Jake Evans’ unusual contract reflects what the Canadiens believe he can become this season (2024)

The three-year contract Jake Evans signed with the Canadiens at $1.7 million per year is a rarity in the NHL.

Across the league, at all positions, there are only 28 players (18 forwards) who have a three-year contract worth between $1 million and $2 million a year. But more specifically, only six of them signed that contract while giving up unrestricted free agent years in the process.

Generally, they are players on their second professional contract or veteran role players who signed as free agents. But Evans is part of the small group of players who represent somewhat of a development gamble for their teams in the hopes they develop in their mid-20s and become a bargain by the end of the contract. This is what’s essentially happened with Boston Bruins defenceman Connor Clifton.

The reason why the Canadiens feel comfortable projecting Evans’ value is that ever since he was drafted in 2014, his development curve has been more like a straight line upward. The Canadiens must have seen Evans as someone who will continue along that straight line this year, especially if given better opportunities with better linemates. Considering the team sees a player still in full ascension but is unsure of the player he will ultimately become, buying two years of free agency at a reasonable price seems to be a smart gamble.

And Evans was happy to jump on the opportunity.

“If you told me three years ago I’d be doing this, signing this deal, I wouldn’t believe you,” Evans said. “I pictured myself signing these one-year deals and betting on myself for the next few years.”

At the end of his two-year entry-level contract, when he had only 13 regular season and six bubble playoff games under his belt, Evans signed a two-year extension worth $750,000 a year. He hadn’t even begun the second year of that contract when he signed his three-year extension with the Canadiens on Sunday.

The vote of confidence is undeniable.

“On the ice, it’s the same. But obviously, off the ice it’s a huge relief knowing you’re secure in the future,” Evans said. “Playing in the NHL, it’s a great life. And no matter what salary you’re getting, it’s good money, and you’re playing the sport you love, and just having fun with it.”

The Canadiens have sometimes lamented the fact there are young players unable to do a proper self-evaluation of their own game. They don’t have that problem with Evans, a player who is extremely humble and down-to-earth who tries his best to play within his limits and follow the path that has led him to the NHL.

“I don’t think I’ve proved much in the NHL,” he said. “I’m extremely happy where I’m at right now, but I want to keep going and I want to prove to a lot of people I can be a solid top player in this league. I just want to keep pushing myself.”

Throughout his childhood and teen years, Evans was a goalscorer, which is perfectly normal. What’s less normal is his minor hockey association created a “Jake Evans rule” when he was six that limited the number of goals he could score in a game at three. From that point on, Evans had to set up his teammates.

When he arrived at Notre Dame, undersized and not yet mature, Evans was still an offence-first player. But over the course of his four years in South Bend under coach Jeff Jackson, he was gradually put in situations that forced him to develop other facets of his game, to become more complete.

The Canadiens drafted him in the seventh round and no one really expected Evans to pan out, which meant he did not have the same kind of pressure higher draft picks can feel, allowing him to develop in peace at Notre Dame.

“One of the reasons he has reached this level, or that he has taken this path, is that when he came out of college and arrived in the AHL, he realized what kind of player he had to become,” Dominique Ducharme said Monday. “When I sit down with him, for sure he wants to contribute offensively, but he realizes, for example, that what brought him here and what makes him a good player is all the little things and all the details he pays attention to in his game.”

But now, for the first time, the Canadiens are going to give Evans all the tools he might need to awaken the offensive player he once was before he mutated into something else. By starting the season with Joel Armia and Brendan Gallagher on his wings, there is some hope Evans will be able to further exploit his offensive tools.

Ducharme was careful not to specify any expectations he might have in that regard, though he did say production comes with increased opportunity.

Evans has already shown enough in terms of hockey I.Q. and responsible defensive play to make this three-year contract essentially a zero-risk proposition for the Canadiens, even if Evans remains primarily a defensive player. But with the Canadiens buying Evans’ best years, the chances he continues to progress are pretty good.

“We think he can stabilize a line in the middle there and be good enough with the puck to make plays and have (his wingers) produce offence,” Ducharme said.

When asked what kind of identity an Armia-Evans-Gallagher line could have to start the season, Ducharme said, “It can be a line a bit like the Phil (Danault) line that was able to face the other team’s top line and still bring some offence.”

Gallagher is one of the best forwards on the team in terms of exiting the defensive zone and creating chances in transition through the neutral zone. The data compiled by analyst Corey Sznajder show Evans to be a solid contributor in terms of creating offence off the rush, practically at par with Danault.

Sznajder’s data suggests Evans was essentially average last season in terms of creating offensive plays among NHL players. But where he really stood out was puck retrievals on the forecheck and preventing opposing breakouts, an area of the game where no one on the Canadiens was better last season.

Evans excelled on the forecheck, but as we saw in the first graphic, that’s not how he necessarily generated offence. Maybe that would change with better linemates?

Looking at the forechecking data, Gallagher and Armia are also right near the top of the board. That might in fact be the identity of this line to start the season.

The other thing that unites this line is that it might play an important role at five-on-five by drawing penalties. Last season, they led the way — starting with Evans — in this category. Considering the Canadiens hope to be able to count on a much-improved power play this season to produce offence, drawing penalties becomes a valuable skill, and it just so happens that three of their most skilled players in this department will start the season together.

Ducharme has mentioned multiple times in training camp that the style of play of Danault’s line last season is something that Evans’ line could bring this season. It’s not a completely crazy concept, because, on an individual basis, there are multiple metrics that show the two centres are not that far apart in certain categories.

From the point of view of Gallagher, the lone remaining member of the Danault line, the biggest difference might not be going from Danault to Evans, but rather having Armia take the place of Tomas Tatar. In the regular season at least, Tatar was just as efficient as Gallagher when it came to creating offence in transition. The drop-off from what Tatar produced would become even greater if Armia were to be replaced on this line by Mike Hoffman when he gets healthy.

But that won’t stop Evans from being in a position to bring lots of value by being able to face quality opposition, by winning faceoffs and, now flanked by good offensive players, by being able to create good counter-attacking opportunities off strong defensive plays.

And the beauty of it all is that Evans’ three-year contract at $1.7 million a year only kicks in next season, by which point Evans — if he can stay healthy — would have benefited from his circ*mstances this season to become a better player.

It makes all kinds of sense that the Canadiens wanted this contract settled right away because, for all the reasons we just explained, there would be a good chance that Evans would have been a more expensive player by the end of this season. His role solidified, Evans will be in a position to take some of the defensive responsibilities off the plates of the top two lines. Signing a third-line centre at a bargain deal will also allow the team more flexibility when it comes time to sign Nick Suzuki to a new contract.

“I’d like it to be to that point where the team needs me and wants me to play a lot of minutes, obviously,” Evans said, “but I still feel like I’ve got a lot to prove.”

Humility has served Evans well so far. If he continues thinking the same way, there’s no reason to believe it won’t continue to bring him — and the Canadiens — many benefits.

(Photo: David Kirouac / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Marc Antoine Godin is a senior writer at The Athletic Montreal, which he joined in 2017. Previously, Marc Antoine worked for 17 years at La Presse newspaper, the last 10 as a Montreal Canadiens beat writer. Follow Marc Antoine on Twitter @MAGodin