The thing about giving a guy a no-move clause is that someday he might wield it against you.

And why not? He has it, so he might as well use it. Not that it's entirely Steve Yzerman's fault. When this contract got signed, there was a flat cap and the only way GMs were ever able to shave half a million here, or a million there, off a guy's AAV was to give him some form of trade protection. The more important the player, the more powerful his protection.

How could Yzerman have foreseen it going bad in Year 3 of an eight-year deal? After all, guys just didn't brandish their no-trades/moves like this even a little bit a few years ago, especially not guys in their 20s, which Larkin (born July 30, 1996) is for another couple weeks.

And the fact that Larkin handed in a list of three teams to which he would accept a trade — expanded ever so generously to four sometimes in the past week — means that the entire rest of the summer kinda hinges on what he does. Not just for Detroit, but for the entire league.