Red Wings fans react to suspension of Dylan Larkin amid trade talks

His stance today was he no longer wanted, he wasn't coming to the rink. You know, it was too much for him and he just no longer wanted to be around, be on the team. My initial plan was to try to fix it. You know, I wanted to try to do what I could to... Keep Dylan here in a Red Wing jersey, and clearly that was unsuccessful doing that. I'd love for him to stay, but as I... Tonight on the edge, Dylan Larkin officially icing out the Red Wings. He's already been stripped of his captain's patch, and now he's suspended without pay. After months of turmoil in Hockey Town, interim GM Sean Horcoff has his hands full, trying to find the hometown star a new home. The truth is, when you have a player of Dylan's caliber available, your phone rings daily. And my phone rang a lot today. I think it's important for me to be open to all areas, whether it's prospects and picks and players. But I am doing my best to try to help this group that we have here now in the immediate future, if we can. Horcoff says he's ready to wait as long as it takes to get the best deal for Detroit. He says Larkin's no-trade clause is making things tough with 10 teams on Larkin's list. While it all plays out, the Wings had some business to take care of tonight, firing at all cylinders against the Blackhawks and LCA, giving fans plenty to cheer for. Not to put a damper on things, but how are they feeling about the Larkin news? Fox 2's Dave Kinchin working to find out tonight. And Dave, what are fans telling you? Well, you know, they say that this is just another episode of a drama. Really tired of at this point. You've got season ticket holders, and they say the prices haven't gone up, thankfully. But still, they're paying a lot for season tickets. They say they're not getting the kind of hockey they feel they deserve. It's kind of hard to disagree with that. Let's get a video right now. As you mentioned, the interim GM for the Wings meeting with reporters tonight, barely an hour before the puck drop, to announce that Larkin had been suspended without pay as the high-stakes standoff reaches a breaking point. This comes right on the heels of a statement from Larkin's agent, Pat Brisson, who told The Athletic, making it clear that Larkin has, quote, had enough and will refuse to play for Detroit while trade negotiations linger. Front office leadership says they've attempted to strike a balance between supporting their star center and former captain. That was another thing when he was stripped of the captaincy and protecting the team's best interests, but the relationship appears to be completely fractured. Many fans say they want a competent, permanent GM making better decisions, or even more extreme, they want new ownership. Here's the current interim GM and fans reacting tonight. One thing I will say is, you know, since I kind of got the job from day one, I've worked extensively, exhaustively with CAA to find a solution for Dylan. You know, we've talked to the teams on Dylan's list. We've talked to other teams and taken calls from other teams around the league that have expressed interest in Dylan. And we just continue to try to find a solution that fits for both sides. I think the agent has played a major role. I wouldn't say that it's been helpful for Larkin's situation to get him out of town, but... You signed a contract. If you didn't want to be here, you shouldn't have signed the contract then. You should have left then. Oh, I think they should have gotten somebody in already. I mean, it's just too late. I just don't know why they haven't done that yet. Yeah, I mean, between the trade offers and then with Evanston wanting to get out of here and we could have gotten Hughes for him, we could have made that trade then at that time and we would have had Hughes here with Larkin. It would have been a great duo. And unfortunately, it's passed. And in all honesty, as it comes to this, It comes down to it now, at this point, if he wants to sit out and he's under contract and it cost him $41,000 and some change to sit out for every game, you know what? What? Pay the fine. Well, at this point, fans seem to be reunited in one key area of this. They don't want to rebuild. They want to build it back up to where we've been in the past. We're live outside LCA, Dave Kinchin, Fox 2 News. You keep hearing about management and the GM and the coaching. Every time someone talks about how they're losing faith or losing trust, it just erodes away at that very trust that they have equity in with the fans. Yeah, no doubt about it, really, and especially when you're trying to fill seats. And by the way, a lot of people say, you know, well, the LH organization, they're frustrated with what's going on with the Tigers, too. So they say, you know, maybe this is fans saying they want the ownership to really focus a lot more and drill down on the sports. All right. Our Dave Kinchin for us live tonight. Dave, thank you.