Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - Dylan Larkin Is Coming Back… But Without The “C”?? | BB Clips

Episode Date: September 11, 2026

Boomer, Pinder and Rhett react to the latest twist in the Dylan Larkin saga after both the Detroit Red Wings and Larkin released statements addressing his future with the organization. Larkin will report to training camp and play out the season with his teammates, but his trade request remains unresolved, with both sides indicating that conversations about his future will continue privately once Detroit hires new hockey operations leadership. On top of that, the Red Wings announced they will begin the 2026-27 season without a captain, meaning Larkin will no longer wear the “C” after serving as captain since 2021. The guys break down what these statements actually mean, how awkward this situation could become once camp opens, whether there’s any realistic path toward repairing the relationship and where Larkin could ultimately end up if Detroit decides to move him. He’s showing up — but this story is clearly nowhere close to over.Video Link: https://youtu.be/rEUD8Z0J76A#nhl #nhlshorts #nhlplayoffs #nhlpredictions #nhlhockey #nhlpicks #stanleycup #stanleycupfinal #detriotCHECK OUT OUR STUFF ⬇️BARN BURNER MERCHhttps://nationgear.ca/collections/shirts/FlamesnationBARN BURNER SHORTS https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj_bcGtvvo-cW2DHEDZ6dEO5ePDmlhZc9&si=jo8iNGxT4ImhS2Y8📲 Follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fnbarnburner/X (Twitter): https://x.com/barnburnerfn?lang=en🎧 Listen on:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/barn-burner-boomer-pinder-with-rhett-warrener/id1648562889Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Mc6Qd5U22R2zbMlQ7RxIiProducer: Jack Haverstock Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Now I don't want to steal away. Steal away. Why don't we steal away? From the Pinder Report. But the Detroit Red Wings. And you know what? I said we'll try and do this every once in a while. Rather than just wait till the end of the show for the big old super chats.

Yeah. We'll do it here. Work a man. A little super chat coming in. Well, a couple. Okay. A big one here to start us off. There it is.

Working man. 50 bucks. He's a big Red Wings fan. Larkin losing the sea I'm good with. Good with that. He's still coming to camp props for that. I'm still one of the few wings fans I know of who isn't mad at him at all. Sider recently said in an interview, uh, the locker room understands where Larkin was coming from. So, uh, that of course, we can tie in with the news that, uh, there's been a bit of this, a little bit of this with the Detroit Red Wings and Dylan Larkin. For those that aren't watching, I'm putting, I'm meshing my fingers together as if there's a coming together of sorts. Dylan Larkin, the captain of the Detroit Red Wing, said, trade me, I'm out.

And was it Steve Eiserman? Is there what's the difference? What's going on? But both the team and the player released a statement suggesting that at least for the time being, we're going to try and make things work. You know, it's like when you have an issue with, you know, your significant other or whatever is, I hate your guts. You're a dirty bad. You're cheating, son of it.

And then it's, well, okay, well, maybe can we make it work? Well, let's, let's try and make it work. I mean, I, you know, we got for it. I'm not sure how this is going to work. Here's the Larkin statement from, uh, from earlier this morning. Markin. Larkin. Over the last couple of weeks, Red Wings leadership and I've had several in-depth discussions.

I've appreciated those candid conversations and I will be at training camp with my teammates. When new leadership is in place, we'll talk further about the direction of the team. We'll keep those conversations private and I will keep my focus. on the season ahead and the guys in the red room. Like you're going to notice a trend here. There's going to be a lot of we're not talking publicly about the situations going on. And because we just. Red Wings, yeah, the Red Wings for their part, they had a response to it.

They, uh, no, they appreciate it. This is me calling for the Red Wings statement. That is correct, Jack. Yes, Christ. Statements from the Detroit Red Wings on Dylan Larkin reporting to camp. We look forward to seeing Dylan the rest of his teammates at little Caesar's arena for the start of training camp as we prepare for the upcoming season on his trade request. Dylan is under contract as a member of the Detroit Red Wings. Any conversations regarding the

furniture club? It could take privately when a new hockey operations leader has been named. As such, we will not comment any further. What about the captain's? He was your captain. The Detroit Red Wings will begin the season without a captain. Any further discussions or discusses will be made once to do hockey operations. He's in place. So he's coming to camp. He's not the captain. Seems reasonable. He's got a contract. So a few things. Questions, I guess.

