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Oakville's Luke Evangelista is ready for his first professional hockey season

Matt Hiscox
Matt Hiscox

Oakville resident Luke Evangelista is quickly becoming one of the most exciting prospects in the National Hockey League (NHL.)

A second-round pick of the Nashville Predators back in 2020, Evangelista was a star in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) and was fourth in overall point scoring throughout the entire league and first in goal scoring.

Last season, Luke served as the captain of the London Knights, where he scored 55 goals and 56 assists for a grand total of 111 points.

With those numbers, Luke is now 44th in all-time scoring for the organization.

"It’s weird not being there," said Evangelista, talking about not being at Knights training camp. "I’m going to miss London a lot and I’m going to miss my teammates but, at the same time I’m really excited for the next chapter of my career."

That next chapter of Luke’s career starts now, as he works towards his childhood dream of playing in the NHL. Luke has "been grinding all summer," hoping to improve his game and earn a spot on the Predators opening night roster.

He was at Predators development camp in July and talked about his first impressions of the city, saying, "It’s awesome, I went down Broadway and walked around just to get a vibe for the city and you can really feel the atmosphere when you’re down there."

When at Nashville’s development camp, the Predators staff told Luke that he needed to gain some more muscle mass in order to get stronger for the professional level - something that most young hockey players are told before he plays in the big leagues.

So Luke took that message and went to work.

He re-jigged his training schedule slightly and now instead of skating five times a week and working out five times a week, Evangelista cut down his skating to three times a week and is still working out five times a week and focusing on gaining more muscle like the staff wanted him to and has now put on a lot of muscle mass and is primed and ready for Nashville’s training camp.

Luke is also already on great terms with Nashville’s captain Roman Josi, Josi shares the same agent as Luke does, and after he was drafted two years ago, Josi gave Luke a call to congratulate him on becoming a Predator, telling him about how great the city and team are.

Even if Luke is unable to make the Predators out of training camp, he will still be eligible to play for Nashville’s AHL team the Milwaukee Admirals and will be eligible to be called up to the Predators at any time during this season.


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