Jake Evans Drawing Trade Interest

Little has changed for the basement-dwelling Canadiens to start the season. Their 4-6-1 record has them tied with the Bruins for last place in the Atlantic Division, and their -15 goal differential is second-worst in the league, behind only the Sharks’ -17 mark.

The slow start can mainly be attributed to poor team defense. The Habs are controlling an abysmal 43.2% of shot attempts and 41.2% of high-danger chances at 5-on-5, contributing along with average goaltending to a league-worst 4.18 goals against per game. But a lack of high-powered offense despite a fiery-hot top line of Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovský and Nick Suzuki isn’t helping matters either. With patience slowly beginning to run thin, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet wrote recently that general manager Kent Hughes is “looking for an edge up front,” just not at the expense of any up-and-comers they think could make an impact in the next couple of years.

But the Habs have a bevy of legitimately useful NHL talents, especially down the middle, that could be flipped in hopes of landing a piece with more offensive punch. One of them is 28-year-old Jake Evans, who sources tell Marco D’Amico of Responsible Gambler is drawing early-season trade interest from “at least three teams.”

A seventh-round pick back in 2014, Evans has consistently shouldered third-line minutes over the past few seasons. While doing so, he’s posted decent possession metrics in challenging even-strength deployment for one of the league’s worst defensive teams. He’s kept that up this season, rocking a 43.4 CF% and a 48.3 xGF% that ride above team averages. He’s also upped his game offensively in a small sample, scoring twice and adding three assists for five points in 11 games. That works out to 0.45 per game, a marginal uptick on the 28 points in 82 games (0.34 per game) he recorded last season.

Evans isn’t much of a chance generator on his own. After recording 124 shots on goal in 72 games in 2021-22, leading to a career-high 13 goals and 29 points, he’s only averaged around one shot per game. He gets involved physically, however – his 65 blocked shots ranked second among Habs forwards last season behind Slafkovský. Since making his NHL debut in the 2019-20 season, he’s also been their most oft-deployed forward on the penalty kill, averaging 2:27 per game while shorthanded over his career. He’s averaged 3:31 on the PK this year, 38 seconds more than second-place Christian Dvorak.

But Evans is a pending unrestricted free agent, and given his age, he’s likely playing the most effective hockey of his career. That means he won’t be a core part of the Canadiens teams the organization hopes to challenge for playoff spots in the next few years, and if he does stick around, it would be in a reduced role. With his career-average 51.0 FOW%, he can help more competitive teams looking to add a more defensively responsible pivot to their bottom six.

As D’Amico points out, the Canadiens aren’t just considering changing their forward group. They would also like to add a right-shot defenseman if possible. While Evans alone won’t get them a premier talent there, flipping a player who’s questionable to re-sign could at least help them shore up their depth at the position.