By now, you should know the drill: If there’s a high-end center that’s on the trade block or entering the market, there will be a natural connection — or, at the very least, linking by way of curiosity and speculation — to Don Sweeney and the Bruins.

This is the ‘hole’ the Bruins have dug themselves through a mix of drafting elsewhere (or not at all thanks to their never-ending trading of top-64 picks) and relying on Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci to keep the ship afloat for the last decade plus.

That market added a new name this past weekend, with growing word that the Jets’ Pierre-Luc Dubois is not long for Winnipeg and that a split could be on the horizon.

• “A year ago, Winnipeg Jets forward Pierre-Luc Dubois, through his agent Pat Brisson, informed the Jets that he didn’t intend to sign long term,” NHL insider Pierre LeBrun said on the latest edition of TSN’s Insider Trading. “He’s not eligible to become an unrestricted free agent until next summer in 2024, but our understanding is that Brisson informed the Jets that his client isn’t inclined to sign an extension this summer, not even a one-year bridge.

  “Brisson would like to work with the Jets on a trade for Dubois to another team. That’s where that’s at right now and the Jets can still decide to keep him for another year, try to bring him to arbitration, or trade him at the trade deadline. Bottom line is, this looks like it’s headed to a trade, potentially this summer.”

  That, with Dubois staring down restricted free agency this summer and after a career-best 63 points in 2022-23, is certainly something.

• 

  ST PAUL, MN – OCTOBER 19: Pierre-Luc Dubois #80 of the Jets celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal during the third period against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center on October 19, 2021 in St Paul, Minnesota. (Harrison Barden/Getty Images)

• Given the Bruins’ issues down the middle, their interest in Dubois should be an obvious no-brainer. Beggars truly can’t be choosers when it comes to a young, high-end center like Dubois. Even with the Black and Gold’s obvious issues when it comes to icing a cap-compliant roster in 2023-24, calling the Jets and asking around absolutely has to be on Sweeney’s list when he sits down and digs in on the nitty gritty of his 2023 offseason.

  But Dubois also seems like a player who, on the surface, is worth it for the Bruins.

  The No. 3 overall pick from the 2016 NHL Draft, Dubois turns 25 later this month. Barring something catastrophic, his best days are still very much ahead of him. He’s also coming off what was his fourth season of at least 20 goals (he scored 27 for the Jets this past season) and his third 60-point season behind the aforementioned career-best 63.

  Physically speaking, Dubois checks the boxes for the Bruins as a 6-foot-4, 214-pound pivot with a knack for the nastiness. He’s recorded at least 110 hits in three of his six NHL seasons, and Dubois can often be seen driving towards the net and even taking it off its moorings with his determination for such goals.

  Dubois has also shown some much-needed growth at the faceoff dot, with a career-best 48.9 percent success rate this past season, and a postseason effort that saw him win 52 of his 89 faceoffs (58.4 percent) in Winnipeg’s five-game series with the Golden Knights.

  On a top-10 possession team in the Jets, Dubois also ranked second in on-ice corsi-for percentage, second in on-ice shots-for percentage, second in high-danger chances for-percentage, and first in on-ice goals-for percentage among the six Winnipeg forwards with at least 700 minutes of five-on-five play to their name this past season.

  Unless you’re really digging, Dubois is a fit almost across the board.

• 

  WINNIPEG, CANADA – APRIL 24: Pierre-Luc Dubois #80 of the Winnipeg Jets prepares to face off against Jack Eichel #9 of the Vegas Golden Knights in the second period of Game 4 of the First Round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs on April 24, 2023 at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. (Jason Halstead/Getty Images)

• But as you would suspect, a natural fit with this kind of upside comes at a cost. And it’s real high.

  If and when the Jets move on from a player of this caliber, they’re going to want something that will help them now or in the future. Probably even both, to be honest. That’s roster players, that’s prospects, and that’s high draft picks.

