Larkin Is a Top-20 Center. Detroit Still Doesn't Have a GM to Sign Him.

The NHL ranked Dylan Larkin among the top 20 centers in the league this week, which is notable and also not surprising to anyone who watched him play last season. He scored 26 goals, logged over 20 minutes a night, and was one of the few things that held together a team that fell apart defensively down the stretch. The recognition is deserved. The timing is awkward.

Steve Yzerman stepped down in July, and Christopher Ilitch formalized a GM search on August 5. That search is ongoing. Larkin's contract situation remains unresolved. Those two facts are connected in an obvious way: whoever gets hired will inherit the most consequential negotiation on the roster, and until that person is in the chair, nothing moves. The league can rank Larkin all it wants. Detroit can't act on it.

The rest of the core is similarly in a holding pattern. Seider is recognized as a top-10 defenseman. Raymond is among the league's top wingers. The organizational talent is real. What's missing is the infrastructure around it — the same structural gap that let the defense bleed 4.5 goals a game in the final 10 contests and sent the season sideways. A new GM fixes none of that on day one, but day one hasn't happened yet.

Larkin being on that list is a good problem to have, if you're Detroit. A franchise center who the league respects, playing in his hometown, with a core worth building around. The question is whether the incoming GM sees it that way — and whether he gets here before the situation gets complicated.