This is going to be a very important season for the Canadiens’ Jake Evans.
The 28-year-old centre is heading into his sixth season with the team and it’s also the last year of his contract with a US$1.7 million salary-cap hit.
The Canadiens have some young prospects — including centres Owen Beck and Oliver Kapanen — looking to take his job.
Evans’s job looks safe for this season, but he’s one of four Canadiens forwards — including Christian Dvorak, Joel Armia and Michael Pezzetta — who can become unrestricted free agents next summer.
The Canadiens started training camp with four forward lines set up that will probably be together when the regular season begins on Oct. 9 against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre. Those lines are Nick Suzuki between Juraj Slafkovsky and Cole Caufield; Kirby Dach between Alex Newhook and Patrik Laine; Christian Dvorak between Joshua Roy and Josh Anderson; and Evans between Brendan Gallagher and Joel Armia.
That might make it frustrating for young prospects trying to make the team, but head coach Martin St. Louis said it shouldn’t be.
“To me, it’s constantly trying to raise your value,” St. Louis said. “Sometimes the timing might not be right, but you still raise your value. So if I was a player, I was obviously trying to make the team I was on. But I was trying to make the NHL, too. It’s a small world. People see a lot of other teams’ players. So there’s timing. Sometimes there isn’t room and sometimes people have to make room. So to me it’s just keep raising your value, whether you think there’s a spot or not.”
Evans will also be looking to keep raising his value. He isn’t setting any personal goals for points after posting 7-21-28 totals last season while playing in all 82 games.
“I don’t like to put numbers on it,” he said. “Individually you want to grow and keep going from where you left off. But try not to have any numbers.”
As a seventh-round draft pick (207th overall) at the 2014 NHL Draft, Evans beat the odds just making it to the NHL. He still remembers what it was like being a young prospect looking to take a job away from a veteran.
“I don’t know if I really beat anyone out,” Evans recalled about making his NHL debut in February 2020 after spending four seasons at the University of Notre Dame and two seasons with the AHL’s Laval Rocket. “It would have been Nate Thompson, really, but he got traded and so then that kind of opened the door for me. I wouldn’t say I beat him out. I think I proved myself that they could make a guy dispensable.
“That’s just pro hockey,” Evans added about a young player taking a veteran’s job. “You just have to accept it. You welcome the new guy and you feel for the other guy that’s lost his spot.”
Evans offered some advice to the young Canadiens prospects looking to earn a job now.
“Honestly, I’d just say have some fun with it,” he said. “I remember my second year I had a pretty good camp and I was just having fun, not having too many expectations. Just playing your game. Not dwelling on all the mistakes you’re going to make because there’s going to be a lot.”
Evans has developed into a reliable fourth-line centre who can win faceoffs and kill penalties. He won 52.2 per cent of his faceoffs last season and led the Canadiens in short-handed ice time. He’s not stressing about heading into the final season of his contract.
“Obviously, you want to do well,” he said. “It’s pretty early for that.”
Evans is coming off a memorable summer, getting married to longtime girlfriend, Emily. The ceremony was held at a castle in Ireland with many of Evans’s current and former teammates on hand. Emily is the daughter of former New York Islanders captain Pat Flatley, who played 14 seasons in the NHL.
Does Evans get any hockey advice from his father-in-law?
“He tries to stay out of it,” Evans said. “He’s been great. When he chimes in you obviously listen and respect what he’s done. He’s been great with that. But he just tries to stay out of it. It’s obviously a different league now than when he played. But he’s always looking out for me and always trying to get me to do some stuff in the weight room. A lot of grip work with him.”
Evans is now looking to keep a grip on his job and earn a new contract. He hopes it will be with the Canadiens.
“For me it’s the same,” he said about the coming season. “Every year there’s always guys trying to take your chair. It’s just showing what you’ve got, showing that you’ve been there before, showing that experience and working hard and having fun with it.”