SDHL), but also as 27 and 29 year olds, respectively, they were two of the older players to have declared for the draft with most players in their early 20s.

“That’s been one of the things we were talking about,” Brändli said. “There’s been some slang and things we’ve had to ask about.”

Nieminen was drafted 12th on Wednesday, the last pick of the first round, by the Montreal Victoire, and will join the reigning Walter Cup Champions. Brändli was taken No. 15, by PWHL Detroit, and is expected to be the No. 1 goalie for the expansion franchise this coming season.

They were the first non NCAA players taken in the draft, followed closely by Elisa Holopainen, who was taken No. 19 by the New York Sirens.

So as Europeans that were already playing professionally in Sweden, how and when do you make the decision to declare for the PWHL Draft and make the move to North America?

“For me it was about timing it around the Olympics,” Nieminen said, who had 369 points in 264 career SDHL games. “I kind of thought about (the PWHL) a couple seasons ago, but wanted to be able to focus on what I could control, playing for the same team in the couple years before the Olympics.”

Brändli had a similar thought about the Olympics and there was also a pragmatic approach as a goalie. Even with a strong NCAA career at Ohio State and Boston University, Brändli didn’t see much of an opportunity for playing time in the PWHL back during the 2023-24 season when it only had six teams.

When the league expanded to eight this past season the number of starting goalie spots opened up, but were largely reserved for current PWHL backups. So when PWHL expansion became evident this season, jumping from eight to 12 teams, and on the heels of a pretty impressive Olympics for Switzerland, Brändli made the decision to declare for the PWHL draft.

“You kind of have to be realistic as a goalie, that no matter what happens, you really can’t prove yourself unless you get to play,” Brändli said. “So you kind of prove yourself, you show there and (in international play) against USA and Canada when you get the chance.”

Brändli also represented the first pick in PWHL Detroit history after the team had traded the No. 3 pick to PWHL Las Vegas for Hilary Knight. It was the loudest pick of the evening at Fox Theater, there were chants before and after by an impressive crowd here, and for Brändli it was special to have the pick announced by Manon Rhéaume, the Detroit PWHL GM who notably became the first women to play in an NHL preseason game.

And it makes sense, this is the captain of an iconic NHL franchise asking to be dealt away from his hometown, and doing so in pretty dramatic fashion with five years remaining on his contract.

I’ve written about it twice at this site here and here, while I was a guest on the Hockey PDOcast on Monday with my good buddy Dimitri Filipovic to chat about it. I’m sure Robert Tiffin and I will also have some discussion about it, amongst other things, this week on Algorithmically Incorrect Hockey (which will be live on YouTube and simulcast here at Shap Shots.)

I’ve also read a ton from some really smart people on the matter and listened to the episodes my friends over at Winged Wheel Podcast have delivered. The Larkin saga has also become the main topic for local Detroit sports talk radio the past few days.

There’s been a ton and there will be more, but there was a couple things I wanted to unpack a bit more today that have been rolling around in my head on this matter.

Let’s start with the reported trade list that Larkin has submitted according to The Detroit Free Press.

According to the Free Press, Larkin’s trade list includes the Minnesota Wild, Florida Panthers, and Vegas Golden Knights.

From my understanding on the matter, those three teams are certainly on his list. I also believe the list is slightly larger than those three teams, there is another team, I know, that’s been told they are on Larkin’s list of considerations and Elliotte Friedman, who broke the initial news, has said something similar this past weekend.

A three-team list has drawn headlines, and led to some vitriol toward Larkin from Red Wings’ fans, which I understand, but I would like some more clarity here on how exclusive or small that list actually is.

Those three teams, notably feature players that Larkin has international experience and happens to be close with from his time at Team USA — Quinn Hughes, Matthew Tkachuk, and Jack Eichel.

Larkin won a gold medal and partied with those players back in February, they took a trip to the White House together, he kind of got a taste of what Tkachuk and Eichel have experience in recent years, after forcing their own moves out of Calgary and Buffalo, and was highly influenced by them.

