Pierre-Luc Dubois’s marriage with the Los Angeles Kings ended after just one turbulent season. The one-time number three overall draft selection was out the door in California shortly after he inked the eight-year contract that brought him to the Kings in a sign-and-trade deal with the Winnipeg Jets.
Los Angeles acquired Dubois despite already having significant depth down the middle in the form of Anze Kopitar, Phillip Danault, and the emerging Quinton Byfield. The crowded center position forced Dubois into a lesser and unfamiliar role, one he admits he had trouble finding any success in.
“I learned a lot last year,” Dubois told The Athletic’s Eric Stephens. “Since my first days in Columbus, you’re playing top-six. In Winnipeg, top-six. And then all of a sudden, you’re not. It’s a challenge and it’s not that it can’t be done. But it is a challenge. That’s on me. I’ve never hid behind that. That was on me. I was not good in that challenge.”
Despite an $8.5 million cap hit that made him the highest-paid forward on the Kings, Dubois managed just 40 points (16g, 24a) in 82 games. He finished eighth on the team in scoring, just one spot ahead of defenseman Matt Roy.
The lack of production in LA furthered Dubois’s poor reputation as a player who’s difficult to work with, especially after he had requested out of his prior two situations with the Jets and Columbus Blue Jackets. Dubois averaged 15:42 of ice time per game with the Kings, the lowest mark of his career outside of the 2020-21 campaign, where he was dealt midseason from Columbus to Winnipeg. He was even forced out onto the wing in some games.
“It’s a challenge,” Dubois said. “It’s not impossible to do. It’s a challenge that I wasn’t good at. That’s just how it is sometimes.”
After being dealt to the Capitals for Darcy Kuemper during the 2024 offseason, Dubois is now flourishing in DC. The trade provided Dubois a fresh start and perhaps more importantly a return to a major top-six role.
In 66 games for the Caps, he has 57 points (17g, 40a) and is one of the league’s elite five-on-five producers. The only NHL players with more five-on-five points than Dubois (41) this seson are Jason Robertson (42), Aliaksei Protas (43), Brandon Hagel (44), Nathan MacKinnon (46), Sidney Crosby (46), Nikita Kucherov (46), David Pastrnak (48), and Leon Draisaitl (51).
“I’m liking the guys I’m playing with, that’s for sure,” Dubois said last Tuesday. “Whether it’s [Protas] or [McMichael] or [Wilson], whoever it’s been this year, even the D’s actually, [Chychrun] and those guys, it’s been fun to be on this team. They’ve helped me a lot this season. They keep helping me. It just makes my life easier that I just have to do my job and they’ll do theirs.”
Dubois has also accepted head coach Spencer Carbery’s significant challenge of regularly matching up with the opposition’s top line. He has excelled in the role, and the Capitals have seen 53.2 percent of shot attempts, 55.2 percent of expected goals, 56.3 percent of scoring chances, and 56.3 percent of high-danger chances during his five-on-five minutes.
The 26-year-old forward is on pace to hit 71 points (21g, 50a) this season, which would smash his previous career-high of 63 points, set with the Jets in 2022-23. Dubois is signed for another six seasons after this year and his contract now looks like it could be a value for the Caps rather than the burden most assumed they were taking on.
