Luke Evangelista is the engine for surging Nashville Predators and silencing the doubters

Luke