Sometimes, when we ask around to learn more about a player, whether it be former coaches or others who helped during their formative years, you might hear the same attributes and positive qualities mentioned. The same themes may overlap.
In the case of Jake Evans, for example, whether it’s his former coach at the University of Notre Dame, Jeff Jackson, his Laval Rocket coach Joël Bouchard or even Claude Julien with the Canadiens, everyone seems to agree on one thing: Evans’ hockey sense and intelligence are the attributes that allow him to progress, and the young man shows a deep commitment to learning.
That is an excellent foundation for any player.
Each coach, however, also made some seemingly contradictory statements about Evans. But we’re not here to see who’s right or wrong. Instead, let’s focus on the impact these men had on Evans’ development. Once you do that, what first appears as a contradiction could in fact be seen as a way of explaining a progression.
Take Evans’ skating, for example.
“He’s always been criticized a little bit for his skating, but I think he improved a lot in his four years here,” said Jackson, who has coached the men’s hockey team at Notre Dame since 2005. “His quickness and his stride have improved. He’s always had pretty good agility and ability to change directions, but I think he’s made himself into a much better player with the time and effort he put into the weight room and all the development stuff that we do here with our players.”
Evans has had to come a long way. There’s a reason why he was drafted in the seventh round; there had to be some kind of manufacturing defect.
His four years of progress in South Bend, however, wouldn’t be enough once he arrived in Laval.
“You look at Jake Evans right now, and Jake Evans when he first came with us,” Bouchard said. “His pace – and when I talk about pace, I mean his engagement into the game, his pop, the way he would jump – was way low. For that reason, it was tough for me at the beginning to put him too much on the ice.”
A pace that was too slow for the American Hockey League? Imagine that.
But what was Julien saying in training camp about the unit that had Evans, Paul Byron, and Artturi Lehkonen?
“That line looks extremely fast.”
Oh, yeah?
“We got three really fast guys and I don’t think I’ve ever been on a line where I feel I’m the slowest one,” Lehkonen said last week.
See? It’s not so much that all these coaches contradict each other. It is that their experience of Jake Evans is timestamped. Taken one after the other, they tell a story, that of a young man who listened to what he was taught, who struggled but never stopped improving.
Evans has come a long way. There’s a reason why he was drafted in the seventh round. Those initial defects took a lot of work in the factory to erase.
Player development was a major flaw for the Canadiens when Sylvain Lefebvre was running the farm team. The scouting department received its fair share of criticism over the years, but several highly-touted and intriguing prospects seemed to wither while making their way up the Canadiens ranks.
As such, we can already say of Evans that he is the first real development success for the Rocket under Joël Bouchard. There was Cale Fleury, who was rushed to Montreal for half a season last year, but the young defenceman’s promotion was based more on the Canadiens’ needs than his actual readiness.
Whereas Evans wasn’t rushed. He arrived when the team deemed him ready. Bouchard was able to take his time with him and in his eyes, that makes all the difference. He’s had two years to get to know him, shape him, and reprogram him. Evans had grown into a productive player in college, but he was also a finalist for the Big-Ten Defensive Player of the Year in his senior year.
Bouchard insisted to Evans that it was this aspect of his game that would open the doors to the NHL.
“I have never seen a player transform that much to become like the way he has become,” Bouchard said.
If this is how well Evans was able to progress in Laval, it begs the question of what Bouchard and the Rocket could do with prospects like Jesse Ylönen or Cam Hillis who are arriving in the AHL at a starting point that is seemingly higher than Evans’ was? And if Trevor Timmins has been diligent in drafting character players who want to learn and improve, there is no reason to believe other prospects can’t develop and reach their full potential as well as Evans did.
The Canadiens have selected a ton of players at the last few drafts, but they need to be able to convert more of them into NHL players than they have in the past.
Players entering the NHL often need time to find their identity at this level, and that’s what Bouchard focused on with Evans. He arrives knowing full well he will likely be a bottom-six forward.
