Columbus Blue Jackets – Pierre-Luc Dubois
The Columbus Blue Jackets are a young team, so they had a number of options here. Oliver Bjorkstrand is certainly someone to keep an eye on because he can shoot and score goals, which is always a nice skill set to have. However, Pierre-Luc Dubois will be in a great position to succeed and should push for 50 or more points next season.
At the age of 19, he put up 20 goals and 28 assists for 48 points in his first NHL season. Down the stretch, Dubois became one of head coach John Tortorella’s most trusted forwards, which says a lot because he’s usually slow to trust younger players. He finished last season with the 10th best points per game ratio (0.59) among rookies (minimum 50 games played).
Additionally, Dubois had excellent underlying numbers. The Blue Jackets were a great team who dominated possession and, of their forwards with at least 500 minutes at five-on-five, only Artemi Panarin had a higher relative CorsiFor percentage. Dubois was also an important member of their second power-play unit and should see more time on the man advantage this season.
Another reason to be excited about him is he’ll likely continue to get playing time with Panarin (assuming the bread man isn’t traded). One reason players can suffer a sophomore slump is because they aren’t put into ideal situations. However, it’s hard not to be excited about what Dubois could do in 2018-19.