Yzerman would absolutely tank his reputation in the league though if he simply sits larkin, that too as the captain even though no doubt his captaincy will be strolled, no UFA would ever want to sign there and I don't think that's the kind of reputation any GM wants
and larkin's value will just go down the longer he's sat on the bench, it doesn't even matter if you play him because it will fuck up on ice dynamics
with larkin camp leaking the news, yzerman is forced to take offers at the deadline, he cannot start the next season with larkin in the team
and according to friedman he wants to stay close to michigan, imho dallas or minnesota are objectively the best landing spots for him. minny may not have assets or cap space but dylan is in a position to force yzerman's hand
at most he gets 75% his actual market value
I didn’t say “sit him” I said sit on him. Which he very well can do, his reputation won’t tank for looking at his best offers, which Minny cannot provide. Dallas, Tampa, Anaheim (also mentioned by Friedman) make more sense.
It also doesn’t matter if the on ice product tanks, Detroits season is foregone and if Larkin is out anyways and they’re committing to a retool regardless than Yzerman doesn’t really need to be afraid of backlash for that. He’d likely get more backlash for getting a poor return on a premium asset. You think he won’t get fired if he fucks that trade up?
And if he gets a good haul for the trade and the wings turn it around than his league reputation will be fine, winning fixes everything. Players will come regardless. Look at the ones who still line up for the Rangers with their reputation (including Quinn, when he was being traded). There are many things that outweigh one guy having a poor relationship with a front office (remember how poorly Geurin treated Rossi? No? Yeah nobody else does either). And the Wings could also just fire him after the fact, pawn the reputation off on him, and boom nobody cares about the Larkin saga anymore.
Friedman also said he’s heard that Dylan wants to go to win now teams, there’s a number of those far better positioned than Minny to go for him and him having one friend on the team doesn’t mean he’ll force his hand there, which he also can’t entirely do because of the term left on his contract.
“Objectively the best landing spot for Dylan” and teams that work for both parties, who both have leverage, are not the same thing. He will need to work with them on this. Larkin isn’t pulling all the strings here.
