Pierre-Luc Dubois wants to leave Columbus Blue Jackets, said coach John Tortorella on Wednesday.
“Yes, he wants to leave,” Tortorella told “Rothman and Ice” in 97.1 The Fan in Columbus. “He spoke to the team, as we do here. It is a little different from [Artemi Panarin] and [Sergei Bobrovsky] They were. This is a 22 year old boy. It doesn’t happen often, so he was honest with the group. I would like him to be a little more honest about the reasons. I still don’t understand it, but I think he needs to talk about it. I will not. ”
The Blue Jackets open their season at the Nashville Predators on Thursday (8 pm ET; FS-TN, FS-O, NHL.TV).
Dubois, a center that was a restricted free agent, signed a two-year, $ 10 million ($ 5 million annual average) contract with Columbus on December 31. Athletic reported that Dubois “may be looking for a change of scenery”, but he did not confirm this when he went to the training camp.
“[Dubois] had a good camp, but it’s a short rein for me in that regard, “said Tortorella.” He needs to continue to do things to help this team win and be the best teammate he can be, or I’m not sure where he is going. It is a situation, and we will deal with it day after day. ”
When the Blue Jackets opened the training camp on January 3, Tortorella said Columbus would deal with Dubois the same way he did when Panarin and Bobrovsky were in the last season of their respective contracts in 2018-19. Panarin signed a seven-year contract with the New York Rangers, and Bobrovsky signed a seven-year contract with the Florida Panthers, each on July 1, 2019.
General manager Jarmo Kekalainen did not say whether the Blue Jackets would replace Dubois, who led Columbus with 49 points (18 goals, 31 assists) in 70 games last season. When Tortorella was asked about the technical-player relationship, he said he did not know how Dubois felt, although he acknowledged that he had had some conflict with choice number 3 in the 2016 NHL Draft since making his NHL debut in the 2017-18 season. .
“I see the conflict differently … everyone is all excited about the discussions and this and that, what happened in court,” said Tortorella. “I think it’s so healthy because then I think you have the two guys in the middle of it being honest with each other. And I think this is a very good thing in the development of a hockey player.
“Now, ‘Luc’ may not think so. Sometimes these players, especially today’s athletes, think, ‘You are too hard on me, you are messing with me’ and this and that. Maybe it will be very difficult for him. “I don’t know. I wasn’t given a reason to leave. He certainly didn’t tell me, ‘I don’t want to play for you.’
“I think if that’s the reason he should tell me, and he really should basically get in front and get out of here. That’s how I think you should be doing business with these things here. It doesn’t make sense for people to try to find out what’s going on. Let’s start here and take care of our business and try to be the best team we can be. ”
Dubois led the Blue Jackets with 10 points (four goals, six assists) in 10 games of the Stanley Cup Playoff last season, which ended with a five-game loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the First Round of the Eastern Conference. He scored 158 points (65 goals, 93 assists) in 234 regular season games and 19 points (eight goals, 11 assists) in 26 playoff games.
“It is very difficult for me when a guy does not want to be here so young and with the amount of time we dedicate to him to try to develop it and is just trying to go,” said Tortorella. “It is difficult for me. I am not sure where this will happen to me over the course of the season, I will be very honest with you, because I want to spend my time developing the people who want to be here, but I still have to train the hockey team to be the best possible. ”