DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings got back to hockey on Thursday in training camp, following a tumultuous offseason in Detroit.
Steve Yzerman was ousted as the team’s general manager, and Dylan Larkin said he wants out after requesting a trade over the summer.
Larkin is not participating in training camp on the ice with an upper body injury, but he is in Detroit as the season begins.
On Thursday, the former captain broke his silence since that trade request.
“It wasn’t easy to get to that decision,” Larkin said. “It was very hard; it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing. I don’t take what I did lightly.”
Larkin said he wasn’t ready to talk about what led him to that point, or whether that trade request still stands.
The 11-year veteran said he would keep those conversations to himself.
Since being drafted 15th overall in 2014, Larkin has played every season of his NHL career with his home-state Red Wings.
Larkin said he addressed the team ahead of training camp, and his goal over the next few weeks is to earn their trust back on the ice.
How does he plan to do that?
“Through my play and my actions,” Larkin said. “I plan to do it a day a time and a game at a time, and see how it goes.”
The team announced last week that Larkin would no longer serve as the team’s captain and would start the season without a captain.
A change that Larkin does not seem to mind.
“I’m back at the bottom of the totem pole, which, you know, may be kind of nice,” Larkin said.
Larkin’s future in Detroit is uncertain as the Wings begin the 2026-27 season, but for the time being, the team is moving forward with him in the game plan.
“I don’t know that he’s going to be traded; I don’t that he’s not going to be traded. I do know that he has come to training camp, he’s a signed player, and we’re going to play him,” Red Wings head coach Todd McClellan said.
“I think I know Dylan well enough that he’ll give us everything he has,” McClellan added.
The Red Wings begin preseason play on Monday, Sept. 21, in Columbus against the Blue Jacke
