Player Discussion Jake Evans (Part II)

[Habs Halifax]

Around 4 million is my cut off point for Evans. I think that is being generous. He's a good 4th line center. But at end of day, he's still a 4th line center. They not that hard to replace.

I might go 4 years if it gets deal done. Takes him through his prime years. But rather 3

Go 3 years and pay him $4.5M if you have too (even $5M). Overlap his contract with Demidov's ELC. Same timing of how long it will take Beck, Kapanen, Hage to mature as NHL centers. Someone like Beck or Kapanen (or both) on Evans' line is a great situation for their development.

I prefer 3x $4M but he's probably looking at 4 or 5 year terms. I just don't see many teams offering him more than $4.5M AAV under any term. He's improved and a great 3C but the 3C rate is not $5M+ even after the gap growth to come.

3 years with Evans is the key IMO.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Teams never do this. The experience of playing real meaningful games is equally as important as the magic beans. More so, imo.

I think we have to listen if we are offered a mid to late first rounder. Anything else might not be worth it. We already have two 2nd rounders and a loaded pool of grade B's and B+ types.

This will be more about the contract Evan's is asking for. If he asks for too much, Hughes will play the conservative card and wait it out. If Evans chooses UFA, I wish him luck. Doubt other teams will give him much more than we are offering today. Nobody likes to overpay for a 3C.

3 years at $4.5M is a good offer. Takes him to age 31 and becomes a UFA at age 32. Can then sign another contract from 32-35 with a much higher cap then. I strongly feel we need to keep his term at 3 years and match Demidov's ELC.

 

[Guiness time]

For me the team is still in rebuild mode. If you could guarantee me that one of Hage and Demidov become a top 3 forward and the other a top 6, and that both Mailloux and Reinbacher become top 4s, then yes, I might overpay for a player like Evans. But I am not convinced that all 4 will hit, so picking up a 1st rather than overpay for Evans is solid asset mgmt for a rebuilding team regardless if you view him as a 3rd or 4th liner.

 

[ReHabs]

For me the team is still in rebuild mode. If you could guarantee me that one of Hage and Demidov become a top 3 forward and the other a top 6, and that both Mailloux and Reinbacher become top 4s, then yes, I might overpay for a player like Evans. But I am not convinced that all 4 will hit, so picking up a 1st rather than overpay for Evans is solid asset mgmt for a rebuilding team regardless if you view him as a 3rd or 4th liner.

Exactly.

It's impossible that every top pick we've made hits. We're still, therefore, down another top pick.

Years ago we had "more darts for the dartboard" used to describe Bergevin's strategy to pick up late round picks. It was nonsense. It's the high first round talents that make it. Our team has two holes made worse by ACL injuries: 2C and top-pairing D. We need to see a clear pathway to solving these holes before giving boatloads of cash to depth players.

I strongly feel we need to keep his term at 3 years and match Demidov's ELC.

This is certainly a palatable idea. Evans will likely get a 4th year if he hits the FA market, let's be real. Joel Edmundson got a 4 year deal last summer and he's been cooked for two years prior!

 

[Habs Halifax]

This is certainly a palatable idea. Evans will likely get a 4th year if he hits the FA market, let's be real. Joel Edmundson got a 4 year deal last summer and he's been cooked for two years prior!

Depends on what Evans and his agent are after. It's very likely he is after the 5 year deal and the Habs are offering 3. Personally, if we feel we need him for those 3 years to allow more time for Beck, Kapanen, and Hage to develop, just overpay him slightly in those 3 years.

Unless there is another big fish added to this core that takes up a big cap hit, we won't be having cap issues until Demidov has to be extended.

 

[Goalfield13]

Newhook. Next year. Demidov is coming and Newhook is gonna play on the third lind. And if this is not Newhook, it could be Yanni Gourde. I would give him a contract. He won the stanley cup, he is a realiable pker. I mean, I prefer to letting walk a bottom 6 player than overpay him.

Newhook couldn't tie Evans' shoelaces.

 

[Goalfield13]

Like I said , You'd pay Evans 5-6 years at 4.5m+
If there is a GM stupid enough to give a 20-30 points player that much money to play defensively then i think it's easy to move on.

