Should Bruins dangle best assets to pursue a Dylan Larkin trade? – NBC Boston

The Vegas Golden Knights and Carolina Hurricanes treated hockey fans to a magnificent Game 2 of the 2026 Stanley Cup Final on Thursday night. The Hurricanes emerged victorious in a 4-3 overtime win to even the series.

But that instant classic wasn’t the only notable event to happen in the NHL world on Thursday. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Detroit Red Wings star center and captain Dylan Larkin has requested a trade.

On paper, Larkin looks like a perfect trade target for the Boston Bruins. He’s a legit top-six center in the prime of his career. He played a key role on the United States team that won the gold medal at the 2026 Olympics. He has an impressive two-way skill set. He’s been Red Wings captain for several years.

The Bruins have not had a true top-six center since Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci both retired in 2023. Elias Lindholm is paid like a top-six center, but he probably will never produce at that level.

So, should the Bruins pursue a Larkin trade and be willing to give up their best assets to get a deal done?

Not exactly.

Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Larkin is a very good player. There’s no doubt about that. But there are a few reasons why going all-in to trade for him would be a mistake for the Bruins.

For starters, he’ll be 30 years old on July 30. He’s not old, but he’s also in the second half of his prime. The B’s should not be giving up elite prospects such as James Hagens (2025 first-round pick) or Dean Letourneau (2024 first-round pick) for a 30-year-old veteran, especially when the Bruins are not a Larkin move away from being a real Stanley Cup contender. Hagens and/or Letourneau could be a top-six center one day.

Larkin has been productive offensively on a consistent basis. Five straight seasons scoring 30-plus goals is impressive. But he has never scored 35 goals in a single season and he has surpassed 70 points in a season only once since 2019. Over the last three seasons, Larkin ranks 68th among all players in even-strength points. He ranks 74th in even-strength goals during that same span.

The Red Wings have also not made the playoffs since 2016. Larkin actually played more Olympic games (six) in February than he has playoff games (five) in 11 pro seasons.

Detroit has collapsed in the second half of the season a few times in recent years, and Larkin deserves a share of the blame for those failures. For example, the Red Wings were in first place in the Eastern Conference as late as Jan. 24 this season. They had a 12-point cushion for a playoff spot at that time.

Over his final 22 games of the season from that date, Larkin scored just two even-strength goals. He did not score a single even-strength goal over an 11-game span from Feb. 28 through April 7. Detroit had a 3-7-1 record in those 11 games. The Red Wings ended up missing a playoff spot by seven points. Larkin has not risen to the occasion when the Red Wings have needed him most late in the season when a playoff berth was at stake. That’s a concern.

Larkin would be a No. 1 center on the Bruins because they don’t have any high-end talent at that position. But on a real title contender, he’s best suited as a top-tier second-line center. He’s not the kind of player you win a Stanley Cup with as your best center. If you look at the recent Stanley Cup champions, they’ve all had a center better than Larkin. That list includes Aleksander Barkov, Jack Eichel, Nathan MacKinnon, Steven Stamkos/Brayden Point, etc.

The Bruins absolutely need to be aggressive this summer in adding elite-level talent to the roster so they can take advantage of their veteran core’s window to win, specifically the remainder of David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy’s prime years.

Larkin is a very good player. If the price doesn’t include Hagens or Letourneau, then it makes perfect sense to try to work out a deal. He’s also on a team-friendly contract that carries an $8.7 million salary cap hit and doesn’t expire until after the 2030-31 campaign.

But if the only way for the Bruins to get Larkin is by giving up their best assets, then it’s not worth it. Those assets should only be used to target better and younger players than Larkin, with Blues center Robert Thomas and Stars left wing Jason Robertson being two examples.