It gave me reminders of the 2023 NHL All-Star Weekend down in Florida, fittingly when Larkin was still going through his contract extension talk with the Red Wings. During that weekend in February Larkin was inseparable from the Tkachuk brothers, being seen multiple times together at the Elbo Room, a bar that is now one of the NHL’s top unofficial business gathering places.

Whether you like it or not, it’s a player empowerment play by several of the members of Team USA, and there are some general managers better suited to handle this new landscape than others.

I know some people have called Larkin soft for this, and it certainly doesn’t help that he filmed a toiler paper commercial around the Olympics, but I actually push back against that a little bit.

It’s a greedy request, sure, but it’s one of the more brave things Larkin has done in his career. He grew up with Red Wings history and what it means to the Michigan hockey community. He saw what happened with Sergei Fedorov who finally was welcomed home and had his number retired this season after decades of being blacklisted by Red Wings ownership.

The safe, soft play for Larkin was to remain in Detroit. Even if he was frustrated with Yzerman and they didn’t get along, the reality is players and GM don’t have to interact on the day-to-day, they don’t have to like each other, and while snippets of malcontent would come out, ultimately Larkin could have ridden this out for five years as hometown hero, the local kid who lived out the dream of every Michigan youth hockey player to captain his hometown team.

Instead he asked to move on, he asked to go play second fiddle somewhere, essentially admitting in his request that he can’t be and isn’t the focal point of a championship team. He’s a top-six center in the NHL, probably somewhere in the 20 to 30ish range for me if I were ranking them, but he’s not the guy to lead a team to a championship down the middle.

It’s brave to admit that and it’s also brave to throw away the hometown legacy and become a villain.

To be clear, this isn’t to defend Larkin’s decision one way or the other. But I think we are missing the point if we call him soft or anything like that. Red Wings fan can, and maybe they should, call him a villain, but this is more devious than cowardice in my view.

There’s also the reality that Yzerman may not trade him. If you are in Yzerman’s shoes, and I think it’s pretty well known if his name wasn’t “Steve Yzerman” he’d have been fired by now after seven missed postseasons, why would you trade Larkin for a weak return?

It’ll be awkward if Larkin is still on the roster come September, but unless you are able to get an acceptable trade package, why would you just gift a shutdown second-line center, who can score a point per game, to an NHL contender?

It’s also a two-front battle for Yzerman. One to find the best return for his soon-to-be ex-captain, and one with Larkin to whittle him down to make that trade list as large as possible.

From a Red Wings perspective, it’s going to be a redefining trade, a legacy defining one. As someone who is actively working on a book on team history for young readers (elementary school-aged reading level), it’s incredibly frustrating timing since I had just finished up the first draft of the manuscript about a month ago thinking Larkin wouldn’t be going anywhere.

In that mindset, for the Red Wings and Larkin, there’s still a lot to be written and in my book’s case, re-written, over the next couple weeks and months. Maybe the NHL Draft pushes the tempo for this, it’s an ideal time to move assets, or maybe this drags on further into the summer. Either way, it’s something that is going to define this NHL offseason.

It’s been roughly 26 hours since news broke that Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin has requested a trade.

I wrote some quick thoughts yesterday, which you can read here if you haven’t already:

In the past 24 hours, I’ve been able to learn a little bit more having spoken to people around the league including agents, players, and team executives.

For starters, the frosty relationship between Steve Yzerman and Larkin is now public, but wasn’t much of a secret for people in the industry.

For example, there have been times players themselves have directly requested a trade. That wasn’t the case here, where Larkin’s agency, CAA, informed the Red Wings of Larkin’s desire to leave Detroit.

“They don’t speak unless they’ve had to, they haven’t for a while,” one agent said. “That’s kind of become common knowledge about the situation in Detroit. Steve and Larkin co-existed, but they didn’t get along at all, and that’s kind of been known by others for a bit now.”

