Late last week, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman put out a bombshell report that Dylan Larkin, the Detroit Red Wings' star captain, had requested a trade. After wrapping up Year 3 of an eight-year deal worth $69.60 million and with only five playoff games to his name, the Michigan native wanted out.
My first thought: What would it take for the Bruins to deal for him? As the host of a Bruins podcast, I pray for stories like this in the dog days of June, as this would surely take up a whole lot of airtime this summer. That was until it came out that he would only accept a trade to three places, none of which are Boston.
Silly me.
But then I thought about it a little longer. Aside from the initial shock of the push notification on your iPhone, once the dust settles, why is anyone surprised that anyone would request to be moved — in the NHL or at any level?
On April 13, we at New England Hockey Journal published the 2026 men's college hockey transfer portal tracker. We only monitored what the local Division 1 programs were doing. In those first few days, we updated it double-digit times per day. It required constant attention through April 27, when the portal closed.
Most of my conversations with prep coaches since the season ended in March have revolved around which players are leaving. Which kids are picking new prep schools, heading to the shiny new Masters Academy or trying their hand at juniors?
READ MORE: How a new NCAA rule could cause seismic changes to college hockey and the levels below it
It's a constant question for players from ages 15-17 — when do I leave for junior hockey?
The QMJHL Draft wrapped up this past weekend. In early May, the USHL Phase 1 and Phase 2 Drafts took place. Many players picked in the USHL Phase 1 Draft (for first-year eligible players only) were taken in the QMJHL's Draft. The same was true for many of the prospects taken in the USHL Phase 2 Draft.
Questions will follow those players for the next few seasons. It will start with, "When is so-and-so leaving their prep, high school or academy team for juniors?" Then it will be, "Which league are they picking?" If players are struggling, the immediate speculation will be about them switching leagues midseason because many do. Once that first season is over, the next question is, "Are they staying with that team or leaving?"
Because, again, many do.
Oh, and that's right – on May 29, Carter Meyer (Winchester, Mass.) submitted his request to leave the U.S. National Team Development Program. While USA Hockey must sign off on the request first (they still haven't), he intends to play for the QMJHL's Québec Remparts next season.
Leaving the NTDP. Leaving early for juniors. Switching junior leagues midseason. Changing prep schools. Never playing for your local high school. Transferring colleges. All were, at one time, varying levels of taboo.
Heck, until the CHL ruling in November 2024, you couldn't even switch between the USHL and CHL if you wanted to play NCAA Division 1 hockey.
Get where I'm going with this? It's the world we live in.
And it starts outside of prep, high school and junior hockey. Come the River Rats Jamboree in late August, I will watch as 14U-18U players who were on the Boston Junior Eagles last season switch to the Neponset Valley River Rats — and vice versa. There will be kids who have been with Mid Fairfield for years moving to the Yale Junior Bulldogs — and vice versa.
This is the case in younger levels of youth hockey, too. Players skating for multiple teams through Mites, Squirts, PeeWees and Bantams; playing their 10U year on two teams and then skating for two completely different ones for 11U.
Whether it's playing time, a better coach, a better location or more friends in one place than another, the deck chairs are constantly rearranged on younger teams as well.
Players — and their parents — grow up feeling empowered to do what's best for them, a recent development of the last 10 to 20 years. Advisors begin identifying the best players around 12 and 13 years old. Once they enter the fray, players have another passionate advocate for their best interests.
Maybe you want to replace "empowered" with "entitled" in the above graf, but it almost doesn't really matter because it's reality.
Maybe it is being entitled to avoid facing the adversity of being the ninth-best player on your Bantam team, not playing as a freshman at your prep school or being scratched as a freshman in college.
But it's undeniably a new level of empowerment that players realize time goes by quickly, and you only get one shot at playing college hockey, and maybe, if you're absolutely lucky, suiting up for an NHL organization. Those years in the lead-up to that might as well be dog years. A lost year of development can spell the end.
READ MORE: What Carter Meyer leaving the U.S. NTDP says about the state of hockey
We shouldn't be surprised when a player of Larkin's caliber requests a trade, or when Meyer wants to leave the NTDP, or when this player wants to move to this junior league and that player wants to move to that one. Or when a player switches club teams or prep schools.
Are there negatives? Of course. Are there positives? Of course.
There's no time to waste — and players are acting like it.
