Canadiens Analysis
Canadiens Analysis: Impact Of Jake Evans Contract Extension
There was a fairly surprising announcement on Tuesday afternoon, as the Montreal Canadiens and Jake Evans agreed to a four-year contract extension. The deal runs until 2028-29, and carries a $2.85 million annual average value (AAV).
It’s a reversal of the situation to a certain extent, as all signs pointed to a trade prior to the deadline, with several teams interested in improving their penalty killing units prior to the playoffs. Teams such as the Edmonton Oilers, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Winnipeg Jets, the New Jersey Devils, and the Minnesota Wild had called general manager Kent Hughes to discuss the framework of a potential deal, however, the Canadiens remained steadfast in their demands, reminding teams that they would only discuss serious offers.
Impact on Montreal Canadiens Roster
It’s quite clear that the Canadiens also remained unwavering with their offer to Evans, avoiding a situation in which they’d offer a rich contract to a player who is enjoying an inflated shooting percentage. After all, the ultimate management sin is being seduced by a temporary uptick in scoring.
With that in mind, it was Evans who bridged the gap between the team offer and his demands. It’s evidently a sign that the player took a hometown discount, a rarity in Montreal. Simply put, Evans believes in what the Canadiens are building something special, and he took a hit in the wallet to ensure he would continue his journey with a young organization that also possesses one of the best prospect pools in the NHL.
It also provides more proof that Montreal is no longer a market that players avoid at all costs, as it was during Marc Bergevin’s era.
The open communication established by the Hughes management group has not only provided a renewed sense of hope among fans, it has quickly and efficiently removed the stain of frustration from players that was inherited a few years ago.
Habs and Jake Evans’ camp renewed talks on Sunday after an extended period without. I think Montreal stuck pretty well to its position more or less. So Evans, in the end, made the call he didn’t want to leave.
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) March 4, 2025
Jake Evans isn’t a foundation piece of the lineup, but he does serve a few key roles, connoting that the Habs will not have to scramble to replace his fantastic play on the penalty kill, and his stalwart presence on the fourth line.
That may not seem like an important step, but it allows Hughes and Co. to focus on the bigger picture, rather than scrambling and spending assets to solidify the hole left behind by Evans.
The low cost of the deal also gives the Canadiens plenty of financial flexibility moving forward, especially since the NHL’s salary cap is set for a notable increase in the next five years. Rather than spending an extra million or two on Evans, those funds can be used to convince a top-tier player to join the team, or to secure a player who would otherwise test the open market in free agency.
Jake Evans with a strong drive to score while shorthanded.
1-0 #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/Q7Ezq2LoCY
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) December 6, 2024
Impact of Jake Evans Contract On The NHL Trade Deadline
The contract does not contain a no-trade clause (NTC) or a no-movement clause (NMC), which isn’t particularly surprising. Hughes rarely acquiesces to that caveat, with Jake Allen representing the only player who received a modified NTC from Montreal in the last few years.
It’s important to note with the upcoming NHL Trade Deadline, as some may interpret the contract as the first part of a sign-and-trade deal. That is not the case, and given that Evans went out of his way to accept a lower sum from the Canadiens than he would have gotten on the open market, not to mention Hughes’ reputation as a player-friendly general manager, there’s little to no chance Evans will be moved.
Therefore, we can safely say it probably won’t be a very busy trade deadline for the Habs, as they’ve taken their best asset off the market. There’s still a possibility someone such as Joel Armia or David Savard will be moved, but given the recent uptick in results from the Canadiens, not to mention their low value on the trade market, the potential return on such a trade is unlikely to move the needle in the grand scheme of things.
There’s still a chance the Canadiens may use their remaining cap space, roughly $6.6 million, to absorb an expiring contract in exchange for a mid-round pick, and they may even flip the script and acquire some depth reinforcements to improve their odds of qualifying for the playoffs, but a significant trade doesn’t seem to be in the cards.