It should be clear, that as of now, the Red Wings and CAA have been quiet as possible on this. No one has been willing to put their name on public comment, but multiple people in the Red Wings orbit and organization have been willing to confirm that Yzerman is indeed mulling over his options on how to handle this moving forward, and if he’ll even grant the request.

One of the bigger questions I’ve gotten from those within the Red Wings is how this even got out. Yzerman keeps everything very tight and close, almost to an intimidating level with members of the organization, and while CAA has had leaks before, they normally disperse those to media members that CAA represents.

Case in point, there’s never been a real explanation why the Red Wings traded Jake Walman a couple years back. There are some members of the Detroit organization that are still confused about that deal.

“When Steve makes up his mind and no one can change it,” one agent said today in Buffalo. “Once that happens, he’s going to do what he wants. So it’s going to be interested what he decides what he wants to do with this and Larkin.”

No matter what Yzerman decides, the Red Wigs future leadership likely now runs through Moritz Seider, and whether it’s this season or a bit later, I would highly expect him to be the next captain.

And while there have been thousands of posts/articles about the trade and what it might look like, as of now, it’s hard to get a read on any realistic destination or return. Larkin is one of the best centers in recent memory to become available in the trade market, he’s also gotten a very high profile from his international showings for Team USA.

That being said, it’s difficult to see how the Red Wings can “win” any Larkin trade. Detroit was in desperate need of a top-six center already, and now they will be in desperate need of two after a potential trade.

It’s pretty big news that was broken on Thursday by Elliotte Friedman.

I’m currently at the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo, it’s been the biggest topic of conversation in the hotel bar here, in fact I’ve spoken to multiple agents about it. From the team side, and from Larkin’s camp, no one seems interested in talking at this moment, which is understandable, but the silence also speaks volumes about the realness of Friedman’s report.

Let’s unpack some things, as I’ve seen them over the past couple years in Detroit, and how it may have contributed to Larkin’s potential Detroit departure.

Larkin has been highly frustrated with the Red Wings lack of success, he’s played just five playoff games in his NHL career, he’s put part of that on himself, but he also hasn’t been great about hiding his displeasure with the way Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman has handled things.

In fact, when Yzerman and Larkin agreed to an eight-year extension in 2023, a moment that was supposed to be a celebration, it was overshadowed by the Red Wings trading away Tyler Bertuzzi and Larkin’s extension press conference turned into a nearly tear-filled moment over one of the captain’s best friends being traded away.

When the Red Wings didn’t make moves at the deadline during the 2024-25 season, beyond trading for Petr Mrazek, Larkin publicly opined at exit interviews how the team never got the boost they felt they deserved at the deadline.

This season, when the Red Wings did buy at the trade deadline, they failed to make the playoffs, again. Larkin carries some of the blame, he was emotional about it at the end of the season, but his frustration with the overall state of the franchise also worsened.

I’m not sure what the final breaking point was, but it’s become clear that Larkin has reached his breaking point. His belief in the Yzerplan has shaken, and it probably didn’t help when both Yzerman and Red Wings coach Todd McClellan openly admitted the Red Wings needed to get better players.

In that same press conference there were some lengthy pauses from Yzerman when asked if the Red Wings have enough current players in the fold to get it done.

Going forward, it’s going to be awkward for the Red Wings until a Larkin trade materializes. Larkin was part of the plan, he was the 1C they needed a 2C behind, and now he wants out. Detroit players will now be inundated with questions about this, especially Larkin if he isn’t traded before training camp.

While the potential of Larkin trade is a gift to those in the #hockeycontent machine, it’s going to come with some challenges. Larkin has a no-trade clause, and Yzerman also doesn’t have to trade him, in fact Yzerman could be spiteful and hold him. In order for this trade to happen, Yzerman and Larkin will have to see eye-to-eye, which hasn’t been the case in recent years.

It adds another wrinkle to the ongoing saga, which is only going to evolve now that it’s been blasted into public.

I’m flying to Buffalo this morning for the NHL Scouting Combine, where many of the top prospects for the 2026 NHL Draft will meet with NHL teams and lay some of the groundwork for the draft later this month, also in Buffalo.

