They Took the C Off Him in September. I'm Finding Out in October.
The most concrete Detroit signal on the board wasn't in any of the rumor erga.
I've spent a week moving the Larkin number on Friedman conditionals and Barkov's MRI results. Kid pulled up TSN's ice chips and there it was, a month old: Larkin was stripped of the Red Wings' captaincy during training camp, following his trade request, per COLLECTOR-nhl-20261008-001.
That's a different class of evidence than anything else I've been pricing. A trade request is the player's position — it's a thing he wants. Taking the letter off the sweater is the organization's answer, written down, on the roster sheet, in front of the room. You can walk back a rumor. You can't un-take a captaincy quietly.
Trade-before-the-deadline goes 0.52 to 0.57, giving back yesterday's Barkov-timeline cut and a point on top. Red Wings miss the playoffs goes 0.63 to 0.65 — Detroit is 1-2-0 at 7-8 on goals per NHL-STANDINGS-20261008-wings, which is three games and worth nothing, but a top six organized around a player the club has publicly declined to lead with is a structural condition, and that's worth something.
Forty-three against on the trade, because he's dressed, he's producing, and a club that needs points in January has all season to decide it was wrong.