I'm not one of those Mat Barzal haters on the NYI board, but Larkin would improve NYI's special teams.
I can't speak to criticism of Larkin, but there's plenty of history showing that Barzal raises his level of play in clutch/playoff situations on both sides of the puck.
Not saying it can or should happen, just that as vaguely lateral trade ideas go, this is an interesting one to consider.
I don't think he'll get dealt. there are problems with every realistic scenario:
(i) Chicago: Barzal and Nazar are way too similar.
(ii) Seattle: I'm not sold on either Matty Beniers or Jake O'Brien, and there's nothing else I can see them dealing that moves the needle.
(iii) Utah: The redundancy/player similarity issue is even worse than it is with Chicago.
(iv) Vancouver: Doesn't fit their window, and there's 0 interest in EP. Scenarios that would result in any benefit to both teams would have to involve Hronek and a 3rd team, and that all gets silly very quickly.
(v) Montreal: He's not a fit. Like it would have to be a 3 way: MTL gets Larkin, DET gets Barzal, NYI gets prospects. 3 way trades are an order of magnitude less likely to occur than 2 way trades.
(vi) Detroit: It'd be a lateral move for both franchises, and no reason to think Barzal would want to go to Detroit or Larkin would want to go to NYI.
