Patience is Key with PLD

Pierre Luc Dubois

Hopefully the fresh wounds of the Patrik Laine-Pierre-Luc-Dubois trade have been healing well enough for you. Personally it was difficult for me to hear that the Jets were shipping the young Finnish sniper to Columbus along with Jack Roslovic in exchange for Pierre-Luc Dubois and a third round draft pick in 2022. Flashbacks to the Selanne trade, and concerns about Winnipeg losing yet another young talent soon gave way to hockey logic. This one trade solved more problems than just Laine & Roslovic wanting out of Winnipeg and PLD needing to get out of Columbus. On the ice it addresses the Blue Jackets’ need for a top-tier goal scorer and for the Jets it helps solidify a previously weak centre position.

What Winnipeg gets with Dubois is a bonafide premier centre that is just entering the upswing of his career. He’s a good two-way player that’s excellent during 5-on-5. He drives possession and makes others around him better. His awareness, skating ability and agility are elite. Are you excited yet Jets fans?

The biggest questions now are who is he going to play with on his line and when is he going to hit the ice? It should be a no-brainer that PLD should slot in at his natural position, centre. However don’t be surprised if PoMo tries him out as a winger; he did mention that could be an option. But really, we traded for the guy to address a weakness right? So let’s plug him in there.

The PoMo special:
Connor – Scheifele – Wheeler
Stastny – Dubois – Ehlers
Copp – Lowry – Appleton
Perreault – Harkins – Lewis

Taking the centric approach:
Copp – Scheifele – Ehlers
Connor – Dubois – Wheeler
Perreault – Stastny – Appleton
Harkins – Lowry – Lewis

What do you think the lines will be when Dubois takes his first shift?
The second question is when is PLD going to make his Jets debut? It appears Tuesday, February 9th against the Calgary Flames will be his first Jets game. The Sunday prior would be the end of his quarantine period. This day can’t come soon enough for everyone!

FORWARD THINKING
When will we be seeing Ville Heinola back on the ice? The fans have been clamoring. A consistent puck-moving defenceman would be refreshing to see. However it doesn’t look like he’ll skate with the main roster any time soon because Paul Maurice prefers Logan Stanley’s size; and he’s been playing better than expected. And… Tucker Poolman might get the nod before Ville. Poolman who hasn’t played since the season opener due to COVID-19 protocol has been skating lately and building up his conditioning. If either of these youngins get a chance to start, who then would they be replacing? It would have to be between Logan Stanley and Nathan Beaulieu. Time will tell. Or maybe matchups will.

FAST FACTS
The Jets have 5 players averaging at least a point per game:
Mark Scheifele 10GP, 13pts(4G, 9A)
Nikolaj Ehlers 10GP, 12pts(6G, 6A)
Kyle Connor 10GP, 11pts(6G, 5A)
Blake Wheeler 10GP, 11pts(3G, 8A)
Andrew Copp 10GP, 10pts(4G, 6A)

NOTABLE QUOTABLE
“When he comes to the rink, he’s always going to work as hard as he can and I think it was always good. There’s always frustrations going on, but I don’t think we ever fought or had that big of an argument. I think it was always really, really good, really professional. He always tried to help the young guys and obviously he did that for me as a young guy.” – Patrik Laine on his relationship with Blake Wheeler