  The Bruins know they’re going to have to move roster pieces to get under the cap as is, so that’s not really a gigantic obstacle or non-starter for the club. But the B’s prospect pool is a bit barren, and the Bruins essentially raided their own draft pick cupboard with their last two deadlines. The Bruins are without a first-round pick for the next two seasons (the first they traded to Detroit in the Tyler Bertuzzi is top-10 protected, so they are technically without a first-round selection until 2025), and they don’t have a second-round pick until 2026.

  To get Dubois to Boston, the Bruins would almost certainly need to pull off an old fashioned hockey trade. That’s perhaps overdue on the surface given the way this team has struggled in the playoffs, but getting some of your higher-priced players (a must in this deal), who naturally tend to have some form of trade protection with a no-movement clause or modified no-trade, to accept a trade to Winnipeg could be tricky depending on that player’s list.

  The Bruins would also need to sign Dubois to a contract for the upcoming season, which, with $4.9 million in cap space and just 13 skaters signed for 2023-24, is going to be its own nightmare.

  Especially based on what Dubois is seeking on his next contract, according to the latest reporting.

• Pierre-Luc Dubois is seeking a contract in the $9M AAV range according to a Basu and Godin article in The Athletic.

  — NHL Watcher (@NHL_Watcher) June 9, 2023

• Whether or not Dubois is worth $9 million per year is its own debate. With the way the cap is expected to explode in the coming years (there’s been talk of the cap hitting the low to mid 90s in a year or two), that’s not the nightmare kind of pricepoint it would’ve been two years ago. But barring some seriously harsh cost-cutting measures from the Bruins, it’s a problem for the Bruins in 2023 with their cap space situation.

  There’s also the question as to whether or not Dubois would want to be here.

  Dubois has been in the league for six years now, and this is his second time wanting out of his current city. Dubois forced his way out of Columbus, and has now by all means delivered a trade demand to the Jets’ front office. Even with his father, Eric Dubois, working for the Winnipeg organization and in the city as an assistant coach with the Manitoba Moose. To say that Dubois has a trouble being happy where he is isn’t exactly an outlandish claim.

  There’s also been talk of Dubois wanting to play for his hometown Canadiens. That’s not from underground sources and rumblings, but rather his own agent, which is borderline unheard of in today’s game.

  “Montreal is a city he would probably … I can talk about it because he doesn’t have a contract at the moment – he’s a restricted free agent,” Brisson, whose Bruins clients are Mike Reilly and prospect Brett Harrison, told TVA Sports in last year. “Montreal is a place, a city he’d like to play in. That’s all I can say about that.”

  If that’s how Dubois feels, imagine how he’d feel about being traded to Boston instead? It could very well be what happened in Columbus or Winnipeg all over again. Especially if he came to town on a one-year contract agreement. That’d be a ‘can’t happen’ kind of situation for Sweeney and the Bruins, even as a center-needy franchise.

  But the Bruins have always been confident in what playing for their team has meant to the players they’ve brought in. Taylor Hall was considered an unhappy soldier in many respects, but he came to Boston, bought in, and made a home here. Defenseman Hampus Lindholm borderline engineered a trade-and-extension with the Bruins at the 2022 deadline. The Bruins also took a one-year flier on Pavel Zacha after years of stop-and-start development with the Devils, and Zacha signed a long-term deal with the club just months later.

  The Bruins also re-upped David Pastrnak on the richest contract in team history, and with the Bruins openly acknowledging that they had hopes that the allure of centering Pastrnak would attract high-end talent to town.

  Just consider Dubois another option on that front.

• 

  WINNIPEG, CANADA – APRIL 24: Pierre-Luc Dubois #80 of the Winnipeg Jets has words with Jack Eichel #9 of the Vegas Golden Knights in the second period of Game Four of the First Round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs on April 24, 2023 at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. (Jason Halstead/Getty Images)

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