Red Wings suspend Dylan Larkin, explore trade options - ESPN

The Detroit Red Wings announced Thursday that star forward Dylan Larkin has been suspended without pay after informing the team he no longer wanted to play for the organization.

Detroit suspended Larkin hours after the 30-year-old missed morning skate and was held out of the lineup for what was described as «trade-related» reasons, league sources told ESPN earlier in the day. Larkin will forfeit $41,000 a day in salary during the suspension.

«To put it simply, we received a call from Dylan's agent today saying that Dylan wasn't going to be coming to the rink today and no longer wanted to be part of the Red Wings,» interim general manager Shawn Horcoff told reporters Thursday.

Horcoff characterized trade talks as «ongoing,» saying it had been another busy day for him managing discussions with Larkin's suitors.

«The truth is when you have a player of Dylan's caliber available, your phone rings daily,» he said. «And my phone rang a lot today.»

Larkin was already in a tenuous spot with the franchise before Thursday. The Michigan native, who spent his entire career with the club that drafted in the first round in 2014, requested a trade in June.

Sources told ESPN's Emily Kaplan that Larkin met with his agents, Pat Brisson and Matt Williams, on Wednesday evening and determined that he'd had enough. His decision to stay away wasn't made in a vacuum. He believed that he had handled the situation professionally since making the trade request and that the Wings had dragged their feet.

Horcoff praised the Red Wings' former captain for how he had performed over his tenure with the team — even if that won't materialize a trade any quicker.

«I've got to give Dylan a lot of credit — he went out and played hard for us,» Horcoff said.