Canadiens’ perfect trade offer for Red Wings’ Dylan Larkin after trade request

The Montreal Canadiens are coming off a season in which they rejoined the NHL’s elite teams. They fell short against the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final, and that means that a short but crucial distance needs to be traveled before head coach Marty St. Louis has a chance to lead his team to its first Stanley Cup since 1993.

Adding a dynamic leader and goal scorer like Dylan Larkin of the Detroit Red Wings could be the move that is needed to make that happen. Larkin has scored 31 goals or more in each of the last five seasons and he would clearly give the Canadiens a second explosive unit to go along with Montreal’s top line of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky.

If Larkin was to take over as the center on the No. 2 line for the Canadiens in place of Jake Evans and between Alex Newhook and Ivan Demidov, the Canadiens would have the ability to cause game-planning headaches and perhaps nightmares for their opponents in the NHL’s Atlantic Division.

The Canadiens are not the ideal team for Steve Yzerman and the Red Wings to have as a trading partner. The obvious reason is that the two Original 6 teams are in the same division and will once again be competing with each other for a playoff position.

The Red Wings had high hopes at the start of the 2025-26 season for getting back to the postseason after such a close miss in the previous year. Detroit was well above the playoff line for the majority of the season, but once the schedule resumed following the February Olympic break, the Red Wings collapsed. They failed to take advantage of the position they had worked for in the first half of the season.

Canadiens must exceed offers that Yzerman will receive from ‘favored’ teams

Larkin wants to be traded after failing to play postseason hockey for 10 consecutive seasons. However, Larkin has a no-trade contract and he does not have to accept a trade to a team that he does not favor. Yzerman wants to make the best deal for the Red Wings, and moving Larkin to a team within the division — especially one that is surging — does not seem like it fits that description.

Larkin is arguably the best player on the Red Wings, but he did finish behind Alex DeBrincat and Lucas Raymond in points. Larkin’s 67-point season does not compare with the game’s true elite, or perhaps the NHL’s second rank, but he almost certainly would be the ideal player for the Habs.

The Canadiens have to put together a significant package to allow such a deal to happen. Second-line center Jake Evans would have to be the center piece of the deal.

Evans is not a star by any definition. He scored 12 goals and 12 assists during the regular season while playing 68 games. It would not seem that Evans would be a center piece for the trad. However, Evans picked up his production in the postseason. He scored a pair of goals and added eight assists for 10 points in 19 games.

The Canadiens’ second line also included Newhook and Demidov and that line was more productive than the top line of Suzuki, Caufield and Slafkovsky. Evans is a better player than his 24-point regular-season total would indicate, but the Canadiens would have to include quite a bit more to get a deal done with the Red Wings.

Josh Anderson, first-round draft pick must be included 

Josh Anderson is a solid third-line player with 12 years of NHL experience. He has played the last six years with the Canadiens, and he is a solid physical presence. The right wing will go into the corners and battle to gain possession, and he is not afraid to deliver a shoulder — or perhaps an elbow — to help the Habs earn a scoring opportunity.

Anderson score 14 goals and 23 points during the regular season and he also had 90 penalty minutes for the second consecutive season. Anderson also demonstrated he could put the puck in the net in the postseason as he scored five goals and two assists in 19 games.

Evans and Anderson are hard-working and effective players, but if the Canadiens are going to make this deal happen, they must give the Red Wings a first-round draft choice as well. Perhaps two of their regulars and a first-round pick — in 2026, ’27 or ’28 — might be considered overpaying for Larkin, but they almost certainly will have to do just that to make this deal happen.

This kind of trade is like a real estate deal for homeowners. It’s all about “location, location, location” and the Canadiens would have to be willing to pay such a premium.

If they do, it could get them within arm’s length of the Stanley Cup.

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