Reminder: Pierre-Luc Dubois is still only 22-years-old.
It's easy to forget that while it seems like Dubois has been a stapled forward and veteran for the Columbus Blue Jackets for years now he's only wrapping up his third season, and he's been stellar so far. The center from Quebec is the fastest player in franchise history to hit 100 points and even led his club in points this season.
Dubois has shown flashes of being an elite NHL center through dominant performances where he looks like a man amongst boys on the ice. His ability to bully opponents off the puck and wreak havoc in front of the net is nearly unmatched on his team and shows massive potential for his game, especially at such a young age.
Here is where the (slight) problem lies, though. Dubois has the ability to be this kind of dominant center, but there seem to be stretches of time where he disappears on the stat sheet and impact on the game in front of him.
I should be fair though. Finding consistently in one's game is an extremely hard task to do across the professional sports world. It sounds obvious, but it is one of the biggest separations of the good from great players in any league. And with Dubois, there are times where he will have five-game point streaks, and where he will have five-game pointless streaks.
Through 70 games this season, Dubois tallied a stat line of 18-31-49, but the manner in which these points were garnered was incredibly streaky, and it impacted his team's success greatly. In short, when Dubois was on, the Blue Jackets were winning. When he wasn't, well...
| Game Span | PLD Points | CBJ Record in Span |
|---|---|---|
| 1-25 (25 GP) | 25 | 11-10-4 |
| 26-32 (7 GP) | 2 | 1-4-2 |
| 33-55 (23 PG) | 22 | 18-2-3 |
| 56-66 (11 GP) | 4 | 1-5-5 |
| 67-70 (4 GP) | 3 | 2-1-1 |
This chart is to show the fluxuation of Dubois' consistency throughout the season, and the impact it has on his team's success. It's clear that when Dubois is streaky, so is his team. He is a point-per-game player in games his team has won (34 points in 33 games), has just five points in 22 regulation losses and ten points in the 15 games that went to extra time.
This growth into being a consistent impact, on and off the score sheet, is the next biggest hurdle in Dubois' career, and him finding this trait as we enter the qualifying rounds to the Stanley Cup playoffs would be ideal for his club.
