Welcome to trade rumor season, which is now in full swing with the news of Dylan Larkin’s request for a trade out of Detroit. The Ottawa Citizen, just a couple days prior, reported that the Islanders have been exploring the market for Mathew Barzal. While both players should be interesting to every team in the league (at least among those who at least hope to make the playoffs), the Larkin news is definitely more solid as that trade request is more or less out in the open now, without denial. The Barzal news is more of a run
of the mill offseason rumor at this point. But in the spirit of comparison, let’s take a look at how either player could fit in with the New Jersey Devils and what their respective acquisition costs may be.
Dylan Larkin
2026 Milano-Cortina Gold Medalist Dylan Larkin has hit the market, and no, it would not be a one-for-one swap with Nico Hischier. With Larkin possessing a full no-trade clause in his contract, the Red Wings are at his mercy. Unless Larkin opens it up for several teams to engage in a bidding war, and unless the Detroit Red Wings fabricate several pieces to make their team more competitive out of thin air, the Red Wings should be looking more to futures than near-pending free agents who are extremely unlikely to re-sign with them, anyway.
But on the Devils’ end, Larkin is simply not worth that price tag. He is still scoring goals and is not overpaid, but he is getting older. He will be 30 at the end of next month and, per HockeyViz, what’s going on under the hood is not looking as great as it was a few years ago. Trading Nico for an older center with a lower career high in points and a far lesser history in killing penalties would be malpractice, and it’s a foolish idea from those more obsessed with the aesthetic appeal of another tough American hockey player rather than the guy who has happened to captain their team out of a rebuild and into a pretty good team…never mind that Larkin has not played a playoff game since Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterburg were in the NHL. Don’t get me wrong, I love the kind of player Larkin is, but he would not be an upgrade over Nico Hischier.
While Dylan Larkin is probably exiting his prime, he is still very valuable to any team that acquires him. What makes him particularly attractive to the New Jersey Devils is that he already has a relationship with the team’s best offensive player in Jack Hughes and would be forming the best center group in the entire NHL if traded to the Devils. Let’s look at the two options the Devils would have if they acquired him.
Five-on-Five Fit: LW/FO for Jack Hughes or 3C
Jack Hughes and Dylan Larkin were pretty good partners at the Olympics, I think it would have been even better had Mike Sullivan and Bill Guerin saw that the two Jacks were his best options at center. On faceoffs, though, it worked perfectly. Jack Hughes is the rare kind of forward who can create goals from anywhere in the offensive zone, and that’s precisely how that duo can be so dangerous. With Larkin’s 52.8% win rate in the dot, acquiring Larkin would mean turning a Hughes line faceoff from a possible liability to a guaranteed advantage. And beyond the faceoff, Larkin’s presence and goal scoring ability around the net would prevent opponents from hounding Jack and Bratt around the zone, forcing them to collapse or risk Larkin being left all alone.
On the other hand, Larkin could lead what would be the best third-line in hockey if not put on Hughes’s wing. With Cody Glass currently at center in that position, Glass would have the opportunity to play wing for any of Hischier, Hughes, or Larkin, boosting the third-line’s offensive generation while allowing Glass to hone more of the net-area goal creation ability he showed in 2025-26. Having some mix of Arseny Gritsyuk, Connor Brown, Dawson Mercer, or Cody Glass on Larkin’s wings against third-line competition would open him up for some ridiculous, likely career-best even strength per-minute production.
My suggested lines with Larkin:
Mercer — Hischier — Meier | or | Mercer — Hischier — Meier
Larkin — Hughes — Bratt | or | Glass — Hughes — Bratt
Gritsyuk — Glass — Brown | or | Gritsyuk — Larkin — Brown
Power Play Fit: PP1 Netfront or PP2 Bumper
Dylan Larkin is great on the power play. His career high in power play points was 31 in 2022-23, the same year he posted his career high in 16 power play goals. Since then, Larkin has averaged 15 power play goals and 13.2 power play assists per 82 games played, which would make him the best power play goal scorer on the Devils. The only issue that the Devils need to avoid here is doubling skills. Nico Hischier has scored 25 power play goals over the last two seasons — mostly from the bumper position — which is also an area that Larkin excels in. However, Larkin also excels in netfront positions and can scores most of his goals in that area. He is not someone to stick on the wing and feed one-timers to, which means that he may be able to take some of the load off of Nico around the net while pushing Mercer and Noesen to PP2.
