Pierre-Luc Dubois’ struggles have been well documented this season. Back in November
I briefly wrote about how this was no big deal, thinking it was just a slow start. Once December rolled around I wrote further about how
Dubois was suffering from poor shooting luck and thought the World Juniors would turn him around. His struggles however
continued at the WJC. During the World Junior training camp was traded in the QMJHL from the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles to Blainville-Boisbriand Armada and the hope was that a fresh start would be able to spark his offensive game.
In just six games with his new team it’s safe to say Dubois’ offensive game has been sparked.
Dubois had six points in his first two games with his new team and scored a hat-trick last night. He has already past his goal total with Cape Breton and is one more big game away from passing his point total. So what’s changed for Dubois?
Dubois’ game doesn’t look to have changed much at all. He is averaging 3.67 shots per game with Blainville-Boisbriand, which is similar to the 3.4 he averaged with Cape Breton this season and the 3.81 he averaged last season. His dangerous shot rate has also been much the same. With the Armada he’s averaged 2.66 dangerous shots, after averaging 2.2 with Cape Breton. Last season he was at 2.74 per game. So he’s not quite back up to the level he was in his draft season, but he’s close and he’s trending in the right direction.
Dubois’ shot volume looks relatively the same; the big change has been a massive increase in shooting percentage. With the Screaming Eagles it was 8.8%, but with the Armada it’s all the way up to 31.8%. Pucks just weren’t going in for him in Cape Breton, and now everything is going in. That is not going to last for the rest of the season but if it settles in around 20% he should maintain a nice scoring pace.
Another key factor for Dubois is who he plays with. Watching him at the World Juniors it was clear where his issues arose. He wasn’t good with the puck and thus had issues getting through the neutral zone. I felt he would be best suited to have someone on his line that was good at carrying the puck and getting zone entries. I've discussed this before but with Cape Breton last season he had two wingers who were great at that in Maxim Lazarev and Evgeny Svechnikov. This year in Cape Breton he played alongside Massimo Carozza an undrafted overage player and Vasily Glotov, a seventh round pick by the Sabres who is in his rookie season in the QMJHL. Neither are bad players but they are a big step down from Lazarev and Svechnikov.
With the Armada he has played predominately with Yvan Mongo and Alexander Katerinakis. Neither of these players have been drafted and thus are relative unknowns. Doing some research on them, Mongo looks like a decent skater who is solid defensively. He’s a 1997 born player who was a second round pick by the Armada in 2013. He hasn’t produced much offensively but this season has been his best. Katerinakis is the more interesting player here. He’s a ’98 who was a first round pick in the 2014 QMJHL draft. He is a good skater with good hands who likes to dish the puck. He has 26 points on the season, 20 of which are assists. He has the second most assists on the team among forwards. He profiles as someone who fits very well alongside Dubois.
For the Blue Jackets seeing Dubois have success is a relief, but it’s not quite time to take the finger off the panic button. As much as we wrote off the slow start since it was just 20 games, we can’t say he is back because of six good games. He needs to continue to play at this level for the rest of the season and into the playoffs. The good news though is he’s playing well and looks to be back on track.
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