(Side note, I would be remiss if I didn’t shout out my colleague at Elite Prospects who did incredible work on the 2026 Draft Guide that is now available.)

This will be my first trip to the combine, it’s actually one of the few things that I haven’t covered before within the NHL Draft cycle, so I’ll have a better “boots on the ground,” piece on that later this weekend.

In the meantime, I had a reader ask me the other day a question that I think is worth diving into.

What are teams looking for when the interview players or take them to dinner at the combine?

Over the next couple days you’ll see on social media that Player X met with Team Y, and that a player met with this many teams. For example, I’ve got a meeting lined up later today with a player, who is projected to go in the top-15 range, that has 24 team meetings scheduled.

In many cases, for teams, these meetings are about fleshing out information about a prospect that’s been initially gleaned through the scouting process. They’ll be questions about a player’s season, why they did or didn’t have success, while they’ll also be inquiries where various teams try to learn more about a player’s personality. There are a handful of teams that really big on that second part, and there have been stories of players dropping in the draft or landing on “do-not-draft,” lists because of how poorly they came off to a certain team in an interview.

There have also been players that have improved their draft stock in the interview process, Ty Dellandrea, for example really wowed the Stars in his interview back in 2018 and when the Stars drafted him they were confident they’d gotten a future captain, “a Mike Fisher type,” with the pick.

Social media postings from reporters about a team meeting with a player is also not an indicator that a team will or won’t draft a player. I think too often it gets misconstrued that a team really likes a player, similar to how hockey media/fans often overreact to scouts being in the building.

One NHL scouting director once explained it to me this way, “it’s an information business. We are building databases of information for this draft, but for the long-term as well. There might be a trade or some other opportunity to acquire a player in the future, the combine is probably the real first-impression to build your notes on a player.”

My first full-time job was at a small-town newspaper in Kerrville, Texas.

I was hired in mid-January 2012 to be the sports reporter on a two-person sports staff at The Kerrville Daily Times, and during my first day on the job, before any orientation, I was told I was going to be promoted to sports editor at the end of my second week since the sports editor had just put in his two-week notice.

I was 22, brand new to Texas, and was now tasked with both learning everything possible from the outgoing sports editor, crash-course style, while also being partially responsible for hiring a sports reporter to work under me in a span of two weeks.

It was a chaotic, “welcome to the business,” moment for me, and I believe that thematically it helped prepare for me a career where, for better or worse, you have to adapt frequently.

We actually hired another Shaun, albeit with a different spelling, for my old role, and his last name also started with an S. It created some pretty confusing moments for people on the phone when they’d call the Daily Times and ask for “Sean/Shaun in sports,” and there would then be series of qualifying follow-up questions about which Sean/Shaun they were trying to reach.

A few months after making that hire, the chaos continued when I arrived to work, the publisher called me into his office and told me, “we are going to cut the sports reporter position,” and that Shaun would be let go when he got into the office later that day.

It was a frustrating and disappointing turn of events, it disenfranchised my desire to stay at the Daily Times and I started quietly looking for my next job, which I eventually found at the Cedar Park-Leander Statesman, a move that unbeknownst to me at the time was the step I needed to get back into the hockey world.

My only regret about leaving Kerrville, and the thing that I struggled with when making my decision, was the fact I never covered a high school football season in that small town. Kerrville was a one-school town, Tivy High School, and it was the biggest show in town. That school famously produced Johnny Manziel and part of me really wanted to stay and live through a small-town high school football season in a beat capacity.

I made the right decision, I actually covered a state championship team instead in Cedar Park, but there was something about small-town Texas and the connection a high school football team that elicits romanticism in my mind.

Getting us back to hockey, and the present day, I got some of that same feeling yesterday in Kelowna.

Now on the ice, the Kelowna Rockets were overmatched hosts in the 2026 Memorial, head coach Derrick Martin said last night that “if goals cost a dollar we only brought 75 cents,” as they finished the tournament without a win.

