I find it so strange when people act like we passed on Dubois to pick Puljujarvi. Why should we care about Dubois? He was gone when the Oilers picked.
I've seen it on the main boards, too. People throw it in our faces that Dubois is turning out to be better than Puljujarvi so far. Everyone seems to think we had a choice between the two players or something?
What you say is very true. It's tough to pick a guy that is not there when your choice happens. Moreover, it was clear from the reaction at the draft that Puljujarvi was ranked higher by most teams.
I really like Dubois and would have been fine if the Oilers had picked him at #4. (though I am quite sure Sergachev was the guy). But it really is too early to make a lot of definitive statements about how these guys will play out. Dubois had a very good year but he was also put into a very different role than Puljujarvi. He played almost the whole year with Panarin who is a terrific talent. JP played all over the place this year but when he did play with McDavid he did produce----5 goals and 8 points in 250 minutes 5 vs 5 is actually quite good. By comparison PLD had 10 and 5 vs 5 goals and 24 points in 792 ES minutes with Panarin. Neither player produced at the same pace away from the star.
Now JP was not consistent enough, at least in the eyes of his coach, to stick with McDavid while Dubois did earn his time on the top line. So this year the edge definitely goes to Dubois. But unlike Dubois, JP also had to deal with the language issues and cultural shock.
