Pierre-Luc Dubois is still an RFA.
With training camps likely to begin in late December/early January, the clock is ticking. However, Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekäläinen isn't worried about Dubois missing any part of training camp or the season.
"No, I wouldn't be worried at all.These things take time," said Kekäläinen yesterday on The Power Play.
Jarmo Kekalainen on #CBJ RFA Pierre-Luc Dubois@BlueJacketsNHL GM was on The Power Play today with @stevekouleas and @expomick @BlueJacketsPR
— SiriusXM NHL Network Radio (@SiriusXMNHL) December 11, 2020
: https://t.co/TBsGg5uF9f pic.twitter.com/qadWdknbKB
He continued: "I'm confident that we'll have Pierre-Luc Dubois under contract before the first day of training camp...we've always had a good relationship with Pat Brisson (Dubois' agent) and his company. We've had good negotiations with previous players that (have) had their contract up like Zach Werenski last year. We got it done just before training camp. (Werenski is a) huge part of our team, as is Pierre-Luc Dubois, so I'm confident things will get done."
As of now, the NHL hasn't released a definite schedule leading up to the 2020-21 season. It has been widely reported that they're targeting a start date of January 13th, and the start of training camp would likely fall about two weeks before that date. If the 13th is confirmed as the start of the season, Kekäläinen and co. have roughly 2 weeks to come to an agreement with Dubois before Dubois will start to miss training camp.
