Dylan Larkin wants out of Detroit. He made that clear after another late-season collapse, and he’s given the Red Wings a short list of four teams he’d accept a trade to. Everyone’s in a holding pattern for now. But at some point — whether it’s this summer or next season — Larkin will be moved. And that leaves Detroit staring at a pretty big problem: they’d have no true No. 1 center on the roster.
The Red Wings aren’t exactly barren up front. Marco Kasper had a down year but still projects as a solid middle-six center. Nate Danielson has shown flashes in the AHL. Simon Edvinsson, Emmitt Finnie, and Axel Sandin-Pellikka are all promising pieces on the blue line and wing. There’s a young core here. But you can’t just roll out five rookies and hope for the best. At some point, you have to trade some of those prospects for established talent. That’s where the market comes in.
Detroit already made one big swing at the March trade deadline, landing Justin Faulk. That was a start. But if they’re not going to tear it all down post-Larkin, they need more. And one name that keeps coming up as a potential fit is Vancouver’s Elias Pettersson.
Why Pettersson Makes Some Sense for Detroit
Elias Pettersson needs a fresh start. It’s not exactly a hot take at this point. The Canucks were the worst team in the NHL this past season, and Pettersson’s production fell off a cliff alongside the team’s fortunes. He still led Vancouver in scoring, but with just 51 points in 2025-26. That’s fine for a secondary scorer. It’s not fine for your top guy.
Here’s the thing, though: Pettersson has hit 60 points five times, 80 points twice, and cracked 100 once. He rattled off three straight 30-goal seasons not that long ago. The talent hasn’t evaporated. It’s just buried under a mountain of bad team situations and maybe some locker room noise.
Detroit could be the place where he finds that level again. The Red Wings have a long track record of developing Swedish players. Lucas Raymond, their best forward, played with Pettersson at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Viktor Arvidsson is in the room. Sandin-Pellikka is on the way. That doesn’t automatically fix everything, but familiarity matters. So does on-ice support. Alex DeBrincat and Moritz Seider are legit impact players. Emmitt Finnie held his own with Detroit’s top guys last season.
There’s also a real need here. Without Larkin, Detroit’s center depth is thin. Pettersson is a natural center who could slide right into that top-line role. He’d be the primary playmaker, not a complementary piece expected to carry a broken system.
The Risk Steve Yzerman Would Have to Accept
This wouldn’t be a no-brainer move. Pettersson’s current production doesn’t match his contract, and taking on that deal is a bet on a bounceback. That’s not typically Steve Yzerman’s style. His biggest swings as GM have been the Faulk trade and drafting Moritz Seider sixth overall in 2019 when almost no one had him in the top 10. He doesn’t chase risks for the sake of it.
But this one might be worth it. Pettersson has the skill. He just needs a new environment. And Detroit, with its Swedish pipeline, young talent, and a gaping hole at center, might be exactly that.
Yzerman would have to believe. It’s a gamble. But if it pays off, the Red Wings don’t just replace Larkin. They upgrade.
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