The New Jersey Devils locked up Luke Evangelista on a five-year extension that will run through the 2031-32 season, putting a $36,250,000 price tag on the recently acquired forward. The deal carries a $7,250,000 average annual value and was announced by general manager Sunny Mehta.
The contract does not kick in right away. Evangelista is entering the 2026-27 season under the final year of his current two-year deal worth $6,000,000, and the extension begins with the 2027-28 season. The salary breakdown starts at $9,700,000 in 2027-28, then drops to $8,260,000 in 2028-29 before settling at $6,120,000 in 2029-30 and $6,085,000 in each of the final two years.
New Jersey acquired Evangelista on September 1, 2026, in a trade with the Nashville Predators. The Devils sent Colorado’s 2028 first-round pick, which is conditional, along with New Jersey’s 2028 second-round pick.
Evangelista, 24, arrives with a track record of steady production. He finished his fourth NHL season with Nashville last year and set personal bests in both assists and points, piling up 44 assists and 56 points in 81 games.
Sixteen of those assists came on the power play, second on the Predators behind defenseman Roman Josi. His season also included a couple of notable checkpoints: he played his 200th career NHL game on Dec. 9, 2025, against Colorado, and reached 100 career points on Nov. 28, 2025, at Chicago.
From Nov. 24 to Dec. 2, he also put together a five-game point streak with two goals and six assists, the longest such run of his career.
Since debuting in the NHL with Nashville on Feb. 28, 2023, Evangelista has produced 142 career points, with 45 goals and 97 assists, in 253 regular-season games. He also appeared in six games for the Predators during the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs and scored once.
Before establishing himself in the NHL, Evangelista spent time in the AHL, making his professional debut with Chicago in 2020-21 and later getting a brief run with Milwaukee during the 2022-23 season. Across 63 AHL games, he posted 45 points on nine goals and 36 assists.
Born in Toronto on Feb. 21, 2002, Evangelista was taken 42nd overall by Nashville in the second round of the 2020 NHL Draft. His junior career came in the OHL with London, where he played from 2018-19 through 2021-22 and served as captain in his final season.
In 151 OHL games, Evangelista scored 174 points, including 78 goals and 96 assists. His 111 points in 2021-22 led all London skaters, while his 55 goals topped all OHL players and his 111 points ranked fourth in the league. Evangelista is a second cousin of former Devil and three-time Stanley Cup champion Brendan Shanahan.
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