Are the Larkin, Hellebuyck situations the most awkward in NHL history?
If you’re a follower of the NBA of NFL, players ‘holding out’ for either a trade or a new contract is nothing new. In the NHL, though, it hasn’t been as commonplace to see players use their leverage to induce a desired outcome. That was, however, until this past offseason, when Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin and Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck requested trades from their respective teams.
The Larkin and Hellebuyck situations aren’t exactly the same. Larkin, at the very least, is playing to a chorus of boos in Detroit after not getting the trade he wanted over the offseason. Hellebuyck, on the the other hand, is committing to a full-fledged hold out, having yet to report to the Jets this season.
On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk was joined by Jeff Marek to discuss whether the NHL has had any precedents to the current Larkin and Hellebuyck standoffs.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Looking back, this Larkin thing and this Hellebuyck thing, where do they rank for you in the all-time “this got awkward” moments between team and player? Are they that rare in hockey history? When was the last time you’ve seen something this bad that you can remember?
Jeff Marek: Alexei Yashin, so like 1999. The thing about it, too, is there have been plenty of players that have asked for trades. We just never hear about them, or we hear about them afterwards. “Yeah, he asked for a trade two years ago.” This is nothing new. The idea of making the trade request as a tactic, I think that’s become more prevalent. But there were plenty of players, and this was pre-salary cap, players would refuse to come to camp unless their contracts were renegotiated. Not with a certain frequency, but it did happen, and with big-name players.
Once upon a time in the NHL, a player would say “I just had a great season, I should renegotiate my contract,” and the agent has the player do a legitimate hold out, unlike a player that doesn’t have a contract. That’s not a hold out, they just don’t have a contract so they don’t go to work. But it’s happened, and it’s happened with big-name players in the past. Historically, we’ve seen weirder things happen, but this one we haven’t seen in the salary cap era or the “new” NHL. We haven’t seen it with the NHL where the logo is silver and goes up as opposed to orange and goes down.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Friday’s episode here…
