Healthy Dubois 'wants to make some noise' with Capitals after injury-plagued season 

ARLINGTON, Va. – When the Washington Capitals concluded their first practice of training camp on Thursday with a strenuous conditioning skate, Pierre-Luc Dubois was out front, leading the way.

The 28-year-old center downplayed Friday how well he appeared to handle the grueling task, which left many of the Capitals players on their hands and knees, try to catch their breath, saying, “I did not feel good, no. Maybe I hid it well.” His performance was noticed, though.

“Dubie’s been in Washington D.C. for a while, and he's been training extremely hard,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “I see a very, very focused young man that is just ready.”

Happy to be healthy after being limited to 29 games last season because of injuries, Dubois is determined to pick up where he left off in 2024-25 when he was one of the Capitals’ most impactful players and helped them finish first in the Eastern Conference with 111 points (51-22-9). That season, his first with Washington after being acquired in a trade with the Los Angeles Kings on June 19, 2024, Dubois had 66 points (20 goals, NHL career-high 46 assists) in 82 games with an NHL career-best plus-27 rating while playing a pivotal role being against opponents’ top offensive lines.

With Dubois hampered from late in training camp last season by abdominal and adductor muscle injuries that eventually required surgery on Nov. 7, causing him to miss more than three months, the Capitals dropped to 95 points (43-30-9) and failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, finishing three points behind the Philadelphia Flyers for third in the Metropolitan Division. To cap off his frustrating season, Dubois fractured his hand crashing into the end boards in the Capitals’ 80th game.

He played through the injury the next game before sitting out the finale, bringing his season total to 53 games missed. The most games he sat out because of injury during his previous eight NHL seasons was nine with the Winnipeg Jets in 2022-23.

“I missed a lot of time last year,” Dubois said. “Not making the playoffs, you have a lot of time. Missing 50-something games, you get a lot of time too to just think and be excited to get back out there…. So, going into this camp, I was just excited to get back out here and practice with everybody again. I'm excited to play. I feel like I haven't played much.

“So, just kind of like my two years ago when I came here and I wanted to do well to get back into it, I kind of feel the same way right now.”

Dubois said it took 6-8 weeks for his hand to heal, which limited his weightlifting early in the offseason, but he was able to train normally after that. He returned to begin working out at MedStar Capitals Iceplex in mid-August and acknowledged that he feels “pretty close” to the best he has physically at the start of a training camp.

It’s shown on the ice.

“I think he looks phenomenal,” linemate Tom Wilson said. “He had an injury last year that affected his game. Right now, he's probably the fittest. He was the best skating player on our team on the ice (Thursday), at least it looked like. So, I know he's hungry.

“He wants to make some noise this year.”

After missing the playoffs, Washington was aggressive in upgrading its roster this offseason, adding two three-time 30-goal scorers in forwards Alex Tuch and Jordan Kyrou, versatile forward Boone Jenner and stay-at-home defenseman Vincent Desharnais. But having Dubois at full strength from the start could mean as much to the Capitals’ hopes of contending for the Stanley Cup as any of their offseason acquisitions.

“It's huge,” Carbery said. “I talked about it ad nauseum last year about how important he is to our team. Having him healthy going into the season and being able to deploy him the way that we have in the past, he's just a tremendous player for us, and so important. So, him being healthy and ready to start the season is critical to our success.”

For the first two days of camp, Dubois (6-foot-4, 220 pounds) has centered a physically imposing line with Tuch (6-4, 219) on his left wing and Wilson (6-4, 225) his right. Dubois can already see that line’s potential to grind down opponents.

“Sometimes when I'm standing out there, I feel small,” Dubois said. “But ‘Tucky’ and ‘Willie,’ they make me feel safe out there, so it'll be a lot of fun. I think we can be a really hard line to play against. We already talked here. Obviously, everybody wants to score goals, but we want to be the line that can go out there and just have the puck the whole shift and do it over and over and over again.”

As difficult as last season was, Dubois said he “learned a lot” from it and has his fingers crossed that his injury troubles are behind him. After his strong 2024-25 season, he entered camp last season with the objective of becoming one of the best two-way centers in the NHL.

That’s still the goal.

“I think everything happens for a reason,” Dubois said. “It was just a new challenge for me last year I've never been through in my career. In that sense, it was great, but I learned, so I hope it's done there and we'll see.”