You will miss him when he is gone. I am fine with letting him go if we can replace Dach with a much better 2C that can play all situations to support Suzuki. Otherwise, Evans carries a lot of responsibilities, and we have a lot of young Cs coming up that will need that support to help them along.

 

[Leon Lucius Black]

At the same point in their careers, Malholtra was a 3rd line center, one of the best defensive/PK centers in the NHL and received Selke votes. He has another season or two of good play and then started to fall off. I imagine that (and what Armia played like once he secured the bag) is part of the trepidation in signing Evans long term during a career year in his age 28 season.

Malhotra fell off because he suffered a bad eye injury when he was 30 that resulted in him losing most of his vision in the eye.

 

[WeThreeKings]

You will miss him when he is gone. I am fine with letting him go if we can replace Dach with a much better 2C that can play all situations to support Suzuki. Otherwise, Evans carries a lot of responsibilities, and we have a lot of young Cs coming up that will need that support to help them along.

It's insane that people will watch how swapping Barron for Carrier improved the team will then turn around and advocate for taking Evans and Dvorak out of the center line without an adequate, experienced replacement (who will cost a similar amount in dollars and term).

 

[Goalfield13]

It's insane that people will watch how swapping Barron for Carrier improved the team will then turn around and advocate for taking Evans and Dvorak out of the center line without an adequate, experienced replacement (who will cost a similar amount in dollars and term).

It's hilarious that people will watch and compare Evans to Dvorak and Barron LOL!!!!!!

 

[Hins77]

Newhook couldn't tie Evans' shoelaces.

I consider Newhook as a 3rd line player same for Evans. I mean, today, we can live with A Jake Evans a light overpaid. But on the big picture, in 3 years, when Reinbacher, Demidov and Hutson are going to crash the bank. I will assure you that you don't want a player on the bottom 6 overpaid.
Lowry 3,2 millions. Eller less than 3, Nicolas Roy at 3. I expect Jake Evans around 3,5 and that would be fine.

 

[LaP]

It's insane that people will watch how swapping Barron for Carrier improved the team will then turn around and advocate for taking Evans and Dvorak out of the center line without an adequate, experienced replacement (who will cost a similar amount in dollars and term).

So you assume all our young players will be as bad a Barron. That's equally insane tbh. BTW we started winning when Laine came back from injury (4-3 with Laine and wo Carrier). Carrier improved the defense but let's not pretend that's the only thing that happened.

Laine came back from an injury and Matheson started playing well with Hutson. Also we had two vets (Matheson, Savard) out of 6 dmen so 33%. We currently have 5 vets out of 6 bottom 6 players and the extra 13th forward is also a vet. Not the same situation at all.

I'm fine with resigning Evans as long as it's not a stupid contract. The others should be gone. Not sure why people argue we should manage this team the same way we managed our team for the last 30 years without success. It's totally insane in my opinion that we have learned nothing after 30 years of failure.

 

[CHfan1]

I consider Newhook as a 3rd line player same for Evans. I mean, today, we can live with A Jake Evans a light overpaid. But on the big picture, in 3 years, when Reinbacher, Demidov and Hutson are going to crash the bank. I will assure you that you don't want a player on the bottom 6 overpaid.
Lowry 3,2 millions. Eller less than 3, Nicolas Roy at 3. I expect Jake Evans around 3,5 and that would be fine.

While I think Newhook is a 3rd line player, if the idea is to replace Evans with Newhook at centre going forward that’s a downgrade, imo. Evans is better defensively, better at faceoffs, is on the ice at the end of the game trying to protect the lead, is Montreal’s top PK forward, and is at least as good offensively. If Montreal decides to move on from Evans I think they’ll need to find another veteran centre who can do all the things Evans does right now.

As far as the salary cap goes if Montreal signs Evans to a $4 million X 4 year contract they’ll be ok moving forward, but, if he’s looking for a Monahan type contract ($5.5.X5) I think they’ll have to find other options.

 

[Goalfield13]

I consider Newhook as a 3rd line player same for Evans. I mean, today, we can live with A Jake Evans a light overpaid. But on the big picture, in 3 years, when Reinbacher, Demidov and Hutson are going to crash the bank. I will assure you that you don't want a player on the bottom 6 overpaid.
Lowry 3,2 millions. Eller less than 3, Nicolas Roy at 3. I expect Jake Evans around 3,5 and that would be fine.

