It absolutely won't happen. PLD, Brisson, Chevy, Hughes, Blake or literally anybody with half a brain knows this - which is why that statement was absolutely idiotic. Going public only makes it less likely that you get the trade and the contract that you wish for.
Also, I find that theory highly unlikely. If anything, stating that there are five other teams is his feeble attempt of getting Montreal to outbid "the rest" - obviously to the benefit of the Jets, but most importantly himself and his next contract too. If he had wanted to help the Jets, he would have kept his mouth shut.
There's one thing that Habs fans seem to all miss here: the Jets don't lose leverage as time goes on, we actually gain it. We don't have to accept a bad return now, because the 2024 trade deadline will always be our chance to get a good rental return from a contender. Any deal that is made in the summer needs to beat that, or else it just makes more sense to wait until Dubois budges and signs a one-year deal with us, with an understanding that there is a trade for him to a contender at the deadline.
My prediction, finally: if Dubois isn't traded by / at the draft, he'll return to Winnipeg for another year. Chevy is the most stubborn and hard-nosed GM in the league, and Hughes doesn't appear to be an easy customer either. Ironically, both sides might just benefit from waiting it out too.
