Jets have no leverage, but should have plenty of options with Pierre-Luc Dubois

Pierre-Luc Dubois seems to have put the Winnipeg Jets in a bind.

The team's top centre in 2022-23 reportedly has no interest in playing for the team next season, preferring to work with the Jets on a trade out of town.

That leaves Winnipeg in a position where it essentially has to move Dubois — a restricted free agent coming off a one-year $6 million bridge deal.

Trying to keep the unhappy centre seems futile. The Columbus Blue Jackets found out how willing he is to check out mentally back in 2021, when he put in a poor shift for the ages, got benched, and never played for the team again.

On the surface, attempting to trade him might seem like a headache, too. Dubois is looking to force himself out of his second city in two years and doesn't have a contract in hand. Any team acquiring the restricted free agent would have to sort out an extension or be willing to go all-in on a rental.

The elephant in the room is that he seems to prefer landing with his hometown Montreal Canadiens. That could scare some suitors off as they question whether he'll be happy with them or a long-term contract in Montreal is the only deal he really wants.

All of that context seems to paint the Jets into a corner. If they are stuck negotiating from a position of weakness with primarily one team, it's tough to envision a positive outcome for them.

Winnipeg taking an 'L' on this isn't a foregone conclusion, though.

Dubois is the type of player that rarely becomes available. He's a 24-year-old top-line centre with prototypical size and three seasons with 60 or more points under his belt. This is the type of guy teams generally hand rich extensions to.

Neither Columbus nor Winnipeg has been able to, but there will be more teams than just the Canadiens imagining how Dubois could serve as a franchise building block. If Montreal were the only team the Jets could trade with, they might be in trouble, but that's simply not the case.

Dubois may prefer the Canadiens, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't accept a landing spot elsewhere.

If a team like the Colorado Avalanche came calling in hopes that Dubois could be the centre the team has needed behind Nathan MacKinnon since Nazem Kadri left, that might appeal to the 24-year-old. If a squad in a desirable market with cap room opening up in the next few years — like the Los Angeles Kings — reached out, a hard "no" might not be in the cards.

Even if the centre's end game is signing in Montreal, they may be a creative ways to accomplish that goal which wouldn't involve forcing a trade there.

The Jets could move Dubois to a team that he wants to ink a two-year deal with in the Vladislav Gavrikov mold. He could spend two years helping a contender, then hit the free agent market before his age-27 season. The cap projects to be much higher in 2025-26 than it is now, Dubois will still be a prime age to land a lucrative deal, and the Canadiens should be far closer to competing for a Stanley Cup.

Waiting for the Canadiens to go through some growing pains in 2023-24 and 2024-25 might be beneficial for the centre's bottom line. He might also get more satisfaction from competing for a title in the interim and Montreal's rebuilding effort would benefit from not having to move assets for him.

Dubois is an appealing enough piece that multiple teams should be in the mix for his services even if it involves thinking outside the box on his next contract — or simply blowing him away with an offer he feels like he can't refuse. As long as that's the case, concerns about leverage fade away.

The Jets may feel like they have to trade him, but other teams can't exploit that if they have to compete with each other to land the centre.

If Dubois will only accept a trade to Montreal, Winnipeg will have a hard time getting good value for him, but there's no reason to believe that's the case. As long as it's not, Winnipeg should be able to get a solid package for the type of player who is not easy to acquire on the trade market.