You can consider Newhook whatever you want, it doesn't make it true. Also, we will have tons of cap space. People have done the calculations. I was worried about that too. We have Dvorak and Armia coming off the books, and we can also rid ourselves of Newhook as well. We can easily afford a valuable player like Evans.

 

[WeThreeKings]

I consider Newhook as a 3rd line player same for Evans. I mean, today, we can live with A Jake Evans a light overpaid. But on the big picture, in 3 years, when Reinbacher, Demidov and Hutson are going to crash the bank. I will assure you that you don't want a player on the bottom 6 overpaid.
Lowry 3,2 millions. Eller less than 3, Nicolas Roy at 3. I expect Jake Evans around 3,5 and that would be fine.

By the time Reinbacher and Demidov need heavy extensions, that's like 3 off-seasons of the cap going up, at least 2 of them on Evans cap hit. It will be a smaller and smaller portion of the overall cap.

So you assume all our young players will be as bad a Barron. That's equally insane tbh. BTW we started winning when Laine came back from injury (4-3 with Laine and wo Carrier). Carrier improved the defense but let's not pretend that's the only thing that happened.

Laine came back from an injury and Matheson started playing well with Hutson. Also we had two vets (Matheson, Savard) out of 6 dmen so 33%. We currently have 5 vets out of 6 bottom 6 players and the extra 13th forward is also a vet. Not the same situation at all.

I'm fine with resigning Evans as long as it's not a stupid contract. The others should be gone. Not sure why people argue we should manage this team the same way we managed our team for the last 30 years without success. It's totally insane in my opinion that we have learned nothing after 30 years of failure.

No, I am not assuming that at all. I am saying that there's nothing to makes up for experience unless you are a transcendent talent like Hutson or Demidov.

You can't run a bottom 6 center line of two guys whose NHL experience will equate to like 20 NHL games by the time next season rolls around and expect to take a step forward. Center in the NHL is a tough position. Shutting players down and penalty killing are a lot tougher than getting cupcake minutes to play an offensive exploitation role like you can do with skilled players.

Let Dvorak go, keep Evans, and let Evans mentor Beck/Kapanen until they are capable of actually taking such heavy lifting.

 

[schwang26]

For me the team is still in rebuild mode. If you could guarantee me that one of Hage and Demidov become a top 3 forward and the other a top 6, and that both Mailloux and Reinbacher become top 4s, then yes, I might overpay for a player like Evans. But I am not convinced that all 4 will hit, so picking up a 1st rather than overpay for Evans is solid asset mgmt for a rebuilding team regardless if you view him as a 3rd or 4th liner.

You make some good points. The problem I see is that there’s no one taking over for Evans after the deadline or next year. If they lose Armia as well, you now go from having one of the best 4th lines in the league to one of the worst.
Add in the fact they’re losing another centre in Dvorak and now you have 2 maybe 3 holes. And no, Beck and Kapanen are not stepping in right away as some posters think.
Forget about being competitive for the time being if they lose all that. The 4th has been one of their most consistent lines all year and even Dvorak has been valuable for his faceoffs and PK. If they get away with 4 million for Evans, I don’t think that’s bad. They may bump him to the 3rd once Dvorak walks.

 

[DAChampion]

It is a bit of an awkward spot we find ourselves in with trying to sign Evans at his age in our rebuild, but I think it's something we need to do if the contract is reasonable.

Losing Dvorak and Evans means we'd have Suzuki, Newhook(?), Dach(?), Kapanen(?), and Beck(?) as our centers for next year. These players all have some question marks at center, except Suzuki. Dach still has a very raw defensive game, he's poor in the dot, and he might actually be better as a winger long term (unless he can improve his defensive game by quite a margin). Newhook seems better as a winger, and he is pretty mediocre defensively. Kapanen and Beck have very little NHL experience so far, and I think they have versatility in how they can potentially work well on the wing. Hage will be too raw still.

There are just too many question marks. We know how terrible it is to have no depth at center, and I don't wanna play that game anymore.

