The Montreal Canadiens have locked up one of their key young forwards. News emerged on Tuesday afternoon that the Habs have completed the Jake Evans extension. The deal is for four years and has a total of $11.4 million. This deal will run through the end of the 2028-29 season and has an average cap hit of $2.85 million per seaspn.
A four year deal for Jake Evans at $2.85 M per year. That is an extremely reasonable number for him.
— Arpon Basu (@arponbasu.bsky.social) 2025-03-04T18:15:23.450Z
Montreal Canadiens Complete Jake Evans Extension
Evans has played for only for the Canadiens in parts of six NHL seasons. The Toronto native is on pace for a career season with 12 goals and 16 assists for 28 points in 61 games. He has a Corsi for of 40.9 and a relative Corsi of -8.2.
The 28-year-old has 39 goals and 81 assists for 120 points in 329 career games. Montreal drafted the former University of Notre Dame product in the seventh round, 207th overall of the 2014 NHL Draft.
He has represented his native Canada on the international level. Evans won a gold medal at the 2017 Spengler Cup. The role player didn’t record a point, but did appear in four games in the tournament.
What It Means
There was genuine concern that the Habs were going to lose Evans in free agency. He was set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Evans was the subject of trade rumours, but he’s staying put with the Canadiens.
The forward has been an important part of the team’s bottom six and has formed a solid partnership with Joel Armia. Evans has been chipping in goals, which has been a bonus for the club.
The cap hit for Evans’ deal is also a very reasonable one for Canadiens General Manager Kent Hughes. There was some worry that his salary wouldn’t be able to fit under the cap. However, both sides are going to make it work with a very team-friendly deal.
Main photo by: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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