Pierre-Luc Dubois' agent all but confirms he wants out of Winnipeg.
Dubois' agent makes his intentions clear.
The Winnipeg Jets have a very important contract negotiation on the horizon with restricted free agent centerman Pierre-Luc Dubois, but if recent comments from his agent are any indication this may be a very tough negotiation for the Jets.
Recently, Dubois' agent Pat Brisson was interviewed by French news outlet TVA Sports and it was during that French-language interview that Brisson would reveal his client's desire to play for a different team than the one he is currently on. Unsurprisingly, Brisson was asked about the possibility of the Montreal Canadiens being on Dubois' radar and the agent would confirm that there is in fact interest on the part of the young center to return to his home province and play for the local team.
"At the end of the day there are 2 years left before he is an unrestricted free agent," said Brisson. "Montreal is a city that probably.... I can talk about it because he's not signed to a contract, he's a restricted free agent. Montreal is a place, a city, where he would love to play, and that is the only thing I can say for now."
Brisson's comments make it very clear that Dubois only intends to sign with the Jets for as long as it will be necessary for him to reach unrestricted free agency, something that will make their upcoming negotiations with Dubois particularly challenging.
Unfortunately this also leaves the Jets in a rather unfavorable position as far as asset management is concerned, given that every other team around the National Hockey League has now also been made aware of Dubois' desire to return to Montreal. This will greatly limit any potential trades the Jets could make, at least to any teams looking for more than a rental ahead of a potential playoff run.
Dubois is coming off a very strong season for the Jets, one that saw him record 28 goals and add 32 assists for 60 points over 81 regular season games. It will be very interesting to see how these negotiations shake out and how the Jets handle this very difficult situation moving forward.
You can see the original clip, in French, below:
