As he embarks on his eighth NHL season, Jake Evans will once again be expected to play a significant role for the Montreal Canadiens, especially with Michael Hage's arrival being pushed back another season.
The start of the NHL season is now just 44 days away, and as we inch closer to puck drop, we’ll take a closer look at each of the Montreal Canadiens’ players and what’s to be expected from them this season. We’ve already covered Nick Suzuki, Kaiden Guhle, Juraj Slafkovsky, Ivan Demidov, Phillip Danault, Jayden Struble, Cole Caufield, Oliver Kapanen, and Alex Newhook, so today we’ll look at 30-year-old centerman Jake Evans.
Evan will be playing the second year of a four-year contract extension, which carries a $2.85 million cap hit per season. After putting up 36 points in 82 games in his contract year (0.44 points per game), Evans put up 24 points in 68 games last season (0.35 PPG). After playing in all 82 games in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, the right-shot pivot was forced to miss four weeks of action after sustaining a knee injury in a December 20 game against the Pittsburgh Penguins when he was the victim of a knee-on-knee collision with Justin Brazeau. Thankfully for the Canadiens, they acquired Danault from the Los Angeles Kings earlier that day.
Evans is and has always been a good depth forward for the Habs; when he finds himself playing on the top six, you know things aren’t going according to plan. While he will tell you that he doesn’t mind playing on the top six and that the way he plays doesn’t change when he does so, it’s easy to see that he doesn’t have the offensive instinct and the finishing touch of a real top-six NHL player. He did remarkably well in the postseason, playing alongside Demidov and Newhook, gathering 10 points in 19 games, but don’t expect him to start the season in that spot.
After scoring 22 goals in his rookie season, Kapanen should be given every opportunity to pick up where he left off when he “hit a wall” in the second part of the season, as often happens with rookies. As a result, Evans is likely to land on the third or fourth line, depending on how things play out at training camp. He will be battling it out with Danault for the third-line center role, and he should logically come out on top. Evans still has another two years on his contract, while the 33-year-old Danault is entering the final year of his.
When the Canadiens are a contending team, Evans should be on the fourth line with Kapanen patrolling the third line and Michael Hage pivoting the second line. Since Hage is unlikely to join the Habs until the very end of the season, the Toronto, Ontario native should spend at least another season on the third line, given that he’s likely to still be around for another two seasons, unlike Danault.
As always, Evans will be playing a key role on the penalty kill, but Danault should still be the one tasked with the end-of-game, lead-protecting missions alongside Suzuki, just like he was in the playoffs; that’s how Martin St-Louis will be able to provide both Evans and Danault with sufficient ice time.
It’s hard to project how many points Evans will be able to put up, as his role, providing everything goes according to plan with the Canadiens, should be more of a defensive one, but anything around 30 would be satisfying if he stays in the bottom six.
Last season, he had his best year faceoff percentage-wise, winning 55.9% of his draws, and that’s one area where he’ll be expected to keep on improving or, at the very least, remain as efficient. As the young Habs progress, his role should diminish, but since Hage opted to return to the NCAA for another year, Evans has another year to play an important role.
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