This season 22-year-old Luke Evangelista is making a name for himself in the NHL and it isn’t just as “Pretty Boy Vincenzo”.
The Toronto native has navigated his first full season in the NHL with a new head coach and new system surrounded by a fairly different roster constructed in General Manager Barry Trotz’s first year. Evangelista finished the regular season with the Nashville Predators with 16 goals and 39 points, ranked sixth in points among league rookies, and with the potential to be an under the radar threat in the playoffs.
The evolution of Evangelista in his first full NHL season came with the inevitable highs and lows of growth.
“First and foremost, it was a ton of fun,” Evangelista said when asked how he would summarize the 2023-2024 regular season.
“We’re such a fun, easy going group, everyone gets along. It was a pleasure showing up to work every day with these guys.”
“On a personal level, there was a ton of development and growth for me personally in terms of finding my game and changing parts of my game,” Evangelista said.
“The second half of the season it felt like I took a big leap,” he said. “First half was maybe inconsistent. I feel like my game grew quite a bit in the second half.”
Certainly, Evangelista’s game has grown exponentially from the start of the 2023-2024 season until now, but that growth didn’t come with a comfortable, linear trajectory. Evangelista struggled early to find the back of the net, recording just one goal in the first 15 regular season games. Inconsistency resulted in Evangelista being a healthy scratch for two games. On November 20, he had to sit by and watch one of the most exciting games of the season as the Predators came from behind to win over the Colorado Avalanche by scoring two goals in :13 seconds.
“It’s never a straight line especially when you’re a young guy trying to develop,” Evangelista said of his game back in January.
Evangelista wrapped up the final month of the regular season scoring a game tying power play goal to help the Predators defeat the Devils in a shootout, shared top line minutes with Filip Forsberg and Ryan O’Reilly when Andrew Brunette rested Gustav Nyquist, and assisted on two of Filip Forsberg’s three goals against Chicago on April 12. The player full of potential in October hit his stride in the spring.
What made the difference over the course of this season for Evangelista?
Andrew Brunette credits hard work for the growth in his game.
“He’s putting the work in,” Brunette said of Evangelista. “Early in the year I thought he waited for pucks. Now he’s going to get pucks and when he does have the puck he’s a dangerous guy in the league.”
“I think once he figured out he had to put a little but more work in to have the puck, he’s had it a lot more and he’s had a lot more fun with it.”
That’s the biggest lesson Evangelista has learned this season.
“The one thing I’ve learned is how much the puck battles matter, you know, those fifty-fifty battles,” Evangelista said.
“Once I really got committed and competitive in those battles and started winning more pucks, it just results in more possession time and chances for me to make plays, especially in the offensive zone.”
Of course, being surrounded by successful veterans — serial winners as Barry Trotz says — has influenced Evangelista and the younger players in the Predators locker room and on the ice. That veteran presence will be invaluable as players like Evangelista, Tommy Novak, Cole Smith, and Spencer Stastney make their NHL playoff debuts.
“I think we’re very fortunate with our veteran group,” Andrew Brunette said. “I think they’ve done a really good job of helping the yong players grow and understand how hard it’s going to be.”
Finding chemistry with consistent linemates has also played a part in Evangelista’s development. Evangelista, Tommy Novak, and Mark Jankowski played together through much of the latter half of the season, and the combination created a perfect place to grow their games.
“I think they all help each other out in different ways,” Brunette said of the Novak, Jankowski, Evangelista line.
“I think with Janko, he’s very reliable on both ends of the ice. He can win face offs. He’s got good offensive instincts that think with those guys. And he’s a nice safety blanket for two offensive players like Vange and Novie.”
Novak and Evangelista wrapped up the season playing with trade deadline acquisition Anthony Beauvillier, and that trio has also found success on the ice together.
Some of Evangelista’s success simply comes down to who he is. The fun loving “Pretty Boy Vincenzo” (the name of his no-longer-secret former Instagram account ratted out by Cody Glass) brings a lot of great energy to the locker room and passion to the ice.
“He’s always had moxie and swagger,” Andrew Brunette said. “I think he’s figured out if he puts the work in, you’ll get the puck more the skill will take over.”
The player with a great sense of humor, a passion for hockey, a touch of moxie, and a willingness to learn may evolve into a difference maker as Evangelista and the Predators face off against the Vancouver Canucks in the first round of the playoffs. Puck will drop in Vancouver for Game 1 of the series on Sunday, April 21 at 9:00 pm CT.
