Pierre-Luc Dubois makes excuses for poor performance in L.A.

In spite of the fact that his pedigree as a former 3rd overll pick at the 2016 National Hockey League Entry Draft would have you believe that veteran forward Pierre-Luc Dubois is at the elite level, his recent struggles have put a great deal of doubt into the minds of both his detractors and even his supporters.

Dubois is coming off arguably the worst season of his professional career as a former member of the Los Angeles Kings, a season that ended with him being traded just 1 year into the massive 8 year contract that he had agreed to sign with the Kings.

Recently Dubois shed some light on how things went so terribly wrong for him in Los Angeles, and unfortunately a significant part of Dubois' comments appeared to lay the blame at the feet of the Kings organization.

"Take it as you will but, I've always needed clear direction to be able to work at 100%," said Dubois to La Presse in French.

"I get confused when there are grey areas. I ask myself too many questions. It's something I've been working on since I was young. And, from my very first conversations with the team, I didn't really know what was expected of me. I didn't know where I fit in. You can't play well when you're asking yourself too many questions."

It is hard to believe that Dubois didn't realize what the expectations of him where when he signed a massive 8 year deal with an average annual value and cap hit of $8.5 million per season, but that is indeed what he claims.

Dubois continued to make comments that suggested the Kings could have done more to help him succeed, but did acknowledge his role in the failure as well.

"We didn't talk very often," said Dubois of Kings head coach Todd McLellan. "Todd is more of a team tactician. Maybe we didn't have that kind of relationship. Maybe it was me that was too demanding, wanting the path forward explained to me. It is obviously my fault that it didn't work."

Dubois claims he worked on his struggles throughout the season, but was unable to get over the hump.

"I tried to live up to the challenge, but I was stuck in a gray area the whole year. I didn't feel at home. My teammates helped and I wanted to break through, but it just wasn't working."

These comments likely won't go over so well in Los Angeles and may even be a cause for concern for fans in Washington who most definitely don't want a repeat of the L.A. situation with Dubois in Washington. Especially not when you consider that Dubois has 7 years remaining on his 8 year contract.