OverDrive - LeBrun on Hellebuyck's next steps in Winnipeg, Larkin's trade spots and the Red Wings' team issues

Episode Date: October 5, 2026

TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun joined OverDrive toa discuss the Red Wings' rocky scenes on the team, Dylan Larkin's future in Detroit, Simon Edvinsson's next steps, the no-trade clause perspective from Gary Bettman, Connor Hellebuyck's potential landing spots and playing in Canada, Connor Zary being placed on waivers and more.

And I don't think the people in the front office are to blame. There's other problems. Let's bring him Pierre and ask him. All right. What a segue. Here's Pierre LeBron, our TSN Hockey Insider. Pierre, the Gong Show in Detroit. I don't know if you see it that way or label it that way,

but Larkin, Edmondson's in Sweden, the owner's taking a lot of heat. Like, how do they get out of this mess that they seemingly have created on their own? Gong shows one of my favorite things. It shows my age. And it gets overused maybe, but in this particular case, it applies 100%. That's exactly what it is. And it starts up top with ownership.

And, you know, you can decide how you feel whether or not Steve Eisenman is still be GM. That's not the debate. To me, the debate is why do they wait until July 15th to announce that change? So first of all, you've already missed half the offseason. You're looking for a new GM. The Simon-evinson negotiation gets put on hold the entire summer. Evanston's agent got their first offer from the wings on September 17th, I think,

after an entire offseason of silence. And I like what you said, O'Dag, I'm not blaming interim GM, Sean Markoff. You got handed a raw deal here. I mean, this whole thing has been handled backwards in my mind, and it's an original 16, and frankly, I think it's embarrassing. If you're a Red Wings fan right now that you're dealing with this. But in the meantime, while they weren't negotiating with Evanston, the summer they weren't really talking to teams that much on Dylan Larkin.

That thing got put on hold. So now, even though he gave them ample time to train him, he has to show up back to camp and deal with all that. And so it's, you know, and the guy we don't even talk about is Alex De Brinkett, who's a UFA at the end of the year. And he hasn't been extended for similar reasons. And who knows what is future holes. So there's a lot going on there.

Do you know how any details, like, of this owner causing, problems where you know he's like apparently like there's I'm just talking about Twitter rumors pierre where it's like the owner kind of nix the deal for Stevie Y to bring in Stamco's and then he didn't want to nix Quinn Hughes coming because he didn't want to bring up Edvenson now he doesn't want to sign like do you know any intimate details about this guy causing these problems because I think people

people in Detroit aren't stupid yeah no I mean I wouldn't feel comfortable enough in what I've heard that I've believe it to be 100% if you know what I mean and that's important to me when I speak on things like this but I mean there are actually to speak for what's going on right now like like this is crazy um you know having Simon evansson who by the way showed up to camp and played on a PTO because he wanted to be part of things when's the last time an RFA of his pedigree showed up to camp without a contract and now he just wanted to get it well I mean now it's I'm told he would still sign.

It could end up in a trade, but I still think he would sign. The Red Wings only priority right now is to sign him. I would say on that whole thing, there's still a number of different scenarios that could play out. But, yeah, it's a tough look for that franchise right now. Well, Pierre, in following up on the article you wrote about the no trades and Gary Betman's comments and stuff like that, I mean, what do you make of that in kind of the, you know what storm that might be brewing? with some of the agents that commented on it. Yeah, I was looking forward to writing that story, and I'll tell you why,

because when Bettman made his comments last week, one thing I noticed in our comments section of the athletic was that a lot of fans were happy that the commissioner made those comments. They want to get rid of no trades or minimize no trades. And I understand where fans are coming from, but I felt that it was important to illuminate how the system actually works. I mean, it's like some of the agents, I quoted, said, okay, you want to get rid of no trades and let's get rid of the salary cap. Like, the no trades have been earned over 30 years of bargaining in the CBA.

You don't just get to pick and choose an item and say, we're tired of it. That's not how collective bargaining works. And so I think, I mean, I think a lot of readers weren't happy with the tone that I think I took on that piece. But I'm just trying to say there's two sides to this conversation. and, you know, for the league to say maybe we should look at this. And again, I think Gary Batman was being pretty general. I don't think this is Aheal he's going to die on. But these things are serious to players.

And, you know, Ron Ainsie's comments were pretty direct when I spoke to him over the weekend that he considers this an attack on players' bargaining rights. And that's how the NHLPA feels. Well, and I find it quite rich that Batman's getting. maybe some support or getting saluted from some like, hey, at least he's speaking out on this issue. Yeah, because it's a player's issue. If it was an owner's issue, he wouldn't say a word, right?

If anything you ask him about the problems with ownership or relocation or it's no, or great, what are you talking about? You don't know what you're talking about. The reason he was willing to give somewhat of a candidate answer on this was because it's about the players. And that's why he'll talk about it, which that's why he's been the commissioner. so long. He's selective. He's smart. He knows how to, you know, thread the needle when need be. And listen, it is a hot topic right now. There's, there, Connor Hallibuck sitting at home.

Dylan Larkin's getting booed, but not playing, you know, and we all know the no trade stuff. The Brady-Kitchuk conversation just went through the wire the last few months. It is a topic of discussion for fans, but, you know, we'll see what happens to your point and what you wrote is 100% accurate. It's got to be collectively bargained. as for some of the news that is going around, it doesn't sound like anything's there on Larkin.

It doesn't sound like anything's there on Hellebuck, Pierre, like what has to change? Well, I think what has to change on the Larkin front, first of all, is that when he's got to deal with Edmondson first. They've got to figure that out.

And then they can eventually get to Larkin. I still think deep down, Sean Harkoff, because he's a new voice as GM, will probably try take another run at Larkin is, are you sure about this, you know? But if Larkin sticks to his guns and I think he will that he wants out, then at some point they'll have to deal with that. I'm told that Larkin has expanded his list to nine to ten teams now

in terms of where he'd be willing to go. But I suspect the majority of those teams are some of the best teams in the league that have no cap room and have no assets to trade. So it's not easy to make these things work. Con Alibuck and Dreggs has been all over this story. But I mean, I think the Jets are going to be digging their heels till the team takes them seriously that they're not giving this guy away. And like, you know, the Carolina Hurricanes for sure would trade for Connie Albaugh.

No question about it. But I don't think they feel that the Jets have enough leverage to ask for more than what they've been offered. You know what I mean? There's two sides to this conversation. And on top of that, goalie trades aren't that common. And when they do happen, if you look at them historically, noodles can back us up.

It's weird how a lot of great goalies don't net a great return. It's a very strange thing in history of our game. So the Winnipeg's in a, honestly, it's a really tough place. I feel for them. As far as Larkin, like have you, like Montreal, did they ever pop into the equation? Is Montreal like a non-starter for this guy? He ain't going to play for the halves?

I mean, I don't think there's a Canadian team on that list as far as I know. You know, it is a fluid situation for sure. But I don't think there's, and I know I guess people have wondered about Edmondton for Connor Halibuck. He's not going to play in Canada. So let's please, let's stop with that. That's not happening. Yeah, it's tough.

And I'm not saying, listen, until he's sitting in that chair, you don't know everything that's been thrown at you and what's been offered. But I will say this about why I respect the way the Ottawa senators handled their business of Brady Kachuk. You know, the way it was delivered from Kachuk and his agent Craig Hoster was, you know, there's two years left on his deal. We'll come back and play hard, but just so you know, we're not going to extend here when the time comes. And so Ottawa had a couple of ways they could have gone with this. They could have played hardball.

You know, they did. They just tick their poison. And they say, you know what? let's deal with this now and make the best of it. And I think they made a decent deal with Florida. My point is the senators get to camp and none of this is part of it. And I wonder deep down and there's different reasons why this has happened. But Detroit and Winnipe, respectively, we'll look back and say maybe we should have just

handle this when we got the news back in the spring. Mentioning Florida, it sounds like Barkov 10 to 12 weeks. So he will return. And there's no reason to believe they're going to do anything. crazy to fulfill that role? Yeah. I don't want to write off that report, Hayes, but well, I will tell you,

in checking with the Panthers in the last hour, they're actually still waiting to get more info from their own doctors. Barkoff went back to South Florida, left the team that's still in California, went back to meet with doctors today, and the coaching staff and management are still waiting to get the full,

you know, full update from their own team doctors about what this looks like. So I'm not saying it won't end up being what, I forget who reported that, but I'm just saying in the last hour, the Panthers were actually themselves still waiting for the final update on this.

So the expectation is Paul Maurice will update everyone tomorrow in LA after the morning skate. But having said all that, as far as I can tell so far, we're not looking at what happened last year that it won't be as serious and the expecting back at some point here this year, which is good news. Yeah, very good news for them, for sure. Lastly, Conor Zari on waivers today, Calgary Flames.

They can't score offensively. They are a disaster offensively right now. And he's a former first-round pick. He's 25, not young, but a little bit interesting that they're letting, they're waiving him when they're having so many, you know, issues up front. Yeah, it is. I agree with you. And, you know, I had heard his name out there a bit during the off-season

as a guy that the flames were willing to move and obviously that never transpired in a traditional trade so what happens when you don't move a guy after a while is waivers is the last resort. He's got another year left on his deal I think at 3.375 million so there's definitely that you know

my sense is that you know the flames feel that he struggles with pace and some of his you know buck management decisions I don't know it screams to me reset for a guy right that he needs a he needs a new lease on his an inch of life first, so maybe he'll get that.

But I always say when a guy has another year in his deal, waivers isn't always your friend. So sometimes what will happen is a player might go unclaim, but now that he's gone through waivers, it's gotten more attention from around the week. So maybe there's a trade that actually happens

further down the line here because he's been waiting. We'll see. All right. We'll see where it goes. Great catching up with you. Pierre. We'll do it again soon. Thank you for this. right on right on

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