“I love the challenge. Hopefully he comes here and it allows him to be very, very productive.”

The Washington Capitals caused one of the biggest shocks of the 2024 NHL offseason when they completed a one-for-one trade with the Los Angeles Kings, trading goaltender Darcy Kuemper for forward Pierre-Luc Dubois.

The 26-year-old center put up a disappointing 40-point performance for the Kings after the team signed him in a sign-and-trade deal with the Winnipeg Jets for eight years and $68 million almost exactly a year ago. Dubois has seven years and $59.5 million left on his contract, which the Capitals will now have to pay.

The lack of production in LA reinforced Dubois’ bad reputation around the league as a player who was difficult to work with, especially given the way his time with the Jets and Columbus Blue Jackets ended. But despite that history, the Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery sees no warning signs. He sees in Dubois a unique opportunity to bring a former elite player back to his previous level.

“I love the challenge and that’s my job,” Carbery said after development camp on Saturday. “When we sign players who have been very, very productive and have a ton of potential and have shown that potential, that’s coaching. That’s what I like to do. Hopefully he comes here, the environment, the team, the coaching staff will allow him to be very, very productive and reach the potential that everyone has seen.”

Carbery has already shown he has what it takes to energize a challenging, underperforming player. Last season, Carbery helped Anthony Mantha have his most productive season with the Capitals. After failing under Peter Laviolette, Mantha scored 20 goals under Carbery for the first time since the 2018-19 season with the Detroit Red Wings. Carbery’s trust and leadership for the big winger earned the Capitals a 2024 second-round pick and a 2026 fourth-round pick when the team traded Mantha to the Vegas Golden Knights at the trade deadline.

“My initial conversations with (Dubois) were great,” Carbery said. “And I’m not going to focus on the stuff in LA, last year, this, that, you’re playing behind (Anze) Kopitar and (Phillip) Danault. To me, he’s coming into a situation where we have a lot of opportunities that he can take advantage of and seize. And we’re going to work with him every day to get the best out of him.”

Those two Selke Trophy-caliber centers played most of the first six minutes for LA, leaving Dubois with lesser wingers. Dubois also played on the wing at times.

Pierre-Luc Dubois is expected to move to the left wing today.#GoKingsGo https://t.co/rXlWBBYreB

— CapFriendly Depth Charts (@CF_DepthCharts) January 20, 2024

Despite these circumstances, LA was the dominant team with Dubois. In just over 1,061 five-on-five minutes with Dubois on the ice, the Kings had 53.3 percent of shot attempts, 54.5 percent of expected goals, 54.2 percent of scoring chances and 51.9 percent of high-danger chances.

The Capitals likely already have Dubois slated to play center on one of the team’s top lines, and given his penchant for playing with Russians and the current makeup of the rest of the roster, he should have every chance in the world to be Alex Ovechkin’s center next year.

Dubois is excited to sign the NHL’s top scorer, and Ovechkin agreed to the deal immediately after the team made the move in late June.

“Yeah, we’ll look at that,” Carbery said. “We’ll look at that. But I don’t think it’s fair to say that Pierre-Luc coming in now is going to take on the responsibility of building (Ovechkin). He’s a big body, can control the game, can skate and has shown throughout his career that he can be productive in the middle, from point production to starting in his defensive zone, moving the puck, finishing in the offensive zone. A lot of different things that you could say build O, but it’s just going to help us play at a higher level and have the puck more.”

Dubois played an important role for Team Canada at the recent 2024 World Championship in the Czech Republic. In 10 games, Dubois scored nine points (4 goals, 5 assists) and his performance was evenly distributed across those 10 games.

Furthermore, no player has scored more than 75 points for the defense-minded Kings in the last six seasons, and in the last 12 seasons, only Kopitar has scored more than 75 points. He’s done it exactly once. For comparison, a Capitals player has scored more than 75 points 11 times in the same time period. Washington may simply be a better fit for a player like Dubois, especially given the ice time available.

“The power play is probably going to be the one we’re going to pay the most attention to, it looks like,” Carbery said. “Do we have Stromer, Dubois, a bunch of lefties there? So that’s going to change — I bet if you look at it before camp, that’s going to change during these tryouts. And we’re really going to try to get a good feel for what our special teams, especially the power play, looks like. I’m trying to get some continuity there during camp in terms of power play and shorthanded.”

Dubois and Carbery will have the opportunity to meet in person for the first time when the Capitals reconvene for training camp in September. Dubois has previously said he hopes to be in the area before then so he can be settled in and ready for what could be the most important preseason of his career.