Was this all Steve Eisenman? Was this a Steve Eisenman, Dylan Larkin, you know, button heads, button heads over and over. Number two, what, I'm just guessing, whoever the new leader is that comes in, he or she will probably have some glowing plans. Here's what we're going to do, Dylan. Here's why you should be invested in us. And here's why we're invested in you. We've got we're on the up and up here. That's just my guess.

I'm just not sure what other message there could be. Three, the room's fine. Everybody, right, right, you've been in the room. I don't know where you've seen this kind of a situation where the captain says, trade me. I'm out. I'm not coming. Oh, well, come, but now he's not the cat.

I don't know how easy that that just blows over. And number four. How long is, is it all good now? He's got, uh, he's got years. left in this contract. Is it all forgiven and they just move forward? And this was just maybe like in a marriage, you've hit a rough patch, but all is forgiven. And five,

who cares? Yeah, I think five is what actually has changed here. He's not going to get paid if he doesn't show up. They don't have a deal that they like yet. They don't have a GM to do the people. You can't have him the captain if he wants to leave. Like, this is just PR. Nothing's changed. Yeah. This is a bunch of PR. He was always going to show up if he

wasn't traded. It's not even BS. It's the, but yeah, you're stating the obvious. I'm sick of the public statements. You should have kept it out of the public to begin with. Yes,

it was him and Eisman and the whole plan. What is the Detroit Red Wing organization doing? When did you let Steve go and why in the F have you not filled this? Yeah. Did this sneak up on you that Steve wasn't succeeding 10 years in? Well,

well, even still you fire him. You've had enough time. Yeah. You control the timeline. You know when you fired him. It's not like it snuck up on you. You did this. What is what I mean?

Like to not have a replacement. Like is this going to take a half year like the Nashville one? Like what are we waiting for? What are we talking about? Yeah. And if you're, if you're doing a firm to do it for them, this firm is fired.

You're done. Yeah. Well, the firm in Nashvilles are ages. I don't have any of these changed. Like, do you feel better about your future if you're larkin? Do you feel like,

oh, now we have a path? How could you? You don't even know the leaders. It depends on what your problem was. Was it a personal beef with Eisenman to a certain extent or was it the plan? That's probably both. Yeah. Both.

Direction of the team and then the GM and you weren't getting along. So one of the two things is gone. But it's tough to feel good about Detroit making a long playoff run this year right now, isn't it? Yeah. New Year, ass hat American gold medal championship team buddies have all decided that we're the cool kids and we'll go where we want. Yeah. Yeah, like what possible? whoever they hire.

July 15th, for those of you keeping track at home. July 15th. It's two months coming up now. They announced the leadership shift. That's terrible. If this guy's not a Hall of Fame

GM in the next two years, then this firm is trying to swear. Well, the Detroit Tigers guy who has no hockey experience just pulled his name out of it. So he was clearly in the running two months in.

And like we were saying the other day, all the other guys there, they're kind of Iserman disciples. They're all kind of of the. So what are you, you hung on to them? I got to admit. It does feel a little janky.

Yeah. I don't want it to be janky because I want Detroit hockey town to be important. Yeah. Yeah. So, and the thing is, it wasn't like Steve Earsman was just this phenomenal GM and then all of a sudden

an issue crept up and you had to fire him. you've watched this plan not work for multiple years in a row now and you could have easily let him go at the end of April and had someone else run your draft when transactions happen around the league so to say oh well we only did it in July and we have two months and this firm's doing like why didn't this start in April like did unless you know Dylan wasn't happy you know that's like that maybe you didn't when did he come out with the statement

well I think in that organization there was a lot of friction between Steve Eisenman and a lot of people people and it clearly wasn't working. So Dylan's probably, you might not have made your choice on who you're going with. Right. My point is it's not even like July. It's like April they should really have had a predecessor figured out.

But you have to in that seed or I should say like in that spot where if Larkin comes in and he's pissed off. He's like I'm sick. It's the end of the season. Emotions are high. You were in the playoffs and then you shit yourself and you missed. You're going to let Dylan cool off. You're going to let Steve.

