When Pierre-Luc Dubois was a young boy his father, Eric, coached in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
From a very early age, Dubois committed to memory all the different sticks the NHL and junior players used. He memorized the types of skates the players wore. He knew which brand of equipment they wore under their jerseys.
When the boxes of gear came into the offices of the Baie-Comeau Drakkar, the Acadie-Bathurst Titan or later the Rimouski Oceanic teams for whom Eric Dubois served as head coach or assistant coach a young Pierre-Luc would eagerly help the training staff take the sticks and skates out of their packages, marveling at their newness.
During the season, Dubois would collect broken sticks from the junior practices or games and cut them down to use himself.
“I thought it was so cool,” said Dubois, who is preparing for his second season with the Washington Capitals. “I have a lot of fun memories of picking up broken sticks, broken skates, broken whatever and just kind of using them, and using them because I thought they were so cool.”
When he was older, Dubois, now 27, and groups of his teenage pals, would form teams to take part in an annual charity golf tournament organized by long-time NHL player Vincent Lecavalier in the Rimouski area. Lecavalier played junior hockey for Rimouski for two years before being selected first overall in the 1998 NHL Draft by the Tampa Bay Lightning and embarking on an illustrious career that led to his jersey number being retired by the Lightning.
“Every year we had a fun time. We got to meet and see Vincent and get to shake his hand and talk to him for a little bit,” Dubois recalled.
Dubois was like any teenage hockey player of note at the time, dreaming of following Lecavalier’s path to the NHL a bit awestruck at being in the presence of one of the great players of his generation.
As it turned out, Dubois’ dream was made of bricks and mortar stuff, and he would go on to be the third overall pick at the 2016 NHL Draft. He set rookie records for goals (20), points (48) and games played (82) the following season, and he’s now been an NHL player for almost a decade.
Still, Dubois hasn’t forgotten the thrill of holding a new stick in his hands or slipping into brand new skates when he was growing up. He has closed the circle of a hockey life by returning to his childhood roots in northeastern Quebec, reviving Lecavalier’s charity golf tournament and foundation via the Pierre-Luc Dubois Foundation, launched in 2023.
In recent days, Dubois has taken his fledgling foundation to a new level by announcing he will donate $40,000 in new equipment with NHLPA Goals & Dreams to youngsters in the mostly rural, sparsely populated area where he grew up.
It is a gift that will impact the community on many levels for years to come. And it is a gift that resonates throughout the NHLPA, a passing of the torch if you will from one generation of NHL players to another.
Robert L’Italien has been helping with the foundation and golf tournament, based in Rimouski, since Lecavalier founded it more than two decades ago. He has remained on board to be a part of the transition to the Pierre-Luc Dubois Foundation.
L’Italien said Lecavalier couldn’t have been more pleased when he learned of Dubois’ plan to revive the golf tournament and continue to outfit kids in the region with new hockey equipment. In fact, Dubois and his group have adopted some of the elements that L’Italien said helped the Lecavalier Foundation raise about $1.5 million over its lifetime, including recycling equipment by collecting and professionally cleaning gear from players who have outgrown it, then passing it on to younger children to ensure as many kids as possible have access to the gear.
In some ways, the $40,000 donation in new hockey equipment is the epitome of what it means to grow the game at the grassroots level and vividly captures the spirit of the NHLPA Goals & Dreams mandate of growing the game from the ground up.
Entering its second quarter century, NHLPA Goals & Dreams has donated $27 million to grassroots hockey programs in 45 countries around the world.
Some of the people and groups who will apply for assistance from the Dubois Foundation come from communities that do not have traditional indoor rinks. Instead, some of the smaller communities have only outdoor rinks maintained by local volunteers. The Dubois Foundation will help outfit those kids too, and local volunteers will set up ice time for shinny games for kids of different ages.
“This is a big thing for our foundation,” said Dubois. “Some of my best memories from being a kid are just going to the outdoor rink. I brought my skates, I brought my gloves and a stick and that's it. I wore snow pants, a big toque and I'd just go to the rink and we'd play from 5:30 to 9:00 p.m. Not organized. Some days we were five, some days we were 15, but, you know, those are some of the best memories that I remember as a kid.”
To give young players, most of whom could not afford to play the game without these donations, the opportunity to create similar memories is at the heart of what has made NHLPA Goals & Dreams so respected around the hockey world.
“We try to help as many people as we can, obviously we can't help everybody, but you look at some of these stories of kids that we've helped over the years, and it's just being able to play once or twice a week, or once a week at the village league, but that's enough to feed their hunger for hockey, and that's what I find really cool,” Dubois said.
