Talking about expectations with Pierre-Luc Dubois is understandable.
He's a lottery pick and the crown jewel of the Columbus Blue Jackets' prospect pipeline. It has also been known since this past summer that Dubois had a clear pathway to play for the Blue Jackets.
Columbus lost a top-nine player in center William Karlsson to the Vegas Golden Knights, and because of that, it was expected that Dubois was going to be the person to fill that spot.
Dubois hasn't been playing the pivot as much as one would hope, and they may still need him to, but thus far his numbers say they don't need him to.
Through 16 games, Dubois has a modest four points. Three of those points have come in the past four games, including a stellar goal against the Nashville Predators on Tuesday.
"It's such a nice goal," said head coach John Tortorella. "But what I liked was his acceleration because I thought he was gonna get caught. But that's a pretty good goal. I wish it stood for something tonight."
The goal may not have "stood" for anything, but it's plain as day what his play is saying. Dubois is on his way to being a key member of the Blue Jackets.
Dubois has been a force on the shot differential front; there's only one player ahead of him in 5-on-5 CF% for players with more than 10 games played, and it's Zach Werenski. Not only is that elite company, it's league-best territory. These aren't just a game or two in which he's dominant at even strength – this is an ongoing trend showing that the Blue Jackets shoot the puck more when he is on the ice.
Oh, and to add to that? Dubois is near the bottom of the team in PDO at 96. That means one of two things: either his shooting luck or save luck is going to come back up and normalize at some point. Given his fantastic shot differential numbers, that should happen sooner rather than later.
A year after trusting young players like Werenski and Alexander Wennberg with the keys to the team, Tortorella is having a more difficult time doing so with Dubois, Sonny Milano, and Markus Hannikainen. Dubois has been able to differentiate himself due to his relentless forecheck and finding himself more often than not in the right position.
Just take his assist to Werenski in Saturday's game against the Lightning. His work on the boards got the puck back and he was able to feed it to a wide-open Werenski for a sublime goal.
Similarly, this opportunity before the end of the second period against the Predators was another example why Dubois development is quickly becoming a coach's dream.
He wouldn't have received an assist, but this grade-A opportunity should be fully credited to his work below the goal line.
Like any young player, Dubois will have his games where he makes a bone-headed decision but that shouldn't change what the Blue Jackets have already seen. He's an offensively-skilled player that pushes play in their favor.
Now, they need to use him as such.