Great individual effort by Jake Evans to score a shorthanded goal and make it 5-2 #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/a9V9ZuV1eD
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) April 3, 2024
Love this contract
Congrats Jake
Luv this guy 💙
A good hockey move
Now they need to get a goal scorer from a non playoff team
I wanted Evans traded. We have to be realistic, this team is not winning the cup. Letting players walk for nothing, or overpaying for depth pieces is a terrible idea, especially since it’s not like we have a legit shot at winning it all. People say “we want the kids playing meaningful games, learning how to win” and I get that argument. But Caufield and Suzuki have played in the finals (plus WJC success for CC and chl success for Suzy). Newhook has a ring. Slaf won Olympic gold. Hutson won WJC gold. Guhle won WJC silver and was whl playoff mvp and won the whl championship twice. Laine has a WJC gold. Heck, even xhekaj won an OHL championship and was a memorial cup all star. Dach is out for the season so he wouldn’t gain experience anyway. Beck won WJC gold and a memorial cup as mvp. The only ones who could have gained experience and haven’t won really anything are Heineman and Struble. Now, OBVIOUSLY winning in the nhl is very different from the WJC, or CHL, or Olympics without nhl players, and is obviously more important, but the majority of our kids have a winning pedigree at some level. So, the 20 or so games of more competitive hockey just to likely not make the playoffs or get bounced in the first round, were absolutely not worth missing out on a potential 1st or 2nd rd pick for Evans (or an Evans/Armia combo that SOME suggested could get a 1st… I don’t think Evans would’ve got one on his own). We are in desperate need of a 2C and a top pair RD (in case Reinbacher doesn’t work) and those picks can help us get it.
So to recap, the kids have almost all won at some level, and whether Evans stayed or not, would likely get sort of similar “learning how to win when it counts” experience of only about 20-30 games. And we sacrifice the chance to get more assets to be used for a 2C or top pair RD. Ntm that we’d lose more games this year and improve our draft slot.
Buuuuuuuuuuut, we only signed Evans for $2.85 LOL. I thought SOME gm would be dumb enough to give him $4-4.5. This contract is pretty darn good, especially with a rise to nearly $100M in the not to distant future. It’s also a very tradeable contract so if better options present themselves we can still get something. Realistically, when we contend, Evans should be our 4C, and likely a fairly elite one. Hopefully Beck/Kapanen/Dach/Newhook/Hage can be an elite 3C, but having a top PK guy who wins faceoffs and has chemistry already for what will be ~3% of the cap seems pretty good to me. Especially with what it says about the locker room and culture. I am far more pleased with this situation than I thought I would be if I heard “Evans has re-signed in Montreal”.
Now… we just have to hope we can get a legit 2C without blowing all our assets because ideally we’d have a decent contending team BEFORE we start dipping into our futures to fill current holes. Idk how we really do that, but I trust Hughes. I think as long as we get that 2C and we’ve only traded away our EXTRA picks and prospects, we’re good. If we start having less than 1 pick per round but we aren’t a legit playoff team/contender yet with that 2C and RD, we’re in trouble.
Hopefully Dach suddenly isn’t made of glass and hits his ceiling, or Hage hits his ceiling within 2 years (lol), or more realistically, Hughes works magic this offseason. Should be fun!
The Canadiens could fill one of the two positions of concern (C2, RD1) with an UFA signing in this off-season. Sure, trade is a possibility also given the number of almost NHL-ready prospects whose path to the NHL is paved with hurdles that block their way (logjams).
Yeah the only reason I don’t really put much stock in that is we’re still feeling out where we are. Hughes wouldn’t give Marchessault a longer deal because of where we are in the rebuild. He was clear about only giving deals that fit our needs. The problem is, we need a young 2C (or RD) to fit our timeline, but young 2Cs etc are not free agents. They’re on ELCs or are RFAs. Now, MAYBE Hughes pivots a bit to someone a older, but even then, they’ll probably all be looking to cash in big with the cap rising and Hughes probably won’t want to pay a huge salary, especially without knowing how the player fits. It’s true Evans took a bit less probably, but we can’t expect others to do that at all, let alone people who aren’t already in our system and like it here.
Then there’s the fact that there just doesn’t look to be a clear answer in free agency, and if there were, other teams will want the player too, driving the price up.
So yeah, I do think trade is more likely. But obviously anything could happen
We are going to have to blow some assets to get a legit 2nd line centre. Dach is done…at least with the aspirations of being that player. Hage will NOT hit his ceiling within 2 seasons…just listen to what you just said. Whatever ceiling that is may take 5-7 years from now to reach. Neither will Beck.
Buddy, learn how to read. I didn’t say we wouldn’t need to spend assets for a 2C. I said I hope we don’t have to dip into assets that aren’t EXTRA. I don’t want to only have 4 picks a year before we’re actually contenders. At worst we want to have a normal 7 picks a year (one in each round) when we hit contender status so we can dip into those to tweak things and keep the prospects coming. Obviously it’ll cost us to get a 2C, I have no idea how you hallucinated that I said otherwise. But we should be able to get it for our extra assets such as our picks this year (which I include in what’s okay to spend because they’ll be spent soon anyway) and prospects. We have 2 firsts, 2 seconds, 3 thirds, Kapanen, Mesar, Roy, Engstrom and others that can all be used to get a 2C without dipping into futures that leave us with less than the original draft picks we’re given. That should’ve been obvious from what I said….
