Luke Evangelista remembers most everything from his first NHL game on February 28, 2023 against the Pittsburgh Penguins, especially some sage advice from Barry Trotz before he took the ice for the first time as a Nashville Predator against Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

“I remember Barry Trotz coming up to me before the game and telling me a story about how when he was coaching all of his players were idolizing Gretzky and Jari Kurri and all these Hall of Famers that they were going up against, and they ended up getting beat,” Evangelista shared.

“So he [Trotz] told me it doesn’t matter that Crosby and Malkin are on the other side. Don’t be afraid of them. Go right at them.”

“I remember that talk before the game. I remember that whole game,” Evangelista said.

“I had that big hit on Malkin, and Crosby was chirping me. It was a lot of fun.”

What is different about September 2024 Luke Evangelista as compared to that February 2023 rookie?

A lot has changed since that first game. The Predators have a new head coach, a new GM, and a new system, but the biggest change for Evangelista has been his understanding of what it takes to be successful in the league.

“For myself, personally, I’ve come to realize what it takes to be an offensive player in the NHL,” Evangelista said.

“My forechecking game has changed a lot. I take my forechecking a lot more serious than I did before. My puck battles are a big thing that I focus on now too. That wasn’t a key part of my game when I made my debut.”

In his 104 regular season NHL games in gold, the 22-year-old Toronto native has scored 23 goals and 54 points with his best play coming at the end of last season. Evangelista refers to 2023-2024 as a tale of two seasons, and he credits a mid-season video session with Andrew Brunette for helping his game improve down the stretch.

“A big thing for me that I always go back to is a video session I had with Bruno about puck battles,” Evangelista said when asked what helped elevate his game in the second half of last season.

“He was just showing me some clips of me losing some puck battles that I really should have been winning. I had good positioning and should have been winning and would have allowed me to play with the puck more.”

“I think once I started really focusing on that, I started to play with the puck way more. We were in the offensive zone more. My line had the puck more. That was a key moment for me.”

Evangelista got his first taste of the NHL postseason last spring when the Predators faced off against the Vancouver Canucks in the first round, and he acknowledges that there was a learning curve in his six playoff games as well.

“The jump from the AHL to the NHL is one thing, and then it feels like the jump from the NHL to the NHL playoffs is another thing,” Evangelista said.

“It gets that much tighter, checking gets that much tighter, you’ve got to limit your errors.”

With his success and growth last season, it appeared that Evangelista might be headed for an opportunity in Nashville’s top six, but offseason moves by Barry Trotz to bring in Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault shook up expectations in the forward corps. However, Evangelista is not focused on line up speculation but rather controlling what he can control.

“I’m just focused on my own game,” he said. “I think there a lot of things you can look into as a young forward on this team about them bringing in two forwards. I’m just focusing on my own game and just being the best version of me that I can be.”

That’s exactly what Andrew Brunette is looking for out of Evangelista in training camp.

“I’m looking for Luke to be Luke,” Bruno said after Tuesday’s practice. “We’ve seen that so far. He’s got a really good feel of the game and patience and poise with the puck.”

Where that skill set lands him on the roster remains to be seen, but Evangelista is embracing whatever opportunity he is given.

“If that’s playing in the bottom six, then I want to be a threat, help out with that secondary scoring, and take some of the pressure off of the guys in the top six,” Evangelista said.

“If I can just be the best Luke Evangelista then that’s going to help the squad a long way.”