Pierre-Luc Dubois and his agent give a big hand to Kent Hughes and the Canadiens

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Jeff Drouin
July 19, 2022 (0:23)

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Since the NHL Draft, Habs fans have been closely following Kent Hughes' personnel moves and let's just say he's making sure to stay busy this summer.

Although one of his top priorities is settled, the trade that brought Jeff Petry and Ryan Poehling to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the name that is on everyone's lips is Pierre-Luc Dubois.

The Winnipeg Jets center came very close to being traded to the Canadiens on the night of the NHL draft and as reported by Marco Normandin of Habsolumentfan.com, Dubois was in attendance at the Bell Centre, potentially to be introduced to the crowd following a possible trade.

According to Arpon Basu, a reporter for The Athletic, Dubois was convinced he was going to be traded to the Canadiens and introduced to the crowd live during the evening. As we know, the deal didn't happen and Hughes turned to the Chicago Blackhawks to acquire Kirby Dach.

Playing for the Canadiens is a childhood dream for Dubois and even his agent, a certain Pat Brisson, shares this information in order to lower his value on the trade market, as other teams know that his client could sign as a free agent in Montreal within the next two years.

Journal de Montréal reporter Jonathan Bernier also confirmed that Kent Hughes made a serious offer to the Jets in the draft.

"Now, the Canadiens would have tried to get their hands on Pierre-Luc Dubois last week. A source close to the matter even claimed that Hughes tabled a very interesting offer to the Winnipeg Jets during the draft."

However, it seems that one of the players that the Jets GM would have asked for would be a certain Nick Suzuki, again according to The Athletic article, and that is why the transaction has still not been completed.

Obviously letting Suzuki go is not in the plans of the Canadiens organization, we agree. Basu also mentions that forwards Christian Dvorak and Josh Anderson could be involved in a potential deal and that this would free up enough payroll space to bring Dubois to Montreal.

But there is also the fact that Dubois has stated in recent weeks that he has no intention of signing a new contract with the Jets and that as time goes on, his value will certainly decrease and the Jets will not be able to get a significant return.

In conclusion, we can say that the Habs have the big stick in this file and that Hughes can be very patient, because in the worst case, he will be able to put Pierre-Luc Dubois under contract on the free agent market in the summer of 2024.