The Dubois Foundation relies on local school boards and educators to help identify and vet families who are in need of new equipment. The identities of those families are never revealed, L’Italien said.
“That’s the most important thing,” L’Italien said.
Access to the equipment is tied to strong schoolwork and discipline within the school community.
“It’s very incredible when the kids receive the equipment. I don’t know what the good word is,” L’Italien added. “It’s not easy. The kids cry and everything. It’s magical. That’s the word.”
From such humble beginnings, who knows what doors can be opened down the road. This isn’t about creating a new generation of NHL players, although L’Italien noted that one of the youngsters who received gear from NHLPA Goals & Dreams has been drafted by a team in the QMJHL.
“For us it’s a good story,” L’Italien said.
Sam L’Italien is Robert’s son and a long-time pal of Dubois.
The two met when Dubois’ father, Eric, was running a summer hockey program in Rimouski before he took on coaching duties with the Oceanic. Sam recalled taking part in the Lecavalier tournaments after Dubois moved to the area as a teenager as well as other golf outings in the summer.
“PL was not a really good golfer himself,” Sam recalled with a laugh. He was a terrible golfer back in the day. He probably played six or seven holes and he was just, ‘I'm done, I'm done, I want to go home.’ He wanted to go to the pool more than play golf.
“It was fun, we enjoyed it. We knew what we were getting with him, we knew he didn't want to play golf, but he was still there.”
Those memories have been brought into sharper focus with Dubois’ announcement he would be breathing life into a new foundation, undertaking projects in the region.
“Honestly, it’s amazing,” said Sam who knows first-hand the struggles of many families in getting their children involved in hockey given the high cost of equipment, travel and ice time through his role as a teacher and a minor hockey coach in the area.
“The first thing I can say is we're grateful. We're all grateful that he took it and really happy about that,” added Sam, who had a stellar career in the QMJHL before spending four years playing at the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières, where he earned his teaching degree.
“When PL offered [to revive the foundation] I wouldn't say we were shocked, but we were so grateful about that. Honestly, we saw a lot of young kids struggle to get some equipment. When he spoke up and said, ‘I want to do my part,’ we were really excited, really happy that he decided to take that over.”
Sam, like his father, has seen the impact of new equipment being bestowed on area families.
“When we’re offering it, they’re like, ‘wow’, really they’re shocked. Honestly, they don’t think it’s possible,” Sam said.
“It's special. We used to see some kids and they're like, I want to get my kids involved in hockey, but they're like, I can't do it because he doesn't have a pair of skates or gloves or anything,” Sam explained. “When we're offering that, they're like, wow, really? They're shocked about this. They're like, is this possible? Honestly, they don't think it's possible. They're like, can we do this?”
As much as there is a strong emotional tie on a personal level for Dubois, those that volunteer their time to help out at the golf tournament and to disperse equipment across the far-flung region are the engine that drives the foundation. This has always been an important tenet of NHLPA Goals & Dreams. The players’ program is happy to help with funding the purchase of new equipment, but the community involved is always at the heart of transforming the donations to long-lasting, sustainable programs.
It has always been so with NHLPA Goals & Dreams’ efforts to support the game at the grassroots level around the world. It has been so far more than two decades in northeastern Quebec. It is so, now, with the Pierre-Luc Dubois Foundation.
“That’s the reason why this foundation is alive again, the equipment donation, that’s the only thing,” Robert L’Italien said.
It’s also why the last couple of years have been difficult, as one key foundation member passed away after a heart issue and another is battling a very serious form of cancer.
“It’s been tough,” L’Italien said.
None of this is lost on Dubois, who tries to make it home during the summer, but whose off-seasons in recent years have been occupied by moving.
“I get a letter or picture, or the head of the foundation sends me a letter and says, you know, look at this, or the parents sent a picture of their kid or the parents sent a letter thanking us, it really hits you,” Dubois said of the work the foundation does in his home province.
“Most of these kids, they hear their friends talk about it at school, they watch NHL games on TV, they watch the Oceanic play, and all they want to do is be a part of it,” Dubois explained. “And whether it's five days a week or one day a week, if you're a hockey fan and you want to play, you just want to get out there and skate, you want to get out there and feel what it's like to glide on the ice and shoot and you hear the puck hit the post and go in and that excitement of a goal.”
“Look, I'm fortunate enough and I was very lucky as a kid that I didn't have to go through any of this, but as you grow up, you realize that not everybody has that chance,” Dubois added.
“So, for me to be able to help out, we try to help as many as we can but sometimes, I have to pinch myself. But it's really cool when I get these letters and these pictures of kids that, like I said, just go out there and play and feel it for the first time.”
