Dubois, a center, let it be known he wanted to be traded after signing a two-year, $10 million contract with the Blue Jackets on Dec. 31, 2020. In their fifth game of the season on Thursday, he played five shifts and 3:55 in the first period
before he was benched by Tortorella
for the remainder of a 3-2 overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
"Before I got drafted to Columbus, I knew what kind of coach [Tortorella] was," Dubois said. "And I've heard from players that played for him in the past, some when he was in Tampa. I heard from Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis, and the consensus I got, and this is my opinion, is that he helps guys. He pushes guys, he motivates guys, he gets guys going.
"And that's something that wasn't always easy, but you have to appreciate the honesty and appreciate that he was trying to make me a better player, make me a better person. And I know for some people it might be that's the reason, but it's not."
Dubois was selected by the Blue Jackets with the No. 3 pick of the 2016 NHL Draft. The 22-year-old scored one goal in five games for Columbus this season and has 159 points (66 goals, 93 assists) in 239 NHL games.
He said Saturday that he was open with his teammates and Tortorella about wanting to leave before the season started but prefers to keep the reasons to himself.
"I had the conversation before camp started," Dubois said. "Like Torts said, he wanted to get it out in the open with everybody, and that's also something that I wanted to do. I didn't want to play games with my teammates.
"If [anything], I respect them more than anybody. I let them know the reasons. It has nothing to do with them. They've been great for me since I've come into the NHL, making me feel part of the team, making me feel Columbus is a home. We're all teammates, we're all friends and we all care for each other.
"At the end of the day, you want your friends, you want your teammates to be happy and sometimes it hurts or sometimes you can be disappointed with their decisions, but I know that at the end of the day they just want me to be happy."
