It is pretty sad that Duclair has this unfair reputation now with regards to his "5 teams in 5 years" simply because people choose to ignore the facts. He is only 24 years old, and 226 of his 320 career games have been played for two teams (Ariz and Ott). The remaining 94 games were played for the other 3 teams (NYR-18, CHI- 23, CBJ- 53).
The first trade from NYR was simply a hockey trade, it had nothing to do with the player, he was much too young to make the assumption that the Rangers had given up on him. He then played 3 seasons for Arizona, a terrible team, and put up 74 points in 172 games (0.43 ppg) which is not terrible considering the team he played for and the fact he was still a young player learning the game. I also take his stints with Chicago and CBJ with a grain of salt as he did not play enough games to warrant proper judgement, still, he had 8 points in 23 games for CHI and then 19 points in 53 games for CLB which to me is okay, all things considered.
Now to be fair, maybe Chicago and Columbus management and coaches did not like his game and figured he played a risky style that did not suit their expectations. Needless to say however, with proper coaching, Duclair has excelled and become an excellent offensive player and a decent one without the puck too. There is absolutely no reason to think he will "regress" to his old ways since we do not really know what his old ways were. He was still a threat offensively, always has been, and always will be. Also, once an NHL player becomes better defensively and plays a strong game without the puck, they tend to continue their careers down that path and rarely ever go back to being a liability in that regard.
Coles Notes: the "5 teams in 5 years" means squat. Duclair has always been good, he just needed proper coaching to round out his game.
Bottom line: Sign him to a 3-5 year contract for 4-6 million.
