Pierre-Luc Dubois wants to leave the Columbus Blue Jackets, coach John Tortorella said Wednesday.
“Yes, he wants to leave,” Tortorella told “Rothman and Ice” on 97.1 The Fan in Columbus. “He spoke to the team, as we do here. It’s a little bit different from that [Artemi Panarin] and [Sergei Bobrovsky] goods. This is a 22 year old boy. It doesn’t happen that often so he’s been honest with the group. I wish he were a little more honest about the reasons why. I still haven’t really gotten to that, but I think he should talk about it. I will not. ”
The Blue Jackets open their season on the Nashville Predators on Thursday (8:00 PM ET; FS-TN, FS-O, NHL.TV).
Dubois, a center that was a limited free agent, signed a two-year $ 10 million (mean annual value $ 5 million) contract with Columbus on December 31. The Athletic reported that Dubois “may be looking for a change of scenery,” but he did not confirm that when he reported to the training camp.
“[Dubois] has had a good camp, but it’s a short line with me in this regard, ‘said Tortorella. He has to keep doing the things to help this team win and be the best teammate he can be, or I’m not sure where it’s going. It’s a situation, and we’ll go to it every day. ”
When the Blue Jackets opened training camp on Jan. 3, Tortorella said Columbus would treat Dubois the same way he did when Panarin and Bobrovsky were in the final season of their respective contracts in 2018/19. Panarin signed a seven-year deal with the New York Rangers and Bobrovsky signed a seven-year deal with the Florida Panthers, each on July 1, 2019.
General manager Jarmo Kekalainen did not say whether the Blue Jackets would trade Dubois, who led Columbus last season with 49 points (18 goals, 31 assists) in 70 games. When asked about the coach-player relationship, Tortorella said he didn’t know how Dubois was feeling, while acknowledging that he had been at odds with the No. 3 pick in the 2016 NHL Draft since making his NHL debut in the NHL Draft. 2017/18. season.
“I look at conflict in a different way … everyone gets all excited about arguments and this and that, what happened in the bench,” Tortorella said. “I think it’s so healthy because then I think the two individuals are in the thick of it to be honest with each other. And I think that’s really good in developing a hockey player.
Now ‘Luc’ may not think that. Sometimes these players, especially the athletes of today, think, ‘you’re too hard on me, you’re picking me up’, and this and that. Maybe it’s too hard for him. I know I haven’t been given a reason why he wants to leave. He certainly hasn’t said it to me, “I don’t want to play for you.”
“I think if that’s the reason he should tell me, and he should actually stand for it and get out of here. That’s exactly the way I think you should do business with this stuff here There’s no point in people trying to find out what’s going on. Let’s go ahead and discuss our business and try to be the best team we can be. ”
Dubois led the Blue Jackets by 10 points (four goals, six assists) in 10 Stanley Cup Playoff games last season, which ended with a five-game loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference First Round. 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’s very difficult for me when a guy doesn’t want to be here at such a young age and the amount of time we’ve put into trying to develop him and he just wants to leave,” said Tortorella. “It’s hard for me. I’m not sure where it will go with me as the season goes on, I’ll be very honest with you because I want to spend my time developing the people who want to be here, but I to coach the hockey team to be as good as possible. ”