While Dylan Larkin has made it clear that he’d like to move on from the Red Wings, he didn’t exactly give former GM Steve Yzerman a lot to work with.  Originally, his list of teams he’d accept a trade to was limited to only three teams: Vegas, Florida, and Minnesota.  But Vegas didn’t really have a need down the middle, Florida spent their cap space and assets on Brady Tkachuk, and while Minnesota has a real need, they don’t have much cap room and moved a lot of key assets to get Quinn Hughes last season.

Unsurprisingly, that basically drew discussions to a standstill, resulting in the now-former captain being at camp with the Red Wings, though not skating due to an upper-body injury.

However, there could be slightly more hope for interim GM Shawn Horcoff to try to find a suitable swap.  In the latest 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link), Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Larkin’s yes list is now up to around eight teams.  He also identified that the Stars, Lightning, Capitals, and Avalanche are believed to be among the teams he’d now accept a trade to.  It’s unclear who the eighth team is, other than it is not a Canadian-based squad while Kevin Kurz of The Athletic noted earlier this month (subscription link) that Philadelphia was not a team Larkin wanted to go to.

While that gives Horcoff some more options to work with, the fit remains curious on paper for some of them.  Dallas lacks the cap space to afford Larkin and knows that Jason Robertson is heading for a big pay day next summer so flexibility will be needed there.  While they have a center making similar money in Roope Hintz that might entice the Red Wings (who are hoping to avoid restarting their rebuild), are the Stars interested in making more of a lateral swap?  Otherwise, they’re largely set down the middle and lack prominent future assets if Horcoff was willing to go that route.

The same can be said for Tampa Bay.  Winger Nikita Kucherov is a pending UFA and is reportedly eyeing a raise that would more than double his current $9.5MM AAV.  That would limit their ability to commit to a high-priced player, knowing how much more their franchise player is going to cost.  Building a package around center Anthony Cirelli (who makes around $2.5MM less than Larkin) would make it easier to make the money work but Cirelli has full trade protection and may not want to leave a contender for a non-playoff team.  Meanwhile, the Lightning’s prospect pool isn’t particularly deep which makes sweetening the offer in this scenario a little trickier as well.

It’s the same in Colorado.  The Avs have made several moves to try to bolster their situation down the middle in recent years and they have Brock Nelson and Nazem Kadri as their second and third options now.  They’re pretty well set at center as a result.  Both veterans have trade protection to block a trade if the Avalanche wanted to make a swap while they also lack the draft pick and prospect capital to make a trade more enticing.  Unlike the other hypothetical center-center swaps, Detroit probably doesn’t have interest in a mid-30s pivot either.

That leaves Washington, a team with the lowest cap space of them all.  However, they also have Pierre-Luc Dubois, whose $8.5MM AAV is only $200K below Larkin’s.  If a center-center swap were proposed and if Dubois waived his no-move clause, making the money work would be considerably easier.  The Capitals also have a strong prospect pool and almost all of their draft picks to try to build a competitive offer.  On the other hand, they’ve already made several big changes to their roster this summer, so is GM Chris Patrick interested in making another big move in his top six?

While Larkin expanding his yes list is at least a step in the right direction towards facilitating a move, most of these teams don’t appear to be viable fits to either need or want him.  Horcoff is undoubtedly looking into what options could present themselves from these teams but it wouldn’t be surprising if that still isn’t enough to get a viable trade in place.  In a move doesn’t happen, things could get interesting whenever Larkin is cleared to return from his injury.