You get everybody just let's just decompress here for a bit. just go on a boat for a bit and we'll talk later. Yeah. But when you get a month or two down the road and still like, no, I'm serious. I'm frigging out. Yeah. Okay. Well, I guess we have a situation here.

But yeah, the Eisenman v. Larkin, that has to have been going on for a considerable amount of time. Well, and you think about it. They're both centers. Steve's a notoriously difficult to please and has not known as a collaborator. It's a, my door is closed. I don't want your opinions. We're doing it my way.

You know, Pat Verbeek is a disciple of his. He's operating the same way in Anaheim. I could see Dylan Larkin feeling underappreciated by his GM, who happens to be the greatest center in franchise history. Probably takes a lot to ask for a trade out of your home state's team, the one you grew up cheering for. I don't know that any of it's changed. Like, Steve thing's gone, but does Dylan Larkin feel like he's in a spot to win

for the next three, four years? Enough. I think the whole story's stupid and, Steve's as much to blame as anyone, but Larkin can shut up and play too. I think that's what this is, right? I know, but you just said, oh, does he feel good? So he's going to screw him to a certain extent, right? Like, you've got a good situation.

You didn't get along with Eiderman. He's gone. Go perform. And you're not saying he won't. But if he's looking at it and a new guy comes in and goes, well, this is what I'm going to do, well, I want out of here. Well, then he's part of the problem, right? You're not the GM.

You're not the owner. you're a centerman that gets to play and perform. Yeah. The best thing to happen is him playing well. And you're not even that effing good that you get to control. Like, you know who is? McDavid. How about you play for $5 million, Larkin?

And then you can have some, take absolute haircuts to be here and tell me that you're, it's the most important thing in the world and you're helping the team. Then you can have some say in the direction. You're not that good that you should have say in the direction of the team. this is an issue that we're seeing crop up everywhere now, and you noted the American guys. It's not the same as Hellebuck, but it kind of is in the sense that, like,

if you're a player who's signed the contract and committed to the team, you just got married to that GM, that ownership, that plan, so to speak. You didn't have to sign the term you did, and you're not going to make any money if you don't show up. It'd be nice if the teams trade you when you ask, but if I'm Kevin Shevleday off

or whoever the next GM of the wings is I'm not making a deal to make Dylan Larkin happy. I'm making a deal to make the team better. I was going to ask that question. You mentioned it, Rhett and Ryan. You just talked about it there. It feels like too much of it not, to be a coincidence that a number of these guys that played on the American team got together and hung out and you're going to have

those conversations. Hellebuck wants out and Hughes was traded and Larkin wants to move and all. And not to say that they're even wrong, but it does feel like there would be some guys like, hey, like life's short, you got to play where you want. You can get trade. There, there has to have been that because we've seen a number more than one, more than two situations come up where players have already either been traded or have asked to be traded. Well, there's two like it right now, like Werenski and Hellebuck. It's the we're going to pretend everything's right. It's all internal. All the PR is I want to win here.

And Larkin. I mean, well, yeah, because he's walked it back. Totally. I think they're all quite similar and they're all members of that team. And again, they can have their wish to get traded, but they really don't have a hammer to make a team, make a deal that doesn't help them. Like the Jets aren't going to move hellabuck for 50 cents on the dollar.

It's just wait. It's the stupidest thing and the GMs should get punched in the nose. Back 20 years ago, getting a no trade was almost unheard of. Like it was extremely

and maybe 20 years. But there was a point in time where those were not part of the negotiation. Totally. It was a flat o go at your hat when you ask the GM, right? Because I did it. And there's, the easiest fix is fine. You get your no trade.

As soon as you ask for a trade, that is gone. It has to be part of it. It is a promise the team is making to the player to not trade them. You can't then bring that promise back and say, I want to get traded and here's where I'm going. No, no, no, no. We didn't promise to trade you where you wanted to. We promised not to trade you. The list is void now.

You're asking for a trade. They're being used for the exact purpose they were not built for. It's crazy. It's not how it changes. Well, the new CBA, you have to put something in, but that's like five years down the road. It's five years down the road. It's going to be a hill to die on for teams. I just don't know what they want because they're the billionaires, not the millionaires.

