When Jake Evans visualized his contract year with the Montreal Canadiens, he probably didn't see himself as the team's second line center and yet, thanks to injuries and underperformance from other players, there he is. If ever there was a better timing for a player to show what he can do, I've never seen it. There are still plenty of unanswered questions about Kirby Dach, but the most pressing in this rebuild is whether he is a center. A couple of days ago, the Vegas Golden Knights signed one of their depth player, Brett Howden to a five-year contract extension [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/vegas-golden-knights/latest-news/golden-knights-sign-forward-from-2023-stanley-cup-squad-to-five-year-extension] which comes with a $2.5 M cap hit. The Calgary native was a first-round pick by the Tampa Bay Lightning back at the 2016 draft (27th overall) and arrived in the NHL for the 2018-19 season with the New York Rangers (he was part of the trade that sent Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller to Tampa). Since then, he has player 371 games, picking up 110 points and 169 penalty minutes in the process. On average he spends just over 13 minutes a game on the ice and over the course of his career, he has a 48.1% success rate at the faceoff dot. These days, he skates on Vegas' third line as a right winger. Evans is a couple of years older than Howden, he was drafted in the seventh round of the 2014 by the Canadiens, 207th overall. He was, back then, what one would call a long shot, but nowadays, he's doing just fine for himself. Since piercing the Canadiens' lineup in 2019-2020, he has taken part in 287 games, picking up 102 points and 107 penalty minutes in the process. He has spent, on average 14:41 on the ice, but that number goes up to 15:29 in the last three years and he has won 51% of his faceoffs. Evans is also a mainstay on the Canadiens' first penalty kill unit while Howden features on the Knights' second one. There are a coupe of departments in which Howden gets the upper hand like hits and blocked shots, but overall, Evans is the better player of the two, no matter who was drafted higher. In other words, when the time comes to look for a new contract, Evans would be well within his right to gun for something in the $3M per year range and as a 28-year-old, you can also expect him to be looking for some stability in the form of term. It will be interesting to see how Hughes handles the situation. I have no doubt contenders will come knocking for Evans at the deadline, but even if Hughes was to pull the trigger, it doesn't mean he cannot be back as a free agent in the off-season. Follow Karine on X @KarineHains [https://x.com/KarineHains] Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social [https://bsky.app/profile/karinehains.bsky.social] and Threads @karinehains [https://www.threads.net/@karinehains] Bookmark The Hockey News Canadiens' page [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens/] for all the news and happenings around the Canadiens
