Pierre-Luc Dubois turned down HUGE contract offer in Columbus!

Over the weekend, we had one of the biggest hockey trades of the 2021 season as Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Keklainen sent forward Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Winnipeg Jets in return for Patrik Laine and Jack Roslovic. 

Despite signing a two-year, $10 million deal prior to the season, Dubois demanded to be moved out of Columbus and things escalated quickly from there. Keklainen revealed that he had different offers on the table for the disgruntled forward, one for two years, another for three and one more for eight years before agreeing to the first offer, two-year, $10 million that still didn’t incite Dubois to stick around. 

Now that the trade is done with, a lot more details are coming out on the unhealthy relationship between Dubois and the team that drafted him in third overall in 2016. And we found out on Tuesday, thanks to insider Elliotte Friedman and his 31 Thoughts podcast on Sportsnet, that the Jackets 8-year-long offer was one that would have paid him around $ 64 million in total, or an average value of $ 8 million a year. This contract would have made him the highest paid player in franchise history. 

And he still didn’t want any of it! We can understand that Dubois had his mind set on not pursing his career with the Blue Jackets. 

We still do not know the real reasons behind his desire to leave Columbus since Dubois did not want to reveal them publicly at the moment.

But clearly, money and commitment was not an issue from the team.