It sounds insane to say this because I would have jumped at this 1 year ago, but I would not do this deal.

I think Dubois will bounce back but the Kings are at a disadvantage because his NMC kicks in on July 1st. I am more worried about Dach getting injured again so that outweighs having Dubois IMO

I get what you're trying to to do here but Newhook looked like he belonged in a top 6 role at the end of the season. Was only a 10 game span but I think you have to hope for a healthy season from him and Dach next year and see where this team really is before you deal either

I struggled with keeping him, Anderson and Gallagher aren't going anywhere and Armia was back to his old self by seasons end and I needed cap to go out, so unfortunately that meant Newhook. If one of Anderson or Gallagher could have been included I would have kept Newhook.

If the Kings truly wanted to ship PLD out I could see us taking this from MTL. However I believe the potential upside to PLD greatly outweighs this offer, once the guy settles in and gets a decent pair of linemates he could do some serious damage for the Kings.

Plz keep PLD as far away from this team as possible

I agree but Doughty's comments about some players being "selfish" and Dubois selfish history suggests that there is a rift in the locker room

@Campabee I really really do not like this. I agree with @jonh514 , a lot can change in a year. You're paying full price for a huge risk, Newhook is more valuable than Dubois at this point.

I've looked at this option myself, and I think it's worth considering for the right price but I kept coming back to this one question:

Would I rather trade assets for Dubois @ $8.5M × 7 years or would I rather sign Monahan for 4 - 5 years @ $5M - $6M?

Even if Dubois bounces back, what does he bounce back to? He really hasnt been the elite players he's hyped as in 6 years... Josh Anderson scored 27 goals that year. It might have had more to do with Panarin than Dubois honestly. Monahan was arguably just as good of a Jet as Dubois ever was.

Obviously its speculation on who he was talking about in that interview and PLD is the obvious person to point the finger at but to be honest I think he was talking about Fiala more than PLD.

At this point I wouldnt be surprised to see them buy him out tbh.

Surprisingly low and with the cap going up, the 1,130mil gets smaller every year

Why?

Newhook is 3x cheaper and his next contract will also be cheaper than Dubois's. He was on pace for a 50pts season and is likely to progress a little.

Dvorak is gone in 11 months. We need to be careful with that space since Guhle and Slafkovksky will proably command significant pay jumps and we are stock with 13M deadwood with Gallagher and Anderson.

As for being "tougher" to play against, what part of Dubois's game fit that description since his time with colombus. He showed lazyness and poor comittment in huge stretches of games both in LA and WPG.

If we manage to have some flexibility in the next 2-3 years, I would target so many other players than him. Thats all without saying that even if he bounce back, I dont think this guy can handle the "being a star quebecer player in Montréal" type of pressure.

Its easy for guys like Danault, RHP, Monty because they are cheap, work hard and didnt or dont have hughe expectations. Its much more complicated when youre an offensive player with the obligation of putting up points every night.

It's low right now because he is younger than 26 years old, if he gets bought out it will only cost LA 1/3. This is there only chance to do this, he turns 26 this summer and then the cost will be 2/3. Interesting wrinkle that if the Stanley Cup Playoffs go the full distance it will force LA to miss the buyout window before he turns 26 on June 24th. I agree a buyout seems more likely than a trade at this point...

He was drafted by CBJ, it didn't work out for him there.
He was traded to WPG, it didn't work out there either.
He was traded to LA, and it's looking like a disaster.

He has disappointed everywhere he goes... maybe if he gets bought out he signs a cheaper deal, one that he could potentially live up to, but until then it's just way too much pressure for him in MTL.

Edit: If he did get bought out, a $5,619,048 × 7 yr contract would make him whole again. At that cap hit I think you could definitely take a chance on Dubois.

LA is already out of the playoffs so they wont miss the buyout window or can no team file for a buyout while the playoffs are ongoing? If that is the case then that isn't right, teams should be allowed to file buyouts or move the buyout period to after the playoffs and prior to FA.

Kings accept and expedite the paperwork.

Per Puckpedia, buyouts can't start until the later of June 15th or 48 hours after the cup final (which could go as late as June 24th this year). LA is able to buyout Dubois any time they want to after that, the only wrinkle is that Dubois' birthday is on June 24th and once he turns 26 years old the buyout is 2/3 instead of 1/3.

It has nothing to do with the buyout window, more about Dubois' birthday.

Ok that makes sense, was just a bit confused, thanks for the clarification