If you take a look at his whole season of goal production, you’ll see a lot of goals from that slot area on the power play. But there are also some where he’s posted up on the goal line or in front of the net, turning and shooting, and a few where he’s around the net hunting for rebounds. Larkin is such a natural goal scorer that I think he would be able to carve out a good system between him and Hischier. Covering one by the net and the slot is bad enough, but teams are going to have defensive fits covering both while Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt control the top of the zone with a Hamilton one-timer option.
PP1: Larkin, Hischier, Hughes, Bratt, Hamilton
PP2: Noesen, Mercer, Meier, Gritsyuk, Hughes
More Thoughts on Larkin
Larkin has always been one of the faster centers in the league, and I think people may be underselling the value of having a guy who can add both breakaway ability and system scoring. The Devils, in this past season, seemed to suffer more than usual in generating their fastbreak offense at even strength, which is rather odd for a team that has Hughes, Hischier, and Bratt.
What it Would Take
If the New Jersey Devils were acquiring Dylan Larkin, I do not think it would take much more than their 12th overall pick and Simon Nemec. This is not a trade deadline deal. In the offseason, dealing with a guy who has a full no-trade clause, I think that is more than fair market value for a 30-year old player like Larkin. But when people see these trade discussions start, they always gravitate towards who can send the best package when the offseason prices are almost never as high as predicted. With the 12th overall pick, the Red Wings could start their necessary rebuild by selecting a successor to Larkin, who was himself a 15th overall pick in 2014.
In Nemec, the Red Wings would have a safety net at right defense, especially if Moritz Seider and Justin Faulk see the writing on the wall and also ask for a trades. (On that note, any Seider trade would be bidding war material because he’s a 24-year old Norris contender without a no-trade clause.) But you may be wondering about Axel Sandin-Pellikka, who had 21 points in 61 games for Detroit this season. While many have claimed that the Devils have horribly underplayed Nemec, Sandin-Pekkilla only averaged 16:13 of ice time per game this season despite being only a year younger than Nemec, who averaged 19:40. Nemec has (far) more even strength offensive ability at this and would likely slot in as Detroit’s second right defender. I doubt they would keep both Seider and Faulk on a post-Larkin team, unless Steve Yzerman is such a sadist that he intends to inflict several more years of late-lottery mediocrity upon his fanbase before eventually being fired.
Mat Barzal
Acquiring Mathew Barzal would be much more complicated for the New Jersey Devils. Unlike Larkin, Barzal only has a 22-team no-trade list, which means that the Islanders probably would be able to facilitate a limited bidding war if they truly intend to unload one of their best players. Per HockeyViz, Barzal is still one of the best forwards in the entire NHL:
That said, there are some reasons that Barzal would not be the same type of fit that Dylan Larkin would be for the New Jersey Devils. He is not a goal scorer: his career high was 23 in 2023-24. He is, however, one of the greatest playmakers in the game and is generally a positive on both ends at five-on-five. Let’s dig into this more:
Five-on-Five Fit: Top Six Wing or 3C
You might be thinking: why would Barzal not specifically slot next to Jack Hughes? The problem is that Mat Barzal is not an especially better faceoff guy than Hughes. While Hughes sits at a career 35.9% win rate, Barzal sits at 42.0% on his career and only had a 39.8% win rate after taking two years off center as a pure wing. Still, Barzal is an excellent add for any team at five-on-five, and likely even more so than Larkin. He had 52 even strength points this season, which would have tied Jack Hughes for first on the New Jersey Devils this season (albeit with Jack missing 21 games).
