Pierre Luc Dubois is among eight banned free agents to have received a qualifying offer Winnipeg Jets monday.
Other pending RFA forwards on that list included Mason Appleton, Jenson Harkins and Kristian Veselenen, as well as David Gustafsson and Jeff Malott who spent most of this past season with the AHL Manitoba Moose.
Defense personnel Jonathan Kovacevic and Leon Gawanke, who were also Moose regulars, dropped out of the list.
Forward Evgeny Svechnikov and defenseman Marcus Phillips are now unrestricted free agents as the Jets have opted not to qualify any players. Svechnikov scored seven goals in a career-high 72 NHL games for Winnipeg during the 2021–22 season and added 12 assists for 19 points during an average of 10:45 TOI (time on ice).
By submitting a qualifying offer, the Jets retain the right to match an offer sheet made to any of those eight players by a rival team – if they have not signed the contract offer by 11 a.m. on Wednesday, July 13. This rarely happens, and the Jets will be almost certain to match any offer letter signed by Dubois, who is expected to receive US$6 million if Winnipeg accepts a qualifying offer. He can also decline that offer and continue negotiating a new deal.
Dubois has reportedly informed the Jets that he intends to test the market when he becomes an unrestricted free agent after the 2023–24 NHL season.
Winnipeg general manager Kevin Sheveldoff has not commented on whether he wants to trade Dubois, saying only that his goal is to eventually sign the 24-year-old center to a long-term contract.
Dubois scored a career-high 28 goals this past season, and his 60 points leave him just shy of his previous best singles year total, when he had a 27-34-year-old in 2018-19 at age 20. was 61 while he was still with Columbus.
Winnipeg reacquired Appleton from Seattle for a 2023 fourth-round draft pick just before the NHL trading deadline on March 21. The 26-year-old right winger, who was originally drafted by the Jets in the sixth round in 2015, scored two goals. and a pair of assists in 19 games he played for Winnipeg after the trade. The Green Bay, Wisconsin native was paid US$900,000 upon the expiration of his contract.
Harkins, who was paid a base salary of US$750,000 in 2021–22, scored a total of 7-6-13 in 77 games, his first full NHL season.
Veslainen was the Jets’ first round pick in 2017, 24th overall. The 6-3, 207-pound left winger managed to score just two goals in 52 games in 2021-22 and finished the year with the AHL Manitoba Moose. The 23-year-old Helsinki native has signed a one-year deal with Swedish league’s Malmö, but by submitting a qualification offer, the Jets will retain his services if Vslainen returns to play in North America.
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.