Dylan Larkin's Injury and the Red Wings' Complicated Start: Trade Request, No Captain, IR
- 🔑 As of Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, Dylan Larkin is on injured reserve with a team-confirmed upper-body injury that the Red Wings say he sustained during off-ice training in mid-September. The team has not made a diagnosis public and has not announced a return date for the center.
- Larkin missed the Oct. 2 season opener, a 2-0 loss to the New York Rangers, and the team has ruled him out of Sunday’s Oct. 4 game against Winnipeg (1 p.m. ET). Coach Todd McLellan has voiced only a hope that Larkin is back for Game 3, Tuesday, Oct. 6 against Ottawa.
- Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported Larkin’s trade request on June 4, and Larkin and interim general manager Shawn Horcoff both addressed it at training camp on Sept. 17. On Sept. 11, the team said it would open the 2026-27 season without a named captain.
- Larkin, 30, signed an eight-year, $69.6 million contract in March 2023, with five years remaining, according to NHL.com. He had 34 goals and 67 points in 74 games last season and ranks 10th in Red Wings history with 643 points in 808 games.
- Several news reports said fans loudly booed Larkin during pregame introductions on Oct. 2, and McLellan said Larkin wanted to be part of the ceremony. Larkin’s latest public comments we found date to Sept. 17, so this page does not speculate about him. No odds or win probabilities are used.
As of Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin is on injured reserve with a team-confirmed upper-body injury, missed the season opener and has been ruled out of Sunday’s game against Winnipeg. The injury comes on top of a trade request he made after last season and the team’s Sept. 11 decision to open 2026-27 without a named captain. This page is pinned to Saturday, Oct. 3, before Detroit’s next game (Sunday, Oct. 4, at 1 p.m. ET).
What is Dylan Larkin’s injury?
The Red Wings say Larkin has an upper-body injury that he sustained during off-ice training in mid-September, and no diagnosis has been made public. Interim general manager Shawn Horcoff disclosed it on Sept. 16, saying Larkin would miss the start of on-ice training camp and that there was no timeline for his return. Larkin told reporters the next day, the first day of camp, that he got hurt working out in the gym. At practice on Thursday, Oct. 1, he did some drills but did not take line rushes, according to NHL.com.
Is Larkin playing against Winnipeg on Oct. 4?
The team has ruled Larkin out of Sunday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets, which starts at 1 p.m. ET at Little Caesars Arena. Coach Todd McLellan said on Oct. 1 that Larkin would miss Detroit’s first two games: the Oct. 2 opener against the New York Rangers and the Oct. 4 game against Winnipeg.
When might Larkin return, according to the team?
The Red Wings have not announced a return date; McLellan has voiced only a hope that Larkin is back for Game 3, on Tuesday, Oct. 6 against Ottawa. On Oct. 1, McLellan said Larkin is working with the training staff to push through, then added, “I’m hoping Game 3.” We treat that as the coach’s hope, not a timeline. On Oct. 2, before the opener, Detroit placed Larkin on injured reserve, and the team has not said what that means for timing.
| Date | Opponent | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Fri, Oct. 2 | Rangers | L 0-2 |
| Sun, Oct. 4 | Winnipeg | 1 p.m. ET |
| Tue, Oct. 6 | Ottawa | 7 p.m. ET |
| Fri, Oct. 9 | Seattle | 7 p.m. ET |
All four are home games at Little Caesars Arena, per the team’s opening-week release.
How did the trade request and captaincy situation get here?
Larkin asked for a trade after last season, and on Sept. 11 the team said it would begin 2026-27 without a named captain. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported the request on June 4, and Larkin and Horcoff both addressed it at camp on Sept. 17. Larkin, captain since January 2021, said he understood the captaincy decision and noted that he had made the request as captain. The team’s statement said further discussions would wait until new hockey operations leadership was in place. Horcoff has said the conversations with Larkin stay private.
| Date (2026) | Event |
|---|---|
| June 4 | Trade request reported |
| Sept. 11 | No named captain to start season |
| Sept. 15 | Horcoff named interim GM |
| Sept. 16 | Larkin’s injury disclosed |
| Sept. 17 | Larkin, Horcoff address request |
| Oct. 2 | Larkin placed on injured reserve |
Horcoff’s promotion came with Steve Yzerman’s move, announced by the team, from executive vice president and general manager to senior advisor to team governor and CEO Chris Ilitch.
