This is true. Dubois and his agent are not just saying Montreal but then you wonder... Why is he leaving the Jets who have a good team? Does he not like Winnipeg or some of his teammates or did he really get uninspired after asking out of Columbus and wanting to be traded to the Habs. What are the reasons why he won't sign in Winnipeg?
Personally, I do think he has a few teams in his mind after the Habs but I don't think that list is large. I don't think the Bruins are on it. But the Avs and Canes might be. Imagine, A well documented narrative where he grew up a Habs fan and his agent says he is interested in the Habs and then ends up picking the Bruins. I'd bet money against that? Any takers?
Habs are on his list no doubt and it's very possible we are at the top of the list.
Players are human beings and many reasons can affect their desire to play in any given city.
Petry's wife wanted to play in the US to facilitate access to the grandparents for the kids because of COVID.
Pronger wanted out of Edmonton because his wife didn't think that a stale, red-neck, Canadian town was to her liking.
Another player wanted to get moved to a city where career opportunities were better for his wife, rather than leave her stranded and unemployable in her field while he was gone on the road.
Maybe Dubois doesn't want to start and raise a family in Winnipeg after signing a long term contract and being there for at least the next 8 years?
Maybe Dubois doesn't want to go to Carolina either, a US state with the most pro-gun hoards, where carrying a gun on open display in your car, mounted on your dash is perfectly legal, where hospital workers who face gun shot wound cases daily, are bizarrely the first to put pressure on you to own a gun (My brother worked there as a physiotherapist in Raleigh and that was the situation he described to us).
Whatever the reason, players are human beings and have families of their own (or will have -- they can certainly afford having one). We should stop questioning their right to further their careers in an environment that also soothes their personal life, whether it is one where the work environment is toxic and they want out (Columbus with Tortorella as head coach and the team gradually losing talented players, one after the other), or one where they don't see a future for their family the way they envisaged and they want a better destination to raise their kids.
It's not an insult against Winnipeg. It's just not a good fit with the player, for whatever personal reason.
For example, my brother lives in rural Texas in a town with 3000 inhabitants. The only exciting thing. around is a Walmart and the scenery isn't particularly breath-taking, nor is the town particularly peaceful.
I couldn't live there for any protracted period of time, but I know the people in that town from having visited often enough. They are good people. Yet that doesn't change the fact that I would rather put a bullet in my head than lay down roots there.
Players are not robots or, worse, slaves, that have no word to say in how or where they work. We should really stop acting as though they were.
7 years playing in the NHL are owed to the team that picks them, or age 27, I think, before they become UFAs.
That doesn't mean that they should keep their mouths shut if they are psychologically abused while they play for that team (Tortorella is a good example), nor should they be forced to sign a long term contract that takes them beyond their RFA years if it is offered to them.
How would you feel if younhad no say in where and how you work?
Maybe you'd want to be psychologically tormented or be treated like a slave if you were paid Millions, biding your time before retiring a Millionaire.
That's your prerogative, but it doesn't give you the right to project that onto another individual.
