{"id":470730,"date":"2025-10-03T21:22:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T01:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=470730"},"modified":"2025-10-03T21:26:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T01:26:42","slug":"underrated-winger-signs-well-deserved-deal-back-nhl-nashville-predators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/10\/03\/underrated-winger-signs-well-deserved-deal-back-nhl-nashville-predators\/","title":{"rendered":"Underrated Winger Signs Well-Deserved Deal Back in Nashville"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A skilled winger has signed his restricted free agent contract. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/e\/evanglu01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-03_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luke Evangelista<\/a> signs his first contract after the expiration of his entry-level contract with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/09\/16\/2025-26-puck-drop-preview-nashville-predators\" target=\"_self\">Nashville Predators<\/a>. It&#8217;s a two-year deal, worth an annual average value of $3 million. After being the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/09\/18\/nhl-rumours-update-on-nashville-predators-rfa-forward\" target=\"_self\">source of many rumours<\/a>, find out with this means for the team in Nashville.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Further to <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DarrenDreger?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@DarrenDreger<\/a> report, Luke Evangelista has a two-year deal done with the <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/preds?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#preds<\/a> carrying a $3M AAV. <\/p>\n<p>The NHL&#39;s last remaining unsigned RFA will get to training camp before the season starts.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/reporterchris\/status\/1974265997629542790?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 4, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Luke Evangelista Signs Contract to Stay With the Nashville Predators<\/h3>\n<p>At 23 years old, having found consistent ice time and roles, Evangelista appears to really be coming into his own. He&#8217;s never really had a break out season. However, he has found consistency in opportunity and production. Once you sprinkle in chemistry with linemates, he could potentially be at the cusp of really taking flight.<\/p>\n<p>Evangelista has been fairly productive in his NHL career. His career highs came in 2023-24, goals (16), assists (23), points (39), and games played (80), all came in that campaign. His career average of 14:17 of ice time is a sign he can provide solid NHL potential.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, from 2024-25, campaign, one of most successful linemates was off to join the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/09\/20\/nhl-rumours-first-2018-world-junior-case-player-expected-rejoin-nhl-carolina-hurricanes\" target=\"_self\">Carolina Hurricanes<\/a>, back to the 2025 NHL trade deadline. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/j\/jankoma01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-03_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mark Jankowski<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/n\/novakth01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-03_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Thomas Novak<\/a> were Evangelista&#8217;s best linemates from last season. But with Novak now with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/09\/29\/2025-26-pittsburgh-penguins-roster-training-camp-bottom-six-forwards\" target=\"_self\">Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a>, neither of his most regular linemates are returning. Moreover, it is interesting in that they only had 129 minutes together. It meant for Evangelista personally, he didn&#8217;t spend a lot of time with a set combo of players. That can make it tricky to find chemistry on the fly.<\/p>\n<p>However, with the talent the Nashville Predator forward group possesses, it isn&#8217;t difficult to set the ceiling high. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/stamkst01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-03_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Steven Stamkos<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/a\/audymjo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-03_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jonathan Marchessault<\/a> are a pair of Stanley Cup pedigree snipers that can prove that fact. One interesting depth player for Nashville is Russian <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/svechfe01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-03_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fedor Svechkov<\/a>, he wants to prove he can be a full-time NHLer. Playing on the second line right now in pre-season practice lines, is a sign he will get some opportunity. The point is, Nashville has some flexibility in trying to find a nice fit for Evangelista. This deal could easily turn into a strong-value one for club. That could become mutually beneficial in the long run.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Steve Roberts &#8211; Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A skilled winger has signed his restricted free agent contract. Luke Evangelista signs his first contract after the expiration of his entry-level contract with the Nashville Predators. It&#8217;s a two-year deal, worth an annual average value of $3 million. After being the source of many rumours, find out with this means for the team in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4222,"featured_media":470734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31,4547,34,4548],"tags":[6987,6453,662],"class_list":["post-470730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predators","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-luke-evangelista","tag-nashville-predators-news","tag-nhl-free-agency"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470730"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":475150,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470730\/revisions\/475150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}