Major statement regarding Pierre-Luc Dubois and the Montreal Canadiens

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MarcO
January 18, 2023 (9:22 PM)

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While Pierre-Luc Dubois was in Montreal with his team last Tuesday, speculation about his possible arrival with the Habs continued to fuel the rumours.

As we know, the Winnipeg Jets forward will be an uncompensated free agent in the summer of 2024 and many Canadiens fans are already salivating at the idea of seeing the Quebecer pull on the tricolour jersey.

But we often heard last summer that Dubois came very close to ending up with the Habs in the first round of the last draft, which was held at the Bell Centre.

However, it seems that Kent Hughes and his Jets counterpart, Kevin Cheveldayoff, were unable to reach a deal. At least, that's what journalist Renaud Lavoie said during his appearance on TVA Sports' JiC show earlier this week.

"It's never been close to him being with the Canadiens. It's not because the Canadiens didn't want to, quite the contrary, but it's mostly that on the Jets' side, they didn't like the offers that were on the table."

"And for the Canadiens, at that point, there was no intention of stripping, there was no question of trading a young player from the organization. So that deal fell through and Kirby Dach was traded from the Blackhawks to the Canadiens a few hours later."

A major statement from Renaud:

But that doesn't mean that the Quebec forward will never play for the Habs. Even though Lavoie remains confident that Dubois could very well pull on the blue-white-red jersey in the near future, he still wanted to moderate the expectations of Habs fans in this matter.

Does this mean that the file is closed? Absolutely not. Pat Brisson was very clear: Pierre-Luc wants to play for the Canadiens."

"And the Canadiens, themselves, know it and are in no way closing the door. If we put a probability, I would say that today, it is not more than 50%."

That said, with the season Dubois is having this year, it wouldn't be surprising if the Jets organization offered him a contract extension this summer when he'll once again be eligible for arbitration.

However, if the Jets were to offer him only a one-year deal, Dubois would be free as a bird in the summer of 2024, at which time the Habs would have the opportunity to offer the Quebecer a chance to join their childhood team.