Why Luke Evangelista's contract deadlock is a bad look for the Nashville Predators

It was never supposed to get to this point with Luke Evangelista and the Nashville Predators.

After two weeks of training camp, and with five of six preseason games played, the Predators and their 23-year-old forward are no closer to a contract than they were three months ago.

Evangelista, a restricted free agent, had 10 goals and 22 assists in 68 games last season. After Nashville made him a qualifying offer in July, securing he’d be around for at least the 2025-26 season, it bought the team and player plenty of time to get a deal done.

Instead, there is none. And Evangelista is away from the team, training on his own back home in Ontario. Without a signed contract, players cannot participate in team activities.

On Sept. 11, general manager Barry Trotz had said the team “loves Luke” and was looking forward to getting a deal in place. But now, Evangelista’s future has been put on ice. Or, rather, off it.

“Collectively, both sides are disappointed Luke is not signed and with our team,” Trotz told The Tennesseean in a statement on Sept. 29. “We are not going to negotiate in the media. We are optimistic and hope we can get Luke signed and re-join our team in the near future. In the meantime, we are excited with our camp up to this point — with our veterans leading the way — and very excited about the development of our young players.”

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A long-term contract was always the dream, but that’s certainly not happening now. A short-term deal of one to two years is more likely. Unsurprisingly, the other disagreement is money, but neither side has revealed exactly how far apart they are on value.

As per the NHL and NHLPA’s collective bargaining agreement, if Evangelista is not signed by Dec. 1, he cannot play in 2025-26, though the Predators would still retain his rights.

Luke Evangelista, like Predators, had off year

First, let’s admit that Evangelista struggled to score last season. His 10 goals were a drop-off from 16 the year before, despite nearly the same deployment and ice time. His shooting percentage (7.4%) and points scored per hour (2.0) were career lows. He was often out-muscled in the corner and looked frustrated as he struggled to find paths to the net.

But the whole team had issues with scoring in 2024-25. The Predators finished 31st in goal scoring (2.59 goals per game). There were career lows in shooting percentage, goals per hour and shot attempts all over the roster.

Was Evangelista a driver of that bad offense? Or merely a passenger on a runaway car? The answer is somewhere in between.

The Predators cannot afford to let another young forward escape

Evangelista trends as a middle-six scoring option in the NHL. A steady 15-20 goals every season, flirting with 25-30 goals at his peak. He’s more Craig Smith, who averaged 20.1 goals per 82 games in nine years with Nashville, than Filip Forsberg, the team’s all-time leading scorer.

But the Predators are not in a position to treat young, offensive players with this much hesitancy. They have few skilled wingers in the pipeline and even fewer who are NHL-ready.

It’s an unfortunate reminder of how the team occasionally does business with forwards. Just ask Kevin Fiala, Eeli Tolvanen and Philip Tomasino, all of whom left the team either via trade or waivers after a promising start. Too often, players with descriptions like “skilled” or “sharp-shooter” or “playmaker” in their prospect bios don’t get the same attention as ones with “tough” or “driven” or “heavy-hitter” in Nashville.

A two-year, $3 million per year contract would be reasonable for the Predators to offer. If they balk, citing Evangelista’s modest 10 goals last season, maybe someone should remind them they traded for Erik Haula’s $3.1 million cap hit in June, a player who scored 11 goals for the New Jersey Devils last season.

The Predators don’t have the luxury of getting picky with young offensive forwards. Letting a young goal-scorer wither on the vine? That would be poor roster management, especially given last year’s monumental disappointment.

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Alex Daugherty is the Predators beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Alex at jdaugherty@gannett.com. Follow Alex on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @alexdaugherty1. Also check out our Predators exclusive Instagram page @tennessean_preds.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Why Luke Evangelista’s contract deadlock looks bad for the Predators

Why Luke Evangelista’s contract deadlock is a bad look for the Nashville Predators

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