Pierre-Luc Dubois comes up with embarrassing excuses for horrible performance with the LA Kings last season
Pierre-Luc Dubois signed a massive eight-year $68 million contract with the LA Kings last year, but was traded to the Washington Capitals for Darcy Kuemper just one year in.
The trade came amid buyout rumours, despite Dubois still being owed just under $60 million. He was relegated to the LA Kings' bottom-six for the majority of the season, and truly could just not get things going.
Now a member of the Washington Capitals, he has come forward about what he thinks went wrong in Los Angeles, deflecting the blame on head coach Todd McLellan's lack of system and relationship with him. In a new interview with LaPresse (translated from French), Dubois said the following:
"Take it as you will but, I've always needed clear direction to be able to work at 100%.
I get confused when there are grey areas. I ask myself too many questions. It's something I've been working on since I was young. And, from my very first conversations with the team, I didn't really know what was expected of me. I didn't know where I fit in. You can't play well when you're asking yourself too many questions.
We didn't talk very often," said Dubois of Kings head coach Todd McLellan. "Todd is more of a team tactician. Maybe we didn't have that kind of relationship. Maybe it was me that was too demanding, wanting the path forward explained to me. It is obviously my fault that it didn't work.
I tried to live up to the challenge, but I was stuck in a gray area the whole year. I didn't feel at home. My teammates helped and I wanted to break through, but it just wasn't working."
I get confused when there are grey areas. I ask myself too many questions. It's something I've been working on since I was young. And, from my very first conversations with the team, I didn't really know what was expected of me. I didn't know where I fit in. You can't play well when you're asking yourself too many questions.
We didn't talk very often," said Dubois of Kings head coach Todd McLellan. "Todd is more of a team tactician. Maybe we didn't have that kind of relationship. Maybe it was me that was too demanding, wanting the path forward explained to me. It is obviously my fault that it didn't work.
I tried to live up to the challenge, but I was stuck in a gray area the whole year. I didn't feel at home. My teammates helped and I wanted to break through, but it just wasn't working."
We will see if he is correct in his assessment of the LA Kings and Todd McLennan, but is is clear that GM Rob Blake knew he needed to get Pierre-Luc Dubois off his team by any means necessary.
With Dubois' track record being less than great, requesting trades from the Columbus Blue Jackets, who drafted him third overall in 2016, and then from the Winnipeg Jets last year, he is now on his fourth team at only 26 years old. At what point will the accountability shift onto him?
Credit HockeyFeed:
Pierre-Luc Dubois makes excuses for poor performance in L.A.
Pierre-Luc Dubois makes excuses for poor performance in L.A.
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