Is Pierre-Luc Dubois a complex athlete or has he twice tried in good faith to extricate himself from difficult situations by demanding transactions?
Colleague Alexandre Pratt wrote an important text on Monday evening. It sheds a different light on the situation. And allows Quebecers to benefit from a defense that any accused would be entitled to obtain.
Few hockey players have already requested a trade twice before reaching the quarter century. For Alexandre, the two cases are circumstantial. Dubois isn’t the only one wanting to leave Winnipeg and its supposedly flawed locker room.
Goalkeeper Connor Hellebuyck and center Mark Scheifele also want to quit within a year, and Jacob Trouba, Evander Kane and Jack Roslovic have demanded a trade before them.
In Columbus, Sergei Bobrovsky and Artemi Panarin had just taken advantage of their unrestricted free agent status to change scenery. Josh Anderson was traded to the Canadiens after indicating his intention not to sign a long-term deal with the Blue Jackets.
John Tortorella was still leading the team with his iron fist and it was debatable if Columbus was headed for the basement in the standings and not the Stanley Cup.
His last appearance with the Blue Jackets, in January 2021, before being traded for Patrik Laine and Roslovic, however, made an impression. For about thirty seconds, he was almost content with the role of spectator on the ice, without making the slightest effort, before retreating to the bench almost in slow motion. He didn’t play for the rest of the game.
Dubois is entitled to the benefit of the doubt. But for the sake of transparency, we can also point out that some of his teammates have chosen to stay on these drifting teams and help to improve them.
Defender Zack Werenski, one of the best defenders of his generation, has chosen to sign a six-year contract extension at Columbus. Boone Jenner is still there and Oliver Bjorkstrand was heartbroken when he was forced to change clubs to reduce the wage bill.
In Winnipeg, stalwarts Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers and Josh Morrissey have opted in recent years to sign long-term contracts with the Jets even though the locker room has reportedly been fragmented for a long time.
Dubois was obviously within his right to try to extricate himself from bad situations and his trade requests would be less out of place if he played in the NBA or major league baseball, two circuits where such demands are more rooted in the culture.
But how will he react to the first setbacks in Montreal, be it in terms of his use, media or fan pressure, team direction, if any? we wrote recently.
Was Jets head coach Rick Bowness targeting Dubois and others when he vilified his leaders after his club was knocked out by Vegas in the first round?
“The same problem happened in February when we were approaching the front row. You have to have pride. Their best players were far superior to ours. Not even close…”
We obviously do not have proof of this, and Alexandre Pratt does well to point this out. But after a promising first game, Dubois has been limited to two points in the last four meetings. He also took three minor penalties in Game 3, and another in the following game, which led to Vegas’ second goal two seconds after returning to the ice.
But after amassing 48 points in his first 42 games, he was limited to 15 points in 31 games. Between January 28 and March 21, the period Bowness was referring to, Dubois had four points in fourteen games.
Dubois obviously remains a leading forward. He already has three seasons of 27 or more goals and reached the 60-point mark three times in his career, which Jonathan Drouin, for those who would be tempted to compare them, has never been able to do.
He was obviously speeding up the process of rebuilding the team. He remains an attacker who, inspired, can carry a club, but also capable of empty passages which make him almost completely disappear on the ice when they occur. You will have to live with it.
Kent Hughes is the meticulous general manager type. If he acquires Pierre-Luc Dubois, he will have obtained the assurance that he will not risk any unpleasant surprises. He will also avoid overpaying to obtain it.
To assume that the CH will give up their fifth overall pick to acquire it is sacrilege. Hughes also won’t touch his young core, Suzuki, Caufield, Dach or Guhle to get it. And it would be surprising if he were granted an annual salary higher than that of the captain.
Suzuki had 66 points in 82 games and Dubois had 63 points in just 73 games, but the Canadiens’ No. 1 center was a year younger and didn’t have wingers as talented as Dubois in Winnipeg.
Advanced stats favor the Quebecer defensively, but the Jets finished 10th in the NHL in goals against with 224 and the Canadiens 29th with 305.
If Winnipeg accepts a late first-round pick, a prospect or a young player and a second-round pick, for example, there would be room for discussion. On the other hand, the Jets seem to want established players in return for Dubois.
A file to follow closely until the repechage in ten days!
The Calgary Flames have found their new coach: Ryan Huska, 47, an assistant with the Flames for the past five years.
Huska was the manager of the Kelowna Rockets of the Junior League West, before managing the Flames farm club for four years.
This is for this former hockey player limited to a single game in the National Hockey League, his first experience in the NHL as head coach. He finds himself in a now enlarged group.
Spencer Carbery in Washington and Greg Cronin in Anaheim were also recently hired without previous NHL head coaching experience.
They are now sixteen, with Huska, Cronin and Carbery, having obtained a first chance to lead a National League club with their current team. The others are Don Granato, André Tourigny, Rod Brind’Amour, Luke Richardson, Jared Bednar, Derek Lalonde, Jay Woodcroft, Dean Evason, Martin St-Louis, Lane Lambert, D. J. Smith, Jon Cooper and Sheldon Keefe.
