Now that Montreal Canadiens’ GM Kent Hughes has confirmed to NHL.com that Kirby Dach not being ready to start the upcoming season is a possibility, there’s a lot of talk about who should be the second-line center if that possibility comes to be.

With Ivan Demidov already being pencilled in as the second line left winger, the line is expected to play a much bigger role offensively and take some of the pressure to produce off from the Nick Suzuki unit.

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It stands to reason that a player who has a reasonably good offensive instinct should land in that second center role. If Dach isn’t ready to go, Alex Newhook becomes a good candidate, but his faceoff stats aren’t great (42.8% success rate last season), and he’s yet to prove that he’s more suited to a center role than a winger’s one.

There could be other options, such as Oliver Kapanen or Owen Beck, but I feel the lack of experience could be an issue, especially with a rookie already on the line. The next logical candidate then becomes Jake Evans.

While Evans doesn’t have the offensive instinct that Newhook has, he is a very responsible center and never forgets about the defensive side of the game. If Patrik Laine is on the right wing, Evan’s defensive awareness almost becomes a must.

There’s no doubt that his presence could be reassuring for Demidov and allow him a bit more leeway offensively. Evans’ faceoff stats are also much better than Newhook's; he had a 52.9% success rate last season, and in his six-year career so far, he has a 51.6 winning percentage.

Furthermore, The Sick Podcast host Tony Marinaro and Global’s analyst Brian Wilde were both impressed by the chemistry Evans had with Demidov when they saw them play three-on-three hockey this summer in the LSHL.

Besides, Evans could also be suited to keeping an eye on the rookie, after all, he’s getting plenty of experience with kids these days, as his wife Emily just gave birth to twins. Congrats to the Evans, and who knows, we may have to congratulate him on a bigger role with the Habs this season soon.

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