Wild Top Trade Target Refusing to Expand List

Bill Guerin won’t admit it and we won’t know for sure until games are being played at Grand Casino Arena late in the fall and into winter. But on paper, the Minnesota Wild roster does not look as good as it did when the 2025-26 season ended.

Undoubtedly, the Wild’s chase of Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin has played a part in that. However, the Larkin dream does not appear dead just yet, according to reports.

Details of Dylan Larkin + Red Wings demands revealed

And something certainly working on the Wild’s side, to this point, is Dylan’s refusal to expand his trade list beyond Minnesota, Vegas and Florida — as confirmed by Red Wings insider Helene St. James (Detroit Free Press) Tuesday on X.

That’s not the only thing holding up a trade, however. St. James also reports that Detroit is demanding back NHL-caliber players, in order to give up their captain center.

In two-plus months since requesting trade from Red Wings, Dylan Larkin has not expanded his list (he has no-trade clause) from Florida, Minnesota, Vegas. No offers from those teams have intrigued Wings. They want value-now players for a 1C with very favorable contract.

— Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) July 7, 2026

Related: Minnesota Wild Turning Attention to Quinn Hughes

Immediately upon being notified that they were one of three teams on the 29-year-old‘s list of acceptable trade destinations, Guerin dropped everything to focus on talks with Wings’ GM Steve Yzerman.

He didn’t really have a choice. Landing Larkin — who has a full no-move clause in his contract — was never going to be easy, especially given what the Wild have to offer, after sending all of their best trade assets to Vancouver, in exchange for Quinn Hughes.

Add on a cap squeeze to boot, and the Wild were between a rock and hard place. If they negotiated new deals with pending free agents like Mats Zuccarello, Marcus Johansson or Vladimir Tarasenko, it could have made trading for Dylan Larkin even more difficult.

Minnesota, Detroit playing high-stakes chicken

Ultimately, Minnesota didn’t bring back any of the three players mentioned above. They also failed to reel in Larkin prior to free agency. That forced Guerin to make moves and spend money via free agency and trade, just to fill out the roster.

While the Minnesota Wild continue to tell reporters that they remain in talks with Detroit, on Larkin, they are now down to just over $1 million in available cap space and have less flexibility than they did a week or two ago.

With that being said, Michael Russo (The Athletic) said on a recent “Worst Seats in the House” podcast that, of the three teams Dylan Larkin has on his trade list, the MN Wild might be the only team left actually talking with the Red Wings regularly.

Dylan Larkin has put him in a position where there are three teams that we know that he wants to go to and two of them right now don’t look like they have any interest in him.

Florida definitely doesn’t and Vegas doesn’t look like they’re positioning themselves to get him at least as of now. So right now the only bidder at the table seems to be Minnesota that he’s willing to go to.

Michael Russo – Worst Seats in the House Podcast

So could the Minnesota Wild wind up losing a player they want to keep (Ex: Jonas Brodin, Eriksson Ek), in order to reel in Dylan Larkin, who scored 34 goals and totaled 67 points last season as a Red Wing (20:11 TOI).

That is possible, but it certainly doesn’t hurt their case that Detroit wants a package of NHL players than picks because the Wild don’t have many picks to work with, or prospects for that matter.

And if Larkin is going to remain stubborn on his list of acceptable trade destinations, then Yzerman will be faced with the possibility of locker room problems at training camp or finding a good middle ground with Bill Guerin that does not include Matt Boldy.

More About:Minnesota Wild