Red Wings' Dylan Larkin Rips Steve Yzerman For Lack Of Trade Deadline Moves

Now that 16 teams are heading home for the summer, disappointed players are starting to let out their frustrations in some quarters. In Detroit on Monday, longtime Red Wings All-Star center and captain Dylan Larkin ripped into his GM Steve Yzerman—without naming names, of course—for the lack of action at the trade deadline. He essentially pinned the Wings' lack of a strong finish on Yzerman's inability to significantly add to the team back on March 7th:

Dylan Larkin and the Red Wings were not too thrilled with how Steve Yzerman played the trade deadline this year 👀
pic.twitter.com/DwBSpgIzAa
— Spittin' Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) April 21, 2025

On trade deadline day, the Red Wings were one point back of a Wild Card berth, tied with Montreal at the time with 66 points. By the time the regular season was in the books last Thursday, Detroit had dropped to five points back of the final playoff spot.

Larkin, after his fourth straight 30+ goal season, was none too happy about the fact that the team was not given a boost to head down the stretch.

I think, especially in March, it was hard that we didn’t do anything. I felt ...we didn’t gain any momentum from the trade deadline. Guys were kind of down about it. So it would have been nice to add something and bring a little bit of a spark on the ice and maybe a morale boost as well.

Yes, we realize that Yzerman did make a couple of moves, but they were obviously not of any impact to the roster, with 35-year-old center Craig Smith coming in from Chicago with backup goalie Petr Mrazek. Smith averaged 10 minutes of ice time in his 19 games, and posted zero goals and two assists. Mrazek started five games, the last of which came on March 24, when he left with an injury in the second minute, and never returned the rest of the season.

Detroit went 9-9-2 after the March 7th deadline, finishing sixth in the Atlantic Division.

And for Larkin, it was his 9th year out of the playoffs in his 10 seasons with the Red Wings. His only postseason appearance came in his rookie year in 2016, when the Wings were ousted in the first round in five games.

Larkin, 28, has six years to run on his 8-year, $69.6 million contract with Detroit, with an $8.7 million AAV.