Off the ice, however, in many ways the Rockets and Kelowna reminded me of what I ultimately missed out on by leaving Kerrville when I did. Between talking to volunteer drivers for the Memorial Cup shuttles, restaurant employees, and others I’ve met in the past few days, you can sense how much the hockey team and the communal gathering a WHL game represents means to this city.

I grabbed lunch yesterday at Wood Fire Bakery, a suggestion from a reader, and the guy taking my order was wearing a Tij Iginla jersey and a Rockets hat while he slung sandwiches. My shuttle driver, yesterday morning, an older gentleman who moved to Kelowna about 15 years ago, told me how for his family, a half-season ticket package to watch the Rockets was family time, how they looked forward to game days not just for the hockey, but what it represented to get everyone together.

And while he wasn’t bullish on Kelowna winning going into the game with Everett, for him that game was going to be another family moment, and a chance to watch the team “earn one more hockey night in Kelowna,” with a potential victory.

The Rockets lost, the season ended, and while they’ll be two more games this weekend in the Memorial Cup, they won’t feature the hosts. It created an odd, but wonderful scene last night after Everett won, with the hosts taking extra time to do a slow lap around the ice to thank the fans it was a loud ovation. Talking to multiple players from the Rockets, both before and after that game, you got the sense of pride in the city, not just the teammates around them. One of those unspoken connections that help define a city and its team.

Kelowna is much bigger than Kerrville, about 10 times the population, and it’s two different sports, but there’s something pretty damn cool about that connective tissue, where the games matter on the field/ice, but they also represent something more off of it.

This morning I was up around 5 am locally here in Kelowna, I actually slept-in about an hour from my typical 7 am ET wake-up time, and was able to sneak in a two-hour hike this morning, met a family of deer on the way, and took some time to sit on a bench and just look at the city and lake from the top of a small mountain before grabbing breakfast.

It’s one of my favorite parts about traveling for work, especially at this time of year, sneaking in a hike somewhere and getting to disconnect a little bit.

As someone who lives and works in a connection-driven business, it’s hard not to spend a ton of time looking at a screen when you work in media, those moments, I believe make me a better writer and person. It lets me reflect, it lets me get lost at times, and sometimes when my brain goes blank, other creativity starts flowing.

For example, a couple months back, soon after I got the news that All City was letting me go from DLLS, I was taking a walk by myself, not thinking about work or hockey, and had the idea to text Robert Tiffin about finding a way to build something. Two months later, I’m pretty damn proud of Algorithmically Incorrect Hockey and we will be recording Episode 9 tomorrow and have another great guest lined up.

That’s kind of how my brain works, for better or worse. It’s scattered and chaotic most of the time, an odd stream of consciousness outside of writing that I often struggle to communicate others.

But when I take those pauses in life, either within a moment, or sneaking out on a hike to look at a lake, like I did this morning, everything becomes a bit clearer.

Hope that makes sense.

Any ways, I’m in Kelowna for the next week covering the Memorial Cup for Elite Prospects. This is one of my favorite tournaments and the second one I’ve gotten to cover in person after the 2024 Memorial Cup in Saginaw. I love the cultural collision of each of the CHL leagues, the different playing styles and cross-over of champions from three different circuits, in my view it’s the closest thing we have in North American hockey to the Champions League.

Tonight, the QMJHL champions, the Chicoutimi Saguenéens, play the OHL champion Kitchener Rangers.

In the meantime, let’s get to some mailbag questions:

Has there been any impact on the quality of junior hockey since the ncaa ruling that would allow juniors to play division 1 hockey (From Greg)

This is only Year 1 of new world order where CHL players are eligible to play in the NCAA, and while the CHL lost some big names this season — Gavin McKenna and Porter Martone, for example — I believe in the long run the CHL is going to benefit from the new path.

JP Hurlbert, for example, had 97 points this season for the Kamloops Blazers and only played in the WHL because the new ruling wouldn’t hurt his future status at University of Michigan. I think there will be talent flowing both ways, and while the CHL is going to get a little bit younger in my view, I don’t think any talk of the CHL’s demise is realistic.

