Pierre-Luc Dubois was a revelation a year ago.
You know the story by now: the Blue Jackets were thin at center. They were banged up. They had guys under-performing. And they had a superstar winger who needed to find his go-to centerman.
Not even John Tortorella could have foreseen it being a teenager to save the day.
Dubois made Blue Jackets management look pretty darn smart by picking him third overall in 2016, despite what some of the post-draft analysis would have had you believe. He stepped right into the NHL after his second training camp and before long was centering the No. 1 line with Artemi Panarin and Cam Atkinson, anchoring a trio that would lead the Blue Jackets to their second straight playoff berth.
And if you thought Dubois' second-half surge would have him comfortable or content entering this year's camp, well, you'd be mistaken.
He hit the gym hard this summer, bulking up and adding muscle to a frame that was already one of his strongest attributes; Dubois is a big kid, built to protect the puck and impose his will in areas that don't always pop off the screen – puck battles, small areas and along the boards where little plays pay dividends.
Year 2 has a habit of tripping up young players and Dubois doesn't want to fall into that category.
"Last year, I was happy about how I finished the season," he said during camp this week. "But now this year, I want to take another step. That's what I think I did last year, but now I want to take an even bigger step, more responsibilities, improve on face-offs and stuff like that."
Dubois finished the 2017-18 season with 20 goals and 48 points, and the majority of his offense came in the second half of the season when the Blue Jackets – and their No. 1 line in particular – weren't sneaking up on anyone.
Despite being high on the opposition's list of players to keep an eye on, Dubois kept getting better and better. At one point late in the season, Tortorella said he didn't even consider Dubois a rookie anymore because of how well he'd played and had naturally assumed the responsibility of being a top player.
He wasn't just riding shotgun with Panarin and Atkinson. Dubois was a playmaker and a space maker, generating offense in his own right but also making sure his line mates had all the room they needed when they had the puck. That "earned respect" from opponents meant Dubois had arrived.
"(With Atkinson and Panarin) I was playing against top pairings and top lines on the other team," Dubois said. "I think teams, after one game (or the) second game we played against them, they remembered me."
Less than a week into training camp, it's unfair to evaluate or single out individual performances, but Dubois was one of the players who caught your attention in Monday's preseason opener at Nationwide Arena.
On a line with Anthony Duclair and Sonny Milano, Dubois looked sharp, strong and fast. It wasn't a memorable game for either side (the early exhibition games are rarely entertaining), but when Dubois was on the ice, you knew it. He was around the net with the puck and controlled the boards, with one highlight being a complete steamroll of a Sabres player in the high slot. And he made it look easy.
The Blue Jackets have high expectations these days. They're considered a playoff team before the season begins – a far cry from a different era of hockey in Columbus – but they need their stars to start the season on time.
From the looks of things, Dubois' summer work is setting the table for him to hit the ground (ice?) running in October.
