It didn’t work out that way. After a disappointing first season in Los Angeles, Dubois was traded to the Washington Capitals last week for goaltender Darcy Kuemper — two struggling players getting a fresh start in a new organization.
Dubois was on a plane when the trade went down, but once he processed the shock and surprise of his future moving across the country, his feelings quickly turned to excitement about the new opportunity.
“Everything that I heard was everything you want to hear from a coach,” Dubois said Wednesday. “The responsibility, the job that you’re going to have — everything like that — it sounds like it could be a perfect fit. It sounds like everybody is excited, including myself. My job now is to just get ready for training camp, be in the best shape possible and arrive there in the right mind-set, which I know I will.”
Washington will be the 26-year-old center’s fourth team in five years. Dubois began his career in Columbus but asked for a trade from the Blue Jackets after three seasons. He played two full years in Winnipeg after being traded there in January 2021, but when his contract was ending, he made it known that he would not sign a long-term deal with the Jets, leading to his trade to the Kings.
The trade to the Capitals was not one that Dubois was seeking. He appears to be, a week after the trade, at peace with that.
“Anything like this happens, I think any guy in the league will admit that there is an extra motivation behind it,” Dubois said. “You want to do well even more. It’s not like extra motivation was necessarily needed, but now that you have it, you can use it to your advantage. I plan on having the same good summer that I was already going to have. Now I’ve just got to plan a few trips to Washington here and there.
“You could look at it a lot of ways. For me, I choose to look at it that this is an exciting opportunity for me to go to a team that — talking to management, talking to coaches — [I’m] really excited to work with. I think in my career it’ll be a really good thing.”
Inconsistent motivation has been a knock against Dubois during his career; his final shift for the Blue Jackets featured such apparent uninterest that he was benched for the rest of the game and traded two days later. Dubois is no doubt aware that his track record isn’t sterling, and though he’s still on the front end of his career, he’s also entering his eighth year in the NHL this fall.
At his best, Dubois has flirted with being a 30-goal scorer — his career high is 28 in 81 games — and can be a physically imposing, two-way center capable of making an impact in all three zones. If he’s going to put it all together on a consistent basis, now is the time.
“I still feel very young,” Dubois said. “I still feel like I have a lot to learn in this league, and to be able to work with the new coaching staff, that will hopefully help me get to the next level and I’m just really excited. You know, when you get to a new team, there’s opportunities to learn stuff about yourself, not only on the ice but off the ice, too. … I think everybody will be able to help and push me in the right direction.”
A fresh start with the Capitals, who made their excitement about Dubois’ potential clear when they acquired him — coupled with the motivation of how things ended in Los Angeles — may be just the ticket for Dubois to reach his ceiling.
“When I learned about the trade, I was on the plane. The first call when I landed was the GM and, I mean, it was exactly what you want to hear as a player,” Dubois said. “How excited they are, how I can help in a lot of ways for this team, just add to the talent that’s already here and to the depth of the forward groups. As a player, that’s what you want, right? You want to feel like — you want to feel welcome. You want to feel like you’re a part of it.
“I’ve got to earn a lot of that, but just the conversations that I’ve had already, everything sounds really great. It’s going to be an exciting summer.”
