At 21 years old and with fewer than 100 NHL games to his credit, Luke Evangelista is still young by a couple of different standards, but he’s a player the Predators are counting on to provide offense. He scored just two goals in December, but he has already surpassed that total since the calendar has turned to 2024.

With the Predators trailing late in the third period of their Jan. 13 game against the New York Islanders, Evangelista drew an Islanders’ penalty to put the Predators on a power play, during which he snapped a wrist shot just underneath the crossbar to tie the game, which the Preds would eventually go on to win.

After his shot entered the net, Evangelista skated over to the boards, motioning to the crowd to make some noise, even putting his hand up to his ear imploring the crowd to get even louder. Some players have their go-to celebrations – cellys for short in modern sports lingo – but this was a new one for Evangelista.

“That was really cool, a bit of an outrageous celly,” he says. “When I scored that goal, adrenaline kind of took over.”

Evangelista’s youthful exuberance is something Predators coach Andrew Brunette likes to see. He hopes the Toronto native can be one of the players the team looks to for scoring punch outside of the team’s top forward line of Filip Forsberg, Ryan O’Reilly and Gustav Nyquist.

“He’s a very poised kid. He’s got some pretty good swagger to him, which I appreciate,” Brunette says. “I don’t think any moment is too big for him. He’s got tremendous poise, which we saw on that goal. He’s growing. He’s getting better. These are good things for these kids to make these plays.”

The Predators selected the high-scoring Evangelista in the second round (42nd overall) in the 2020 draft. Before turning professional, his 55 goals for the London Knights in his final junior season led the Ontario Hockey League.

Seeing his first NHL action last season, he enjoyed great success, scoring seven goals and adding eight assists in 24 games played.

Predators’ veteran defenseman Ryan McDonagh, who’s approaching 900 NHL games played, also appreciates what he sees in his young teammate.

“He plays with a lot of emotion,” McDonagh says. “He wants to be there for the guys, wants to make an impact. He knows the importance of what he is to this team.”

And if those goals keep coming, be on the lookout for which celly he elects to go with, even one possibly more outrageous than the last depending on the magnitude of the goal.