Thoughts on the playoff format resulting in such an exciting Western Conference Finals? I guess the most exciting first round in sports is worth it. (From Ged)

Ged is obviously using some sarcasm here with the Vegas Golden Knights currently up 3-0 against the Colorado Avalanche.

I don’t like the NHL playoff format because, in my mind, it devalues the regular season. You play 82 games to determine standings and seedings, and in my view, you should have a system in place that reflects that. The Vegas Golden Knights reached the Western Conference Final having played the teams ranked, points-wise, sixth and seventh in the conference.

I don’t blame Vegas for their path, but they were more rewarded by virtue of division than three teams that had double-digit more points than them in the Wild, Stars, and Avalanche.

The Stanley Cup playoffs are all about chaos, beautiful chaos, but I’d like us to go back to 1 through 8 with a re-seed to put more value on the regular season.

How would you evaluate Gulutzan’s first season as coach? How much falls on him and his system as it relates to the lack of offence created in the playoffs? (From Ben)

Glen Gulutzan’s first season really requires a deep look under the hood, and honestly, it’s something I’d like to dive into once I get through the end of the Memorial Cup.

But, in the short-term, I think Gulutzan’s coaching was passable, but not elite. He did a better job connecting with players on a human level, but wasn’t able to carry over some of the Xs and Os that Pete DeBoer was better equipped for.

Let me give you a deeper dive and proper answer later this week or early next with some video.

In case the Stars ponder the unexpected as far as roster changes go, what do you think they could get for Casey DeSmith? Or could Poirer use more seasoning in Cedar Park before trading DeSmith at the TDL? (From Timothy)

I think trading Casey DeSmith would be a horrible decision.

$1 million back-up goalies that put up numbers like he has are hard to find, and I think it’s become clear that Jake Oettinger needs to be pushed by a veteran goalie. I struggle to find any return for DeSmith that would be worth the negative impact of removing him from the equation.

Remi Poirer, it should be noted, has made some nice strides. But I want his play this coming season to force the Stars hand and prove to us he can win the back-up job for the following season.

Do you find it odd Jake did not play in the worlds? He wants to be team USA goalie why not go play? (From Michael)

I don’t blame Jake Oettinger for not going to worlds, if anything I think it was the right decision because his body has been overworked and needed a long summer to recover for next season.

I also don’t think World Championships are, nor should they be, used to identify which players represent a country when it comes time to best-on-best competition. It’s a fun tournament, one I’d like to cover some day, but with the nature of where it fits on the hockey calendar I think it should be reserved for players that missed the Stanley Cup playoffs or younger prospects using it as a springboard.

First a food rec: do yourself a favor Sean and get a sandwich at Woodfire Bakery.

Book dinner at Cedar Creek Winery.

Lastly, any information on Maxim Mayorov and the Stars’ plans for him next season? Will he remain in KHL? (From Chris)

Thank you for the food recommendations, I will check out Woodfire Bakery for lunch on Thursday and report back!

I will also ask about Mayorov, as of right now I don’t have a proper answer for you.

With the official kickoff to grilling season upon us, what’s the best condiment combination for a hotdog? And also in your opinion, what’s a big no-no? (From Ed)

I like mustard and ketchup together on my hotdog, I realize I’m about to get some hate for that.

On the flip side, I think the beauty of hot dogs, and grilling, is that there are no big “no-nos” when it comes to food. As someone who spends a lot of time smoking meat in the offseason, we did a brisket two weekends ago, I think it’s good to have an open mind on this stuff.

One of the cooler things about being a parent, in my view, is getting re-introduced to the world or gaining a new perspective through your kids.

My 5-year-old son, for example, is starting to build and complete Lego sets by himself. There’s some things he needs help with, but in general he can now sit at the table with the instructions and get through the whole thing, like he did after school yesterday.

And as a parent, I’ve really enjoyed just watching and taking in the experience. Putting away any other distractions, and watching this 5-year-old figure something out and watching his face light up when he figures out a particularly frustrating step.