They're the older. And the players, well, I don't know. What's the union going to say? I don't know. They'll fight it, but it's not reasonable. No. And if you don't want to be in Detroit or Winnipeg or Columbus, sign one year deals, sign two year deals. And there's-

No one forced you to sign eight years, guys. That was you. Like, every situation's different. This is not the first time we've seen a player say, uh, like maybe want to check. A lot of times it'll be, are you going to sign it like it was here with Kachuk or whatever? Are you going to sign an extension? Well, no, probably not. Werensky had two years left.

Larkin's got four or five years left. Hella Bucks got, what, five years left. It's not as though you're going into your final season of a contract and you're going to, a lame duck, and we might lose you for nothing. These are guys saying, I want to move with multiple years left on their contract. And they're the best player. It's okay to say you want to move.

You do or don't? Sorry, I'm okay with saying you want to move. You signed to the contract and five years has gone by and you're like, I feel differently now. Things change. But you don't get to say, I want to move, but you can only move me to this team. Correct.

That's the problem I have. That's a trade list, not a no trade clause. Those are different things. And we can't fix it. And it's bleeped until there's a new CBA at the earliest. But yeah, like, what do you do? Like if you're shovel day off and you're getting all these deals are not even close, you just have to keep playing.

How do you just, same with your organization and and trade hellabuck out of there? Just because and getting like you have to get a good deal. It changes everything. As soon as he walks out the door, you have to have a plan and that you've got to have the pieces to put that plan in place. It's probably the most important transaction Kevin Shevel-Day off will make over a 10-year span. You can't just, oh, well, he wants to go here. I guess I'll just take less and make him out. No. Now I had said that I didn't think Larkin was going to show up.

Now granted, they fired Eisenman and maybe that has something to do with it or has nothing to do with it. But either way, he's going to come. Do you believe, and it's more fresh, the trade is the airing of the dirty laundry because Hellebuk just did it last week. Do you think Hella Buck shows up to camp or does he? He has to. Does he stay home on? We haven't seen someone hold out since Yashin and he ended up owing the team of season. It just doesn't happen in this league because what it actually is.

it does is tie you to that market a year longer if you sit for a year. Rett, what were you going to say? And he'll want his money. It's one thing to say I want out. Bufflin did it. There's not many guys in the history of the game that have walked away from millions and millions of dollars because they're disgruntled. Yeah, and that's retiring

basically, right? Yeah. And he had millions and which was, and we were like, what? These guys don't want to quit. They want to keep playing. Yeah. He's going to want to get paid. He'll show up. Like in the NFL, when you don't have guaranteed contracts, you can do this. In this league, if you don't show up, you can be suspended by the team and not get paid. And the last time we saw a player do it, the league ruled and said, you owe that team another

year at that same salary. It's not on the table. You can't not show up. Does that include camp or because you get paid for regular C's? I just, how does that work? I don't know. I mean, in theory, you can suspend the guys, not showing. But, you know, what we see is guys without contracts not showing. No, I understand. What I'm saying for Hellebuck, does, he, does he get to the end of camp and then show up? I don't know what's games by him staying away other than saving some awkward feelings. And yeah. That's double's trade value.

Like had Swamen look when he missed camp two years ago. Yeah, that's the other thing. Like it's just, the only way these players get what they want is if they show up and play well. Like I really believe that. Like, if you're Dylan Larkin, come out and be a point per game player for half a year and then you are going to get the office. that Detroit's going to be happy with. Same with Connor Hellebuck. Like if you don't show up, that doesn't make you worth more in trade.

It makes the Jets less likely to get a deal done in a sense. It's like, oh, I don't know. Like he hasn't played in seven months. Maybe there's other stuff going on to. Maybe Hella Buck is just done with mosquitoes. You just can't do it anymore. No mosquitoes in, uh, in December usually. Like usually, there's a nice thing care of.

That first freeze takes care of them. Freeze coming up here shortly. Yeah. But I was, you know, he's an outdoorsy guy. We always hear that, oh,

well, like you guys like to go fishing and stuff. If you've just, that's the selling feature for playing in Winnipeville. Wow, you like the outdoors. You like air, you know,

outdoors, it's minus 30. The wind is howling across the prairies. What the hell am I going to do outside? You like chopping wood, huh? I was, I was going to go fishing.

I opened my garage door and there was a snow drift eight feet high. And I couldn't get my car out of the, so I didn't go fishing today. The lake was covered with 15 feet of snow. I couldn't even ice fish. I went shoveling today.