What happened at the season opener on Oct. 2?
The Rangers beat the Red Wings 2-0 at Little Caesars Arena, and Larkin did not play. Sean Durzi scored at 5:12 of the first period and Eeli Tolvanen added an empty-net goal with 1:16 left, according to the team’s game recap. Rangers goalie Dylan Garand stopped all 22 shots, John Gibson made 19 saves for Detroit, and the Red Wings are 0-1-0. Several news reports from the game, including the Detroit Free Press, said fans booed Larkin loudly when he was introduced. McLellan said, as relayed by the Free Press, that Larkin wanted to be part of the ceremony and that he felt bad for him. We found no team statement on the reception beyond the coach’s remarks.
Who is Dylan Larkin, and what is his contract?
Larkin, 30, is Detroit’s No. 1 center, a Waterford, Michigan, native whom the Red Wings drafted No. 15 in 2014. NHL.com lists 34 goals and 67 points in 74 games last season, and 643 points (276 goals, 367 assists) in 808 games for Detroit, 10th in franchise history. He signed an eight-year, $69.6 million contract ($8.7 million average annual value) in March 2023, and NHL.com reported in September that five years remain.
What do we still not know as of Oct. 3?
As of Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, the team has not announced a diagnosis, a return date, or any resolution of the trade request or the captaincy.
- Injury: nothing beyond the coach’s hope for Game 3.
- Captaincy: the team tied further decisions to new hockey operations leadership, and Horcoff is the interim GM.
- Trade request: the team has said Larkin is under contract and that talks stay private. We have left out unconfirmed claims about specific teams.
- Larkin’s comments: the most recent public remarks we found are from Sept. 17, so we do not speculate about how he feels or what he plans.
The status sections above reflect Oct. 3 and go out of date once Detroit plays Winnipeg on Sunday, Oct. 4 or Ottawa on Tuesday, Oct. 6. For the league-wide picture, our NHL 2026-27 season guide covers the schedule, broadcast plans and other storylines.
How we verified this
Injury facts — checked against the team’s own site and the league’s own site (interim general manager Shawn Horcoff’s Sept. 16 remarks, Larkin’s Sept. 17 camp comments and coach Todd McLellan’s Oct. 1 update), which agree on an upper-body injury sustained in off-ice training. Some short injury blurbs on other sites place the injury in the preseason; we followed the team’s and the player’s own accounts.
Injured-reserve move — the Oct. 2 placement was confirmed through a transaction tracker reporting the team’s announcement. Outlets differ on the label (some, citing the league, call it non-roster injured reserve) and on a retroactive start date that only one source reported, so this page says only “injured reserve” and leaves the date out.
Dates and times — weekdays and puck-drop times (Oct. 4 at 1 p.m. ET; Oct. 6 and Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. ET) were checked against the Red Wings’ own opening-week release rather than relying on summaries, and the Oct. 2 score, goal times and save totals match the team’s game recap.
Contract and stats — the $69.6 million total ($8.7 million average annual value) and the stat lines come from NHL.com. One NHL.com article lists the total as $69.9 million, which does not match $8.7 million times eight years, so we used $69.6 million. NHL.com also gives both March 1 and March 2, 2023 as the signing date, so we say March 2023.
Opener reaction — the pregame boos were reported by several independent news outlets, and McLellan’s remarks about Larkin’s role in the ceremony come from the local newspaper’s reporting. Commentary and unverified social-media claims about the reaction are deliberately left out. Larkin’s most recent public comments we found date to Sept. 17, and nothing here paraphrases his feelings after that date.
Still moving at write time — this was checked on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, around 12:15 p.m. ET: no new injury update, activation, trade or captaincy announcement had been made, and Sunday’s game had not been played.
No betting odds, spreads, or win-probability models appear anywhere on this page.