Pierre Luc Dubois is among eight restricted free agents who received a qualifying offer from the Winnipeg Jets on Monday.
The other outstanding RFAs on that list included forwards Mason Appleton, Jansen Harkins and Kristian Vesalainen, as well as David Gustafsson and Jeff Malott, who spent most of last season with AHL Manitoba Moose.
Defenders Johnathan Kovacevic and Leon Gawanke, who were also Moose regulars, round out the list.
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Forward Evgeny Svechnikov and defenseman Markus Phillips are now unrestricted free agents after the Jets opted not to rate either player. Svechnikov played in a career-high 72 NHL games for Winnipeg during the 2021-22 season, scoring seven goals and adding 12 assists for 19 points while averaging 10:45 TOI (time on ice). .
By submitting qualifying offers, the Jets retain the right to match an offer sheet submitted to any of those eight players by a rival team, if they have not signed the contract offer by 11 am CT on Wednesday, July 13. That rarely happens, and the Jets will almost certainly match any offer sheet signed by Dubois, who is expected to receive $6 million if he accepts Winnipeg’s qualifying offer. He can also reject that offer and continue negotiating a new deal.
Dubois reportedly informed the Jets that he intends to test the market when he becomes an unrestricted free agent after the 2023-24 NHL season.
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Winnipeg general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff has not commented on whether he is looking to trade Dubois, saying only that his goal is to eventually sign the 24-year-old center to a long-term deal.
Dubois scored a career-high 28 goals last season, and his 60 points left him just one shy of his best point total from a previous year when he was 27-34-61 at the age of 20 in 2018. 19 when he was still with Colón.
Winnipeg reacquired Appleton from Seattle for a fourth-round pick in the 2023 draft just before the NHL’s March 21 trade deadline. The 26-year-old right winger, originally selected by the Jets in the sixth round in 2015, scored two goals. and added a pair of assists in the 19 games he played for Winnipeg after the trade. The Green Bay, Wisconsin native was paid $900,000 for his expiring contract.
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Harkins, who was paid a base salary of US$750,000 in 2021-22, went 7-6-13 in 77 games in what was his first full NHL season.
Vesalainen was the Jets’ first-round pick, 24th overall, in 2017. The 6-3, 207-pound left winger managed to score just two goals in 52 games in 2021-22 and finished the year with AHL Manitoba Moose. The 23-year-old Helsinki native signed a one-year deal with Malmo of the Swedish League, but by submitting a qualifying offer, the Jets will retain his services if Vesalainen returns to play in North America.
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