But since you can’t read, it wasn’t obvious. Which is why you also seem to think I said that have will hit his ceiling in 2 years. I didn’t. I clearly wrote “lol” beside that suggestion, and followed it up with “or more realistically…” which clearly implies that I don’t think Hage will hit his ceiling in 2 years. He very well may not even be with the habs in 2 years as he’ll probably be in the ncaa another season at least, then a year or two in the ahl…. THEN he’s just a rookie, still far from his ceiling. But hey, why learn to read when you can make things up to get mad at online, right?
Oh, did I mention you should learn to read?
Yes I can read, BUDDY!
But its not easy to read nonsense that’s all over the place…like your post was.
I think something behind the scenes may have occurred here.
Anyone else think its just a tad odd that he was asking for like 70% more than what he actually got?
I have a theory.
While his production may have temporarily dried up while Heineman was injured, something else even more poignant occurred during that time – Trump and his tariffs crap. This Trump thing is really aggravating and upsetting most Canadians. Evans is from Canada. My son today shared a forum on Twitter which suggested that many Canadian hockey players may not want to play in the USA once they become UFAs, for obvious reasons. And I believe it. I don’t blame them. Jake Evans is a hockey player but is also human and has emotions and feelings, just like the average Canadian.
I would not be surprised if he informed American teams interested in him that if they trade for him, he would NOT sign an extension with them…for any $$$. But that significantly diminished his earnings potential and leaves only 6 other Canadian teams to sign with. And if none of these six wanted to sign him, he is out of a job. So he did the easiest thing and took what the Habs were offering and said “whatever…at least I have job security for the next 4 seasons – and I got a decent pay raise”.
I’m not sure I call this move a “hometown discount”. I think there very well be something else going on here. Maybe it comes out one day…maybe it doesn’t. Maybe I’m wrong. But I could very well be right.
This political nonsense Trump is spewing may very well have an effect on free agency this summer…stay tuned.
In the end, I actually feel a bit for Jake, regardless of how he decided on this move. I think he’s actually worth more than what he signed for…and if he did sign with the Habs for say $3.5M x 4 years, nobody would be up in arms about it.
In the end, Hugo strikes yet another cap bargain. By far, this has been his best attribute – cap management.
I like your speculation. I’ll try to remember it this summer if this turns out partly true. While the question “Will he and his life partner be happy moving in the city of the highest bidder for his services?” might seem quite important, he must know that he can be traded at any time.
I believe that Evans probably realized that securing 11.4M$ of revenues over the next 4 years is a wise move for him now; it’s enough to afford a comfortable future for the rest of his life. When declining such an offer, the player must take into account the risks of turning it down too. Sure, he could have gotten more according to some experts, but their opinions are based on assumptions. What happens if they are wrong? Which teams can afford to pay more for a good 4th-line center? What happens if he doesn’t enjoy a comparable success after being traded? What happens if he gets injured, again? Just one concussion could be dramatic.
4 years at 2.85m is the equivalent of 3 years at 3.8M. Same dollar value.
But dollars don’t matter to a team with deep pockets like ours. The cap hit is the key. Keeping it low, allows us to spend $ on other players in other areas. With the cap rising as it’s expected to do, this deal is an absolute steal for us. And once we have a prospect that is ready to push Jake out, his deal is extremely tradeable somewhere else for an asset we can use to keep our pipeline stocked.
Excellent points. I like this deal also.
Perhaps taking Evans off the market might help increase the demand for Armia? A 6’4” grinding PK winger is always a hot commodity for contenders. If not, perhaps this signing is a precursor to an Armia contract as well? Say 2-3yrs for similar $ as Evans? If I’m Armia, I test the open market and cash in elsewhere, but HuGo have proven themselves to be masters at cap management so far, so it’s not out of the question to hope for a similar steal here too. Personally, I would have like to see us package the 2 guys for another 1st rounder and then circle back towards Evans in the summer, but his new contract is an absolute steal, so no harm done there.
Can you imagine if Hughes had drafted Michkov to go along with Demidov. The Cup would be coming to Montreal within the next three years. That is going to go down as bad as drafting Cory Urquhart while passing on Patrice Bergeron.
Except Elliot Friedman flat out said Michkov gamed his way to Philly, and no GM is taking three wingers with 3 straight top 5 picks. So if we had Michkov, we likely don’t have Demidov.
Friedman can say what he wants, but the Habs absolutely could have drafted Michkov.
And honestly, I don’t see the harm in adding two elite forwards to the mix via the draft. It’s an ideal situation for any team, particularly one like the Habs that needs more offence.
Although talented , that may be one too many short players in the top 6. Plus, I’m good how it panned out with Demidov in our top 6. Now, we need a 1c/2C.
The cup may well be won by Montreal within the next 5 years without Mitchkov. In which case, Mitchkov would be the loser here.