While acquiring Dylan Larkin would likely mean using him as a faceoff man for Jack Hughes’s line, acquiring Mathew Barzal may mean using Cody Glass as his faceoff man on the third line. Glass is an excellent defensive player and showed a lot of promise as a goal scorer this season, meaning he would probably be wasted in a fourth-line role.
My suggested lines with Barzal:
Barzal — Hischier — Meier | or | Mercer — Hischier — Meier
Brown — Hughes — Bratt | or | Brown — Hughes — Bratt
Gritsyuk — Glass — Mercer | or | Gritsyuk — Barzal — Glass
Power Play Fit: PP2 Facilitator
Where people may be disappointed with Barzal as an option is that he is not especially productive on the power play for a perennial top-line player. He is good, but not great there, with a career high of 27 power play points…set in his rookie season in 2017-18. Since then, Barzal has averaged only 19.6 power play points per 82 games with a measly career high of five power play goals. Jesper Bratt, with career highs of 34 power play points (2024-25) and eight power play goals (2022-23), is likely to remain a better option as the top forward distributor on the Devils power play if they somehow acquired Barzal.
Barzal would still be very, very good on the second wave of the power play. While Timo Meier and Arseny Gritsyuk may be better off in shooting positions, Barzal would be able to take the heat off of them as puck carriers and improve the second unit’s ability to enter the zone without turnovers. Under this paradigm, the power plays may look like this:
PP1: Mercer, Hischier, Hughes, Bratt, Hamilton
PP2: Noesen, Gritsyuk, Meier, Barzal, Hughes
What it Would Take
While Larkin may only fetch a first round pick and a young NHLer or top prospect, acquiring Barzal would be more likely to involve a larger package. For the Devils, that may look like their 12th overall pick this year along with a future first or second-round pick and two players out of Simon Nemec, Seamus Casey, Anton Silayev, and Lenni Hameenaho. It may even require someone like Dawson Mercer instead of one of those four. Barzal has a great contract that never becomes totally immovable. A ten-team out for a top center or wing gives any team much more flexibility than they would have acquiring Larkin, and Barzal is a super-skilled player that arguably hasn’t even made the most of his skillset yet.
For the Devils, too, they are contending with the geographic rivalry tax. Mathieu Darche has already made a deal with the Devils, though, when he acquired Ondrej Palat and a pick for Maxim Tsyplakov, but a top player should command more respect and possibly more unwillingness to trade him to such a nearby team. While I have panned the Noah Dobson trade for stripping Matthew Shaefer of who could have been an incredible defensive partner, Darche did get two first-round picks in that deal, and I suspect they would seek similar or better value here. On many levels, I do think it would be rather foolish for New York to deal Barzal out, but it is out there.
Final Words and Your Thoughts
Between Larkin and Barzal possibly being on the market, the New Jersey Devils would be lucky to swing either of them. But, if I had the choice (I do not, the Devils will probably end up with neither), I would prefer that the team target a Larkin acquisition. Between his stronger trade protection and skillset, I think he would both cost less to acquire and be a better on-ice fit for the Devils. However, we do need to remember that there are multiple locations who could entice Larkin despite his relationship with the Hughes brothers, who train with him during the offseason.
Since these are the kinds of players who are worth trading a top-15 pick for, though, Sunny Mehta needs to see that this is the kind of move that can both tip the team towards being a true contender while he makes a strong first move as the team’s general manager. In short: is this regime going to continue coming in second, or can it be a little more decisive with its small windows of opportunities? With this being the last year of Nico Hischier’s $7.25 million cap hit and possibly the last year of Dougie Hamilton in a Devils uniform, this is the greatest chance the Devils have to make this season go to its best possible end.
But what do you think of the rumors out there? Who do you think would be a better fit for the New Jersey Devils? What kind of deals do you think it would take to acquire either? How likely do you think it is that both players mentioned get traded this offseason? Leave your thoughts in the comments below and thanks for reading.
