The Washington Capitals made one of the first major moves of the 2024 NHL offseason this week when they traded Darcy Kuemper to the Los Angeles Kings for Pierre-Luc Dubois. The Capitals will be Dubois’ fourth NHL team despite the centerman turning just 26 years old in a few days.
Throughout his career, Dubois has learned what sorts of players he likes playing with most. His most eye-opening experience actually came at the junior level with the QMJHL’s Cape Breton Screaming Eagles where he was placed on a line with Russian wingers Evgeny Svechnikov and Maxim Lazarev.
Back in 2021, while still a member of the Winnipeg Jets, Dubois sat down for a preseason chat with Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on the duo’s 32 Thoughts Podcast and discussed how playing with the two Russians changed his overall outlook on hockey.
“They kind of taught me how to play in a way,” Dubois said. “They would give me s— for chipping a puck, a simple play. They’d yell at me. First, they’d yell at each other in Russian and I knew exactly what they were talking about. Then they’d tell me and give me s— for it.”
After his junior career in the QMJHL ended, Dubois quickly earned a spot on the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Quebec native made his NHL debut with the club just a year after they made him the third overall selection in the 2016 draft.
With Columbus, Dubois found himself on a roster with one of the preeminent Russian players in the NHL, Artemi Panarin. Panarin arrived via trade the same offseason that Dubois was preparing for his rookie pro season. The two eventually formed a great connection on the ice.
“I think my first year in Columbus, Torts was trying to find a guy to play with Panarin,” Dubois said.” He was mixing different guys in and I was the only guy that didn’t play with him. All I was thinking was, ‘I can play with him.’ I know how to play with him. I know it’s the NHL compared to junior but I know how to do it. The first game I played with him, I played really well and we won in Buffalo and then after that, we just kept going.”
In that first game together against the Buffalo Sabres, both Dubois and Panarin scored goals. At five-on-five their line saw 81 percent of the shot attempts, 84.1 percent of the expected goals, 84.1 percent of the scoring chances, and 78 percent of the high-danger chances. Columbus won the game 3-2.
“It was the same thing as in Breton, he’d give me s— for chipping or dumping a puck but I just love the way they play. I love the way they space out the game, the passes they make, the things they try. I just love that spaced-out game.”
The overall numbers behind the duo’s play in Columbus back up Dubois’ story. In 1,700 minutes together at five-on-five with Dubois and Panarin on the ice over two seasons, the Blue Jackets saw 56.4 percent of the shot attempts, 56 percent of the expected goals, 56.7 percent of the scoring chances, and 54.4 percent of the high-danger chances. Columbus outscored their opponents 96-65 during those same minutes.
Dubois set the Blue Jackets’ new franchise record for points in a rookie season with 48 (20g, 28a) during the 2017-18 campaign and his 20 goals were more than the 17 that Rick Nash recorded in his freshman season (2002-03). Dubois followed that season with 61 points (27g, 34a) in 82 games the next year.
“You see how the Russians play in ‘Miracle’ and stuff like that,” Dubois said. “They’re just switching around and that’s what it felt like. At first, I was like, ‘Okay, we can try,’ and then it started going better and became more natural. Then I got to the NHL with Panarin. For him, it was, ‘Stay wide. If you’re on your one-timer side, stay wide and don’t come close to me. I’m good one-on-one, don’t come close to me. I can win my battles and find space. I can beat my guy and then someone else will have to jump on me and that’s when I find you.’ I love playing like that. It’s fun.”
Now, with Dubois a member of the Capitals, he’ll have the opportunity to play with the greatest Russian player of all time, captain Alex Ovechkin. Washington also has Ivan Miroshnichenko, Alex Alexeyev, and the Belorussian Aliaksei Protas ready for important, regular NHL roles in the coming seasons.
After Panarin departed Columbus in 2019, Dubois has not been on a team or played with any high-level Russian talent. Still, he’s kept what they’ve taught him and implemented it with players of different nationalities on the Blue Jackets and Winnipeg Jets.
“That’s what I try to tell the guys,” Dubois said. “Don’t come close because I like those one-on-ones in the corners. I find when you’re too close to each other, you can’t beat your guy because if you beat your guy then the other guy is right in your face because your teammate is right there.
“So, it’s kind of like putting a blanket on everybody. You could put a blanket on five guys if they’re all close to each other but if you spread out the zone, then mistakes can happen, reads have to happen. I think reads are when you make mistakes and you create space. For those guys, that’s what the game is about.”
The Capitals are betting on Dubois reconnecting with the high-level offensive ability he showed off early in his career and he’ll likely get the chance to do so with Ovechkin riding shotgun on his left side. Ovechkin is also still chasing Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goals record and saw the two primary playmaking centers in his career – Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov – both leave the team’s lineup in quick succession last year.
Head coach Spencer Carbery tried almost every center left on his roster with Ovechkin toward the end of the 2023-24 season without a ton of success. Dubois’ acquisition will hopefully allow him to better slot his team down the middle and move the more shoot-first Dylan Strome to another line.
