The first significant move of the 2023 NHL offseason has happened, as the Winnipeg Jets have traded Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Los Angles Kings. The full trade is the Jets will send Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Kings for forward Gabriel Vilardi, Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari, and a 2024 second-round pick. Pierre-Luc Dubois will also get an eight-year extension with an average annual value of $8.5 million. That makes this trade a sign and trade. Now this is a massive trade that will have significant impacts on both teams.
Impact on the Los Angles Kings
This moves signals that the Kings are in win-now mode. They’re ready to take a shot and try to make a deep run in the playoffs. Dubois is the perfect player to help them take that jump. Dubois had statistically the best year of his career last year. He scored 27 goals and 36 assists giving him 63 points. He will slot right into the top six for the Kings. It’s a toss-up between him and Anze Kopitar for the first-line center role, but regardless, the Kings top six just got a lot better. Their center group has become one of the best in hockey. When you have Dubois, Kopitar, and Phillip Danault as your three best centers, you will be hard-pressed to find a group better than that.
This also gives the Kings some insurance when it comes to their future at the first-line center. Kopitar is about to turn 36 years old. Meaning that he’s nearing the end of his career. The hope was that Quinton Byfield, who the Kings took second overall in the 2020 NHL draft, would slot in and take over when he retired. However, things haven’t gone the way the Kings had hoped they would. Injuries and underperformance have hampered Byfield in his young career. There were fears that Byfield might not be able to take that next step. However, Dubois gives them insurance in case Byfield doesn’t work out. Dubois is only 25 years only and with an eight-year extension, he should be in Los Angles for a long time.
Impact on the Winnipeg Jets
As I mentioned in my post about the changes coming to the Jets roster. Trading Pierre-Luc Dubois was inevitable. He had no interest in staying in Winnipeg and could get the Jets a huge return. It would be dumb not to trade him. The return the Jets got is definitely an interesting one.
The two headliners of this deal are Gabriel Vilardi and Rasmus Kupari. Both of them were first-round picks, and have shown a lot of upside. Vilarid has battled injuries throughout his career, which is the main reason he hasn’t made much of an impact in the NHL thus far. However last season he finally had his breakout season. He scored 23 goals and 18 assists for 41 points, all of which were career highs for him. Kupari has bounced back and forth between the NHL and AHL, and hasn’t put up great numbers in either, however, he’s only 23 years old and still has a ton of upside.
Alex Iafallo hasn’t done anything special throughout his career. He’s normally put up between 30-40 points per season. Not terrible, but not someone you want to build the franchise around. He also is one of the better defensive forwards in the league. He should slot very nicely into the middle six of the Jets lineup, jumping back and forth between the second and third lines. And of course, the second-round pick is a lottery ticket at this point in time.
It seems like the Jets are going with the first option I laid out in my Winnipeg Jets article. Trying to retool the roster in order to be competitive next season. Vilardi is going to make a major impact in the Jets’ top six. Iafallo will continue to be that solid piece, and Kupari has a lot of upside in the bottom six. Put these guys with the core the Jets have already assembled and the Jets roster is looking decent. They’re not Stanley Cup contenders by any stretch, but definitely, a team that can compete for a playoff spot.
Find more NHL content at Belly Up Sports and follow me on Twitter.