I had a similar experience with my daughter later that night, not with Lego (although she and her brother have plans to build a Lego city this summer), but with sports fandom.

Last night the Montreal Victoire claimed the PWHL’s Walter Cup with a 4-0 victory in Game 4 against the Ottawa Charge. My daughter, who is now 7, intently watched most of the third period, heavily rooting for Montreal because of her favorite player, Abby Roque.

I was watching the game with her, but I was more so watching her. Watching her deal with the excitement and nerves of a championship game, how she couldn’t really sit still and went from sitting a couple feet in front of the TV to back on the couch munching Cheetos way past her bed time because of a hockey game.

When Montreal won, and the players were celebrating, she informed us that for one day our dog, normally named Vezina, would for one day be named after whomever was named the MVP of the Walter Cup Playoffs.

This morning, while getting ready to walk to school in her Abby Roque jersey, she quickly reminded to address the dog as “Marie” throughout today in honor of Marie-Philip Poulin. The dog admittedly is a bit confused, but it was really cool as a parent to watch my daughter fall in love with something, like she has with hockey because of the PWHL.

The PWHL, and I’ve written about this before, is creating vital additional hockey connections. There’s an obvious connection for young girls, but there’s also a winder net, which, for me, has added some excitement about the PWHL having a team in Detroit next season, which I’ll be able to cover a bit in this space.

Fittingly, last night there was a jailbreak goal, scored by Roque, that gave Montreal a 2-0 lead in the third period.

Back in March, when Montreal played in Detroit as part of the PWHL takeover tour, I actually spoke with Victoire coach Kori Cheverie about the rule and how it impacts coaching decisions, which you can read about here:

For a moment, after that goal, I wanted to get a bit analytical about it with my daughter, let’s have a deeper conversation about the risk vs. reward of that play in such a high-stakes game. And while I’m sure she’ll be ready for those deeper play-style discussions someday, she was more interested in the fact it was pretty cool to see Montreal about to win a championship.

It wasn’t the birth of her fandom, that happened at the in-person games we’ve taken her to in Detroit, but there’s something neat about watching that locked in focus, that mix of tension and elation surrounding a game, something we’ve all become accustomed to at some point or the other with a beloved team.

That human feeling, I believe, is the reason that I still work in sports and enjoy covering this game. While the schematics and intricacies of how the game are played fascinate me, deep down I don’t think I would find them nearly as interesting if I didn’t have the deep-driven fanaticism for hockey that developed when I was close to 10-years-old.

In summation, there’s a fan origin story for everyone. Something, no matter the age, where you found the connection or touch point that helped you fall in love with a team or sport, some tipping point that turned it from fascination to fanaticism, and watching that happen for others, in this case my daughter, gives me a good reminder of why this all matters.

I’ve intentionally taken some time to stop and think about the Dallas Stars and Jason Robertson.

As a quick refresher, the Stars top-scoring forward, who had 96 points this season, is a restricted free agent coming off a four-year deal that paid him $7.75 million per season.

He’s the franchise-record holder for points in a season by any player since the franchise moved to Texas, with 109 points a few years back, and this past postseason, where the Stars fell to the Minnesota Wild, Robertson was the Stars most consistent forward.

Robertson also has arbitration rights, which the Stars will want to avoid, and this is the final season he can sign an eight-year deal before the NHL CBA changes.

As my pal Kyle Stich from AFP Analytics put it last week when he joined Robert Tiffin and I on Algorithmically Incorrect Hockey, Robertson is a restricted free agent that the Stars should really treat as a UFA.

Kyle also has Robertson’s contract projection at $12 million per season over eight years, and when making their projections AFP Analytics does their best to find the middle range of the projection.

Read more

By the end of March, after completing his freshman season of college hockey, Martone joined the Philadelphia Flyers checking in at 210 pounds and had dropped his body fat percentage by 3 percent.

