Burning Through Teams

When Pierre-Luc Dubois agreed to join Team Canada for the IIHF Men's World Championship in May, I thought this might be the opportunity for him to show the Los Angeles Kings that he could take games and dominate on the ice like many had hoped he would do with the Kings. His nine points was certainly a solid showing, but it wasn't like he proved to be the game-changing player that the Kings wanted when they traded for him. Today, though, he became someone else's problem as the Los Angeles Kings found a way to move Dubois and his bloated contract to another team as Dubois officially was traded for the fourth time in his career before the age of 26.

In a move that had been rumoured for some time, the Los Angeles Kings traded Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Washington Capitals for goaltender Darcy Kuemper. Neither side retained salary in the deal for the players they moved, and both players get a chance to find opportunities where their games may fit better than what happened last season where both players struggled.

For the Capitals, they may have found a centerman who can step in where the once-prominent Nicklas Bäckström skated. Bäckström, as you're likely aware, was the setup man for Alexander Ovechkin for most of the last decade, and they found some incredible chemistry over that time. After Bäckström was injured, the Capitals simply had no one who could replicate those results alongside Ovechkin, and that seems to be the underlying reason for this trade: the Capitals have no one to center their first line.

As the always-revealing Russian Machine Never Breaks blog states, Dubois seems to have found the most success in career playing with Russian players. The only issue I have with that assessment is that both of the Russian players named - Evgeny Svechnikov and Artemi Panarin - are good enough to carry lines on their own. If the thought is to somehow push a 38 year-old Ovechkin to play more like his 28 year-old self, this could be an experiment that goes horribly wrong for the Capitals.

The talking points from GM Brian MacLellan sounded a lot like what both Kevin Cheveldayoff and Rob Blake said when acquiring Dubois. Let's review those statements:

• Cheveldayoff: "Pierre Luc-Dubois is a big hard two-way centreman that makes other people around him better and that's an important factor if you're trying to win."
• Blake: "Pierre-Luc Dubois is an elite two-way center with a unique skillset, and we're excited to have him join the organization and commit to us long-term. Over the last few seasons, he has proven the ability to contribute to all facets of the game and we are thrilled to be able to add a player of this caliber into our lineup."
• MacLellan: "This acquisition brings in a talented 25-year-old with immense potential to become a top-tier center in the NHL. With his size, exceptional skating, and high hockey IQ, we are confident he will thrive in our organization with increased responsibility and opportunity."

With two statements commending his two-way play, it's pretty clear that's not an actual asset that he brings to any team after being traded for the third time in his career. All three GMs were convinced he'd step in, contribute in a big way, and lead those teams to greater heights, but it was clear that he was more of a headache and a passenger with both the Jets and Kings. I can't understand why Brian MacLellan believes he'll be a different player with Washington when he's proven what kind of player he truly is time and time again.

Let's not forget this statement from Kings GM Rob Blake last month.

"We need to make him better," Blake told the Los Angeles Times. "He's had a consistent performance over his career and deviated from that this year. So it's up to us as a staff - coaches and management - to help him become more productive to us."

I guess that falls on MacLellan and Spencer Carbery now, and they'll have to find a way to get Dubois more productive than he's ever going to be if Ovechkin wants to break Gretzky's goal-scoring record. That being said, the logjam down the middle in Washington with Dylan Strome, Connor McMichael, and Nic Dowd being pushed by the likes of Henrix Lapierre down in Hershey means someone will likely need to be moved at some point. McMichael as a winger, perhaps?

The catch, of course, is that none of the three players listed before Lapierre had any success as Washington's top center outside of Strome, but Strome's game didn't mesh entirely well with Ovechkin's game. I'm not saying Strome will be moved to a different spot or traded, but Washington will be in the same position once more if Dubois can't find his apparent potential alongside the Great Eight. Finding a centerman for this generation's greatest goal scorer appears to be the most difficult job on the planet.

That role now falls to the $8 million man in Pierre-Luc Dubois, and MacLellan is hoping that Dubois can find the same chemistry he had alongside Panarin and Svechnikov earlier in his career. A 38 year-old Ovechkin won't have the same skill set that a 17 year-old Svechnikov or a 25 year-old Panarin does, but the Capitals need Dubois to help Ovechkin find a way to have one last gasp of greatness.

After being run out of Columbus, Winnipeg, and Los Angeles, one has to wonder how long Pierre-Luc Dubois will last in Washington. If things don't click with Ovechkin and he's a passenger again this season, that will have been four teams he's burned through with little to show for it. At that point, one has to expect he may be out of chances altogether.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!