But even if his meal ticket is his responsible defensive play, Julien sees him as a player capable of creating chances on offence through his relentless forechecking. Jackson, for his part, believes that if given the opportunity, Evans’ instincts and willingness to get his nose dirty could allow him to produce points in the NHL as well.
Evans has taken his time every step of the way – four years in college, two years in the AHL – and he’s an NHL rookie at 24. He’s more of a tortoise than a hare, that’s clear, but given his progression curve, that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re looking at a finished product.
Before the free-agent market opened, when asked about the possibility of getting his hands on an experienced centre to replace Nate Thompson, general manager Marc Bergevin said the time had come to show some confidence in his young players. While there was some element of risk in that strategy, the Canadiens were in a position where they had to gamble.
“Centreman is the toughest position in hockey, so it’s not an easy place to jump in,” Lehkonen said. “(Evans) has taken a lot of own zone faceoffs too, so he’s got a lot of trust from the coaches. And he’s really making it count too. He’s playing great right now.”
It meant Evans was given a mandate usually reserved for more established players. Julien has no choice but to turn to him, you might say, but he sincerely believes in him.
“I think Jake may surprise a lot of people this season if his confidence continues to go in the right direction,” Julien said during training camp.
We’ve now touched on a recurring theme with Evans. Over the years, his coaches may have had different opinions of his skating, or the role they envisioned for him, but they all found that his self-confidence was an issue.
During his early AHL days, when points were hard to come by, Evans started making mistakes and doing things he wouldn’t normally do. He was on the verge of being scratched for a game in November 2019, until Bouchard had a change of heart and put him in the lineup.
If you heard Evans speak about his first few games in Montreal last year, you’d notice he was hard on himself. Evans didn’t like his first game this year either, against the Toronto Maple Leafs. However, apart from him being nervous, Julien had no problems with Evans on opening night.
“He’s always been a guy that was hard on himself,” Jackson said. “But as long as they don’t let it pull them down, it really creates a situation where they learn from their adversity, they learn from their mistakes. Over his time here, he got stronger in that area and became a lot more mentally tough.”
In the Canadiens’ first six games, Lehkonen saw Evans as a player growing in confidence with every game. He might have something to do with that, as Evans thanked him and Byron for encouraging him and remaining positive with him the day after the Toronto game.
But Evans is aware that all of this is a necessary step, a barrier he must overcome in order to go further.
“In terms of development, young players must go through experiences,” Bouchard said a few days ago.
“There are things I can teach, and there are things they have to experience.”
Evans was always willing to learn. He always committed himself to be better and was open to fixing his mistakes. But now, it’s time for him to go through his trial by fire. It might be a bit dizzying for a player to be his own harshest critic, but at least it shows a deep desire to be the best version of himself.
And he won’t stop working to make it happen.
We often talk about the value of contracts by thinking in terms of dollars and cents, but in Evans’ case, it feels there is some moral value in the two-year contract he signed last fall. A commitment. He never forgot the fact the team took a chance on him when they selected him in the seventh round of the 2014 draft and he needed to live up to the trust placed in him.
Same thing with the University of Notre Dame. Jackson texts him when something big happens, but Evans does the same when something noteworthy takes place at his alma mater.
He is loyal to the program he once captained, Jackson says.
“He’s that type of a kid. If you work for him, he’s going to work for you. And that’s one of his character strengths.”
Jackson watched Evans score his first goal of the year, shorthanded, against the Edmonton Oilers. After all those years of encouraging Evans to shoot and focus a little less on passing, he must have been ecstatic to see him shoot on a 2-on-1 and score on his own rebound to beat goaltender Mikko Koskinen.
But it’s not just that.
The goal came after a turnover in the defensive zone that Evans created when he intercepted a pass from Connor McDavid. He took off the other way with the puck and McDavid wasn’t able to catch up to him to erase his mistake.
McDavid wasn’t able to catch up to him.
All that work on his skating has paid off. First, it was Jackson, then Bouchard and now Julien is benefiting from the end result.