Martone then proceeded to help drive the Flyers into the playoffs with 10 points in nine NHL regular season games and then had an additional five in the postseason before Philadelphia was ousted by the overpowering Carolina Hurricanes.

Within the hockey world Martone’s year-over-year growth was one of the best commercials and recruiting pitches in a new world where CHLers are looking to the NCAA to either enhance or extend their careers.

It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that on Tuesday Ethan Belchetz, a 6-foot-5 power forward and presumptive top-10 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, committed to Michigan State and plans to leave the Windsor Spitfires to potentially follow a similar path to Martone.

If you ask Martone, as I did during the season, he gives a ton of credit to Will Morlock, Michigan State’s director of athletic performance for hockey. Morlock, who has worked at Michigan State since 2022, is well renowned within USA Hockey as well, serving as the strength and conditioning coach for multiple Under-20 and senior world championships in the past three years.

“That was a big part of his recruitment process, he wanted to be a great Spartan and part of a great team, but he really asked during the recruitment about how we could help prepare him for the NHL,” Morlock said. “He recognized and I was lucky to work with a staff that allowed me to do that job. The off ice was a huge part of our culture and that was a huge part that (Martone) was looking for, and he really valued … it’s an accessory to the on-ice, but it was still pretty untapped with (Martone). Playing in major junior you don’t get the same opportunity to train, more than any exercise that we did, it was just him leaning in and everything he could and being a sponge when it came to the training part.”

Morlock said Martone’s attention to detail behind the scenes, he called it an intense drive, was the reason they saw such physical maturation in such a short period of time.

“There was intent behind what he was doing,” Morlock said. “You can’t just go into the gym and assume you’ll get better, you’ve really got to do it with great intent. That was what I was most proud of, his training and workouts, they looked different from the start to the end of the season because he matured with it.”

When it comes to hockey training with Martone, and all players, Morlock said it’s important to work backwards from the ice.

“I’m smart enough to know there’s no jumping in the game of hockey. Sprinting on dry land doesn’t always translate to the game,” Morlock said. “So looking at everything through the lens of the gym can be misleading … it was a huge collaborative effort also talking to the staff in Philly, and looking how we could help him add to his body composition to become an NHL body.”

Morlock and Martone worked heavily on adding both strength and power to his game, in both straight line and lateral avenues. Morlock is also a big advocate that strength and power are related, but different. Strength is a measure of, well, how strong you are. Power is more of a measure of efficiency and proper usage of that strength.

The other key, Morlock said, is understanding that while college hockey’s schedule allows for more time to train, there’s also an understanding players won’t be at 100 percent every weekend if you commit to the plan.

“You can’t possibly peak every single Friday, so we try to make our money Monday to Thursday so we are better at the end of the first half of the season than we were at the beginning, and then better at the end of the second half than we were at the start of the second half,” Morlock said. “The goal becomes to grow through all those elements in the gym, so what might have been peaking in the first half of the season becomes a norm at the end of it in many ways.”

Within a weekly schedule, Morlock said Monday is more of a moderate day, while Tuesday is a big ramp-up day. Wednesday and Thursday have some build, but are designed more about enhancing Tuesday’s work.

“I use the phrasing sting, not destroy,” Morlock said. “I think it’s periods of more or less (work) depending on the schedule, but it’s always with the goal of further development and not maintenance. Because if you only try to maintain, that’s all you’ll be.”

Morlock said his first year of working with former CHL players didn’t come with too many surprises, he said from an off-ice perspective it’s similar to someone coming from the USHL, but it did give him some appreciation for where players have come from and what they’ve worked through.

He’s also a big advocate of the two systems working well together, the CHL and the NCAA, and how time spent in the OHL, WHL, or QMHL gives him a better picture of how and what a player needs to work on to add or accentuate their path to pro hockey.

“My job isn’t to change their game on the ice or anything like that, my job is to help them add the tools they need as we work backwards from that,” Morlock said. “I think when you look at it that way, and you get kids that want to work, like (Martone) you can kind of see the results, and it’s been really fun to see him take that to Philly.”