Montreal Canadiens Get Incredible Value on Jake Evans Contract

The Montreal Canadiens training camp is well underway and the list of players still remaining is getting shorter every day.

As the team inches closer to announcing its final roster, they also got a little bit of off-ice work done yesterday. The team announced it has signed centre Jake Evans to a three year contract with a cap hit of $1.7 million.

That is a nice piece of business for the team.

Evans was the team’s fourth line centre for most of last season, but eventually took over Tomas Tatar’s role on the left wing of Phillip Danault and Brendan Gallagher. He plays a speedy game and is solid defensively, with the ability to play centre or the wing. He has been asked to kill penalties already in hie young career and brings a nice all-around game from a depth position.

The thing that is so great about Evans new contract is he is already worth $1.7 million based on his fourth line duties, but he is about to get a much bigger role this season.

Evans scored just three goals and 13 points in 47 games last season, and now has 16 points in 60 career NHL games. However, there are plenty of reasons to believe he is about to have a breakout campaign.

While Evans played almost entirely as a fourth line centre last season with two of Artturi Lehkonen, Paul Byron and/or Corey Perry on his wings. None of those three could be confused with an offensive force last season.

This season? Evans looks tied at the hip with consistent 30 goal scorer Brendan Gallagher and probably Joel Armia, or another 30 goal scorer in Mike Hoffman when he returns from injury.

If Evans starts the season with Gallagher and Armia, he will be asked to play his usual defensive role, but he also has the potential to score far more often than he did last season. If he just continues to be a fine defensive player with little offence, he would still be worth $1.7 million per season.

If he breaks out offensively and can score even 30-40 points this season, he would immediately be underpaid for the following three seasons. Bottom line is, there is almost zero chance Evans doesn’t live up to this extension.

It won’t be possible for Evans to be as good defensively as Danault was, but if he can come even close, and also score more than 13 goals in a season which was Danault’s career high, this contract will be a huge steal before it even begins in the 2022-23 season.