ARLINGTON, Va. — Pierre-Luc Dubois set the tone early at Washington Capitals camp, pulling through Thursday’s punishing post-practice skate at the front of the group while teammates bent over the boards or dropped to the ice trying to recover. The center was not pretending it felt easy.
“I didn’t feel good,” Dubois said Friday. “Maybe I covered it up well.”
What mattered to the Capitals was that the 28-year-old was there, healthy and moving well after a season in which injuries repeatedly interrupted his year. Coach Spencer Carbery has seen Dubois around Washington well before camp opened and said the center’s summer work has been impossible to miss.
“He’s been in D.C. for quite a while and has trained extremely hard,” Carbery said. “I see a very focused young man who is ready.”
Dubois is trying to reclaim the form that made him a major piece of Washington’s 2024-25 Eastern Conference-winning club. In his first Capitals season after arriving from the Los Angeles Kings in the June 19, 2024 trade, he played all 82 games, posting 20 goals and a career-high 46 assists for 66 points. His plus-27 rating was also the best mark of his NHL career, and he regularly drew difficult defensive assignments against the opposition’s top lines as Washington finished 51-22-9 for 111 points.
Last season took a far different path. Abdominal and adductor issues surfaced late in camp, eventually sending Dubois into surgery on Nov. 7 and costing him more than three months. He was limited to 29 games, then suffered a fractured hand after hitting the end boards in Washington’s 80th game. Dubois played the following game before sitting out the finale, ending the year with 53 games lost to injury.
Before last season, the most injury absences Dubois had endured in any of his first eight NHL campaigns was nine games with Winnipeg in 2022-23. Washington, meanwhile, slipped to 43-30-9 and 95 points, missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs by three points behind Philadelphia for third place in the Metropolitan Division.
“I missed a lot of time last year,” Dubois said. “When you don’t make the playoffs, there’s a lot of time. When you miss 50-something games, there’s a lot of time to think and get excited about getting back. Coming into camp, I was excited just to practice with everyone again. I’m excited to play. It feels like I haven’t played much.”
His hand needed roughly six to eight weeks to heal, limiting his lifting during the opening part of the offseason. Once cleared, Dubois resumed a normal training program and returned to MedStar Capitals Iceplex in mid-August to work out. He said he feels close to peak physical condition for the start of camp.
A heavy early camp line
Washington’s first two camp days have put Dubois between Alex Tuch and Tom Wilson, giving Carbery a line with three big bodies and plenty of straight-line power. Tuch is listed at 6-foot-4 and 219 pounds, Dubois at 6-foot-4 and 220, and Wilson at 6-foot-4 and 225.
Wilson, who has been skating beside Dubois, saw the difference immediately.
“He looks phenomenal,” Wilson said. “Last year’s injury affected his game. Right now, he might be the fittest guy. He looked like the best skater on the ice Thursday. He’s hungry, and he wants to make some noise this year.”
Dubois joked that standing between Tuch and Wilson can make even a 220-pound center feel undersized. But he sees a line built for long offensive-zone shifts, retrieval work and making life uncomfortable for opposing defensemen.
“Tucky and Willie make me feel safe out there,” Dubois said. “It should be fun. We can be a very difficult line to play against. Everyone wants to score, obviously, but we want to be the group that goes out and has the puck for the whole shift, then does it again and again.”
The Capitals did not stand still after missing the postseason. Tuch and Jordan Kyrou, each a three-time 30-goal scorer, were added up front along with versatile forward Boone Jenner. Washington also brought in defenseman Vincent Desharnais to strengthen its blue line.
Still, the club’s most important addition may be a full season from the Dubois already in the room. Carbery has repeatedly stressed how much the center changes Washington’s options when healthy, both at five-on-five and in matchups against elite opposition.
“It’s huge,” Carbery said. “I talked all last year about how important he is to our team. When he’s healthy, we can use him the way we have before. He’s a tremendous player for us and such an important one. Having him ready from the start is critical to our success.”
Dubois entered last year’s camp aiming to establish himself among the League’s best two-way centers. That target has not changed, even after the most difficult injury stretch of his career.
“Everything happens for a reason,” he said. “Last year was a new challenge that I’d never gone through in my career. I learned from it. I hope it ends there, and we’ll see.”
