Could a Dylan Larkin trade make sense for Bruins?

Dylan Larkin has played his final game as a Detroit Red Wing. That much is clear after Thursday, when Larkin informed the team that he will no longer be reporting for games or practices and is done being a Red Wing. The team responded by suspending him without pay.

Larkin initially requested a trade back in June, when he was still captain of the team. Since then, he got stripped of the 'C,' held out of training camp and the start of regular season, eventually reported and played 10 games, and is now holding out again.

What does all this have to do with the Bruins? Maybe nothing. But maybe something.

Larkin initially gave the Red Wings three teams he wanted to be traded to. The Bruins were not one of them. He eventually expanded that list to 10 teams. The Bruins are still not one of them.

But, the list may need to expand again. Detroit interim general manager Shawn Horcoff seemed to insinuate as much on Thursday when he told reporters that, "With the teams on his list, a trade is difficult."

And it does seem like Boston is one of the teams hoping to be added to the list if and when that happens. ESPN's Emily Kaplan on Thursday night named the Bruins and two of their Atlantic Division rivals – Montreal and Buffalo – as three teams currently on the outside that are "trying to get in."

Whether the Bruins have any chance of getting Larkin starts there. If he refuses to add them to his list, then that's that. Larkin has a full no-move clause, so Detroit can't ship him to Boston without his approval.

But if Larkin does add the Bruins to his list – either because he concludes that none of his current 10 teams are going to meet Detroit's asking price, or maybe because he likes what he's seeing from the 9-4-1 B's (Thursday's ugly 4-1 loss in St. Louis notwithstanding) – what would it take to get him? And should general manager Don Sweeney be willing to pay that price?

By all accounts, the Minnesota Wild have made the most aggressive offer(s) to date. The Athletic's Michael Russo and Joe Smith report that offer "could conceivably include a young center such as Danila Yurov or Charlie Stramel, a forward such as Ryan Hartman or Bobby Brink, and multiple first-round picks."

That sets a pretty high bar. The Bruins could clear it if they want Larkin bad enough; the question is whether they should. James Hagens would easily top any part of that Minnesota offer, but why would the Bruins trade a 19-year-old who is off to an excellent start for a 30-year-old who is a very good but not truly elite center? They wouldn't.

Fraser Minten would also arguably be a better piece than anything the Wild are offering, depending on how you feel about Yurov. Personally, I'd prefer Minten. But again, the Bruins believe Minten is well on his way to being at least a good No. 2 center, and possibly a No. 1 if his offensive game continues to grow. They already locked him up for seven years, and they already added him to their leadership group at just 22 years old. Minten, like Hagens, would seem to be pretty much untouchable.

So, what else can the Bruins offer? Horcoff has been adamant that Detroit wants pieces that can help now. It has already been 11 years since the Red Wings were last in the playoffs; they don't want to start the rebuild all over. Even Minnesota's offer has reportedly been deemed too futures-based.

Pavel Zacha could be of interest. From the Bruins' perspective, flipping Zacha for Larkin would make sense, especially if they don't believe they're going to be able to bridge the gap with Zacha, a pending free agent, on a contract extension. Larkin, who is a year older than Zacha, is signed through 2031 at a pretty reasonable $8.7 million cap hit. Larkin is also better than Zacha. He's a better skater and a better scorer, having topped 30 goals and 65 points in each of the last five seasons. Zacha hit those marks for the first time with a career year last season, but has followed it up with a bit of a slow start this season (3 goals, 8 points in 13 games).

Whether the Wings would want Zacha would come down to whether they can sign him. Getting Zacha just as a rental for the rest of the season would be of little interest to them.

Matt Poitras (7 points in 11 games) is off to a strong start and would have value as a young, NHL-ready center. Top forward prospects Dean Letourneau and Will Zellers could turn pro this spring after their college seasons end and potentially be NHL-ready as early as next season. On defense, Mason Lohrei (25) and Frederic Brunet (23) are playing well and might be fits for the Wings, especially if they have to trade away fellow left-shot defenseman Simon Edvinsson (a restricted free agent who remains unsigned). On the draft pick front, the Bruins have all their own first-round picks plus a Toronto first-round pick in either 2027 or 2028.

Somewhere within all those pieces you can see the makings of a package that the Red Wings might like more than anything they've been offered so far. And if Zacha isn't a part of it, the writing would be on the wall for a separate Zacha trade to follow.

Whether it would be worth it for the Bruins depends on exactly what the final offer would have to look like, and what you believe Larkin actually is. There's been a lot of debate over whether Larkin can be the No. 1 center on a Stanley Cup team. Before the season, an NHL Network panel ranked him as the 20th-best center in the league.

Again, Larkin isn't quite elite. His career high in points is 79. But he's still better than any center the Bruins have at the moment, and he could easily slide to a 2C role if Hagens or Minten does develop into a legitimate 1C.

Regardless, it all remains hypothetical for now, until or unless Larkin adds Boston to his list of approved teams.