On Friday afternoon, the Winnipeg Jets announced that forward Pierre-Luc Dubois has agreed to his one-year qualifying offer for the 2022-23 season that will pay him $6 million. While a good sign for the Jets that the franchise got something done with the player in the short-term, what does this suggest when it comes to Dubois’ long-term future?
Dubois, 24, recently let it be known to the Jets that he plans to test free agency as soon as he can become an unrestricted free agent in 2024. Nonetheless, general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff appears set to bring him back for at least the start of the 2022-23 season. A trade could occur at any point and Dubois is still an RFA at the end of this current deal so he’ll be a player to watch throughout the season. In fact, there were several reports that a deal was close to happening with the Montreal Canadiens at the 2022 NHL Entry Draft earlier this month, but for whatever reason, it fell through.
While he didn’t, or at least hasn’t yet, requested a trade from the Jets, it marks the second NHL organization that Dubois has been unhappy with. Roughly a year and a half ago, he asked for a trade from the Columbus Blue Jackets, and at the time expressed optimism in regard to joining the Jets. For whatever reason, however, things appear to have gone south. Is this about the teams he’s been playing for? Or, is this solely about the team he’s rumored to want to play with and everyone else comes in at a distant second place?
Whether fair or not, Dubois has gained a reputation as being a tough-to-please player around the league. Not often is it that a player of his age has let it be known he isn’t happy in two separate organizations, but that is exactly what he has done. It is quite unfortunate given that when on the ice, he is one of the game’s more underrated talents. In 81 games this past season, he put up a career-high 28 goals along with 60 points and 106 penalty minutes. Assuming he remains a member of the Jets for the entirety of the 2022-23 campaign, similar totals should be expected from the 2016 third overall pick.
Then what? The Jets and Dubois have to go through this process all over again. He’ll have arbitration rights but likely still a desire to move on. Does he have any leverage in a deal and a way of pushing the Jets to move him? The Calgary Flames went through something similar the other day with Matthew Tkachuk and ultimately moved him one year earlier than they technically had to in order to get a massive return from the Florida Panthers. Is there any way Dubois can fetch the Jets something that will help keep them competitive?
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