With Pierre-Luc Dubois back in Winnipeg on Tuesday, a number of his former teammates opened up on some of their favourite times with the now Los Angeles Kings forward.

Pierre-Luc Dubois is back in Winnipeg. He and his Los Angeles Kings teammates are set to face off against the Jets for the first of three matchups - and two in Manitoba - this season.

With the NHL schedule makers not wasting any time getting the biggest offseason tradee back in his former city, Dubois is quite convinced that he will hear some boos from the diehards at Canada Life Centre.

But how about his past teammates? 

Nope. Nothing of the sort, at least from those that spoke with The Hockey News prior to the Western Conference showdown. 

For defenceman Nate Schmidt, 'PLD' was quite often an unexpected guest who always took the veteran blueliner up on his season-long offering of 'Survivor nights'.

"He and his girlfriend would often come over with Dilly (Brenden Dillon)," Schmidt laughed. "It was some good old family fun. We had it on in the garage; he lived a couple doors down and would just show up. Dubie would just be out walking the dog and text me, ‘hey I’m here’. The guy would just show up on my doorstep, him and his new puppy sometimes."

Going as far as drafting a team, Dubois and Schmidt certainly spent some serious time as a unit. But considering their close proximity off the ice, it only made sense. 

"We actually spent tons of night together away from the rink," Schmidt reminisced. "I think he’s great. I don’t fault him at all for how everything played out. He’s good stuff. I like him a lot. I don’t think you’ll find a lot of teammates who didn’t like that guy."

Speaking of drafts, Dubois, who has always shared considerable interest in European soccer - made sure to participate in the Jets' true 'football' fantasy draft, alongside a number of fellow enthusiasts.

"Dubie and I, we shared a bond," defender Dylan DeMelo said. "We both really like watching soccer. We have a lot of European guys on our team, so we actually had a fantasy premier league thing going on. We really had a lot of fun with it."

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"The guy would buy some funny, old-school soccer retro kits and just bring them on the plane to wear all the time. He even got me bringing out a couple kits too. I just remember always joking about the jerseys that we’d be wearing."

For forward Nino Niederreiter - who only spent a few months with Dubois, as he joined the Jets at the 2022 trade deadline - it was his heritage and European roots that became of high interest to the Kings forward. 

"He was honestly very obsessed with Switzerland," Niederreiter laughed. "I guess he played an Under-18 tournament in Switzerland or something. I know he went to see a pro game and Denis Malgin quickly became his favourite player."

"We actually talked a lot about how much he loved Switzerland. He’s been to Lugano a couple times. We’ve had a number of good talks about Switzerland. I mean, we were stallmates as well, so I definitely got to know him quite well because of that. I have nothing but good things to say about him."

According to both DeMelo and forward Cole Perfetti, other duties attended to by Dubois included "managing the aux cord" in the dressing room at times, and arranging team activities while on the road.

"We’d always call him ‘The Promoter’ last year," Perfetti shared. "He was always the guy who’d setup the team dinner on the road, the team parties, or maybe a night out. I have lots of good memories of him arranging the rookie parties and team dinners in the playoffs in Vegas." 

"Somehow he'd always find out the really nice restaurants and manage to get a really big reservation. He took a lot of pride in that, just making sure all the guys had a really good time and trying to put on the best night for everyone. Dubie and Josh Morrissey put a lot of time and effort into making sure we had a lot of fun, and set it all up. He enjoys that side of it. He just wants the boys to have fun and put on a good show for everyone."

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Although often quite serious with the media and almost angering when on the ice, Dubois did have a lighter, more jovial side when away from the the cameras and microphones.

According to DeMelo, the Quebec product was always one for the youngsters... the true youngters. 

"Dubie was always great with the kids," he smiled. "I brought my little guy in one day and PL was doing squats. My boy was just watching and wondering what he was doing. And he was like, ‘I’m squatting’, but he was only two years old at the time, he was like ‘Poopy’s squatting’. Of course he was trying to say Dubie, but couldn’t quite get it. It was pretty funny and we had a good laugh at that one." 

Despite the lifelong friendships and memories made, Dubois and his Kings certainly won't be looking to reminisce while on the Canada Life Centre ice battling for their first win of the season. 

Held pointless in his first two games in the black, white and silver, Dubois will most definitely be hungry for a strong outing in front of what is expected to be a rather boisterous crowd. 

The action begins on TSN at 7:00 PM Tuesday night.