Dylan Larkin's name landed in Florida Panthers chatter overnight, and one strangely short night from Aleksander Barkov is what started it.
The Panthers center logged just 9:15 of ice time Thursday night in San Jose, a 4-3 overtime loss that left Florida at 1-0-1.
Every Panthers forward outside of Garnet Hathaway and Bokondji Imama cleared 12 minutes. Sam Reinhart led the way at 23:33.
The explanation is simple: Barkov got hurt and didn't come back in the game.
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Pete Blackburn took it from there late Thursday, posting that if Barkov is actually hurt again, it feels safe to assume Larkin is going to be a Panther by the end of the weekend.
The post blew past 119.2K views. Speculation, sure. But why would anyone dismiss it out of hand?
Shawn Horcoff sits on an $8.7 million decision in Detroit
Detroit's center carries an $8.7 million cap hit that runs through 2030-31. That's real term on a player in his prime.
He's coming off 34 goals and 67 points, his fifth straight season north of 30 goals.
The Waterford, Michigan native has never played an NHL game anywhere but Detroit. All 808 of them came in a Red Wings sweater.
Prying him loose would be like asking a small town to sell the only rink it has. Possible on paper. Nobody shows up to the meeting happy.
And Horcoff would be making a mistake to do it. Detroit opens its season tonight at home against the Rangers, with Todd McLellan behind the bench.
Shipping out your best forward hours before opening night tells a locker room exactly what upstairs thinks of the season ahead.
Florida's math is ugly too. Matthew Tkachuk and Seth Jones each count $9.5 million against the cap, and Barkov sits at $10 million.
Any version of this deal puts Bill Zito on the phone with a calculator in hand.
Paul Maurice already leaned hard on Sam Bennett and Anton Lundell in San Jose, with both forwards logging more than 20:40.
The road trip opened Tuesday with a 1-0 overtime win in Carolina, Jacob Markstrom posting the shutout. The goals have been scarce ever since puck drop on the season.
Akira Schmid then faced 32 shots against the Sharks, so the issues weren't all down the middle.
Florida's next puck drop comes Sunday in Anaheim. If Barkov isn't on that lineup card, the phones in Detroit get a lot harder to ignore.
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Should Shawn Horcoff trade Dylan Larkin to the Panthers if Aleksander Barkov misses time?
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