I feel confident there's mutual interest in getting a team friendly deal done for 3 or 4 years. Now is probably a good time to negotiate the contract. There's a good energy on the team and some real momentum with where it's going. Evans is probably feeling that and he would probably feel good about taking a team friendly deal to keep the story rolling with the team that took him as a 7th rounder so many years ago.

The other option is acquiring a veteran C as a two year stop gap.

Was a single poster on here discussing Carrier prior to the Barron trade?

 

[LaP]

The other option is acquiring a veteran C as a two year stop gap.

Personally i think that would be a better option. Maybe i'm too high on Beck but i think he'll be a solid 3rd line center in less than 3 years from now.

Was a single poster on here discussing Carrier prior to the Barron trade?

No.

Finding a stop gap 3rd line center is much eaiser than fiding the pieces we are missing. We are missing a 2nd line center ideally a 1B. People act like Laine's problems are solved but it's very possible that we will be looking to replace him after next season so we might be missing a 30 / 60 winger. We are missing a top 3 dman. Matheson will be 31 next season and like Petry he wont be eternal he's no Chelios or Bourque.

Those are very hard pieces to find and the best way to find them is to try kids like we did with Hutson. Yes by trying kids it means we will find more turds like Barron than gems like Hutson but that's the most effective way to find the missing pieces. We don't have 5 years to find those pieces too ideally we want to find them within the next 3 years so we got to move fast.

 

[Rapala]

The other option is acquiring a veteran C as a two year stop gap.

Was a single poster on here discussing Carrier prior to the Barron trade?

The assumption here is that Evans is impossible to replace which to me is astounding considering he's a role player.

 

[DAChampion]

The assumption here is that Evans is impossible to replace which to me is astounding considering he's role player.

It's fair, people are largely Habs fans and not NHL fans, they don't know about all of the other third line centers around the league.

 

[WeThreeKings]

The assumption here is that Evans is impossible to replace which to me is astounding considering he's role player.

No, it's that to replace him you are either spending trade assets to get that player.. or you go the UFA market and you end up paying term and money for a replacement which won't be dissimilar to Evans who is already in your system and in your room.

 

[EveryDay]

No, it's that to replace him you are either spending trade assets to get that player.. or you go the UFA market and you end up paying term and money for a replacement which won't be dissimilar to Evans who is already in your system and in your room.

This.

Newhook is not a center imo, he belong at LW. We can't go next year with Suzuki-Dach-Beck-Kapanen, it would be disastrous.

Evans need to be sign if the contract in under 4M unless Hughes knows that another player is coming either by trade or ufa.

 

[Rapala]

No, it's that to replace him you are either spending trade assets to get that player.. or you go the UFA market and you end up paying term and money for a replacement which won't be dissimilar to Evans who is already in your system and in your room.

Do you think it has to be one player to replace his role because a couple of players can do it.
I don't see replacing Evan's offense as difficult at all. As for his PK watching Dvorak and Anderson being just as effective tells me it's a role we can take care of internally. So if we can upgrade our top 6 using monies to be paid to Evans and assets acquired for Evans we need to do it. We aren't going to be spending any more resources than necessary to improve this team.

 

[Habs Halifax]

If we lock up Evans at 3x $5M and it overlaps Demidov's ELC. And allows more time to develop Beck, Kapanen, Hage at center... are we going to complain its too much when we likely have unused cap space in those 3 years?

 

[WeThreeKings]

Do you think it has to be one player to replace his role because a couple of players can do it.
I don't see replacing Evan's offense as difficult at all. As for his PK watching Dvorak and Anderson being just as effective tells me it's a role we can take care of internally. So if we can upgrade our top 6 using monies to be paid to Evans and assets acquired for Evans we need to do it. We aren't going to be spending any more resources than necessary to improve this team.

Yes, he's a center. Dvorak isn't as effective as him, at all.

They need a seasoned center who is going to take your big defensive draws. Match up against the other teams top 6. Take the big draw on the PK and kill that penalty.

It's a role, he fills it, trying to skimp on 500k isn't where we are at and the cap keeps rising. They'll sign him and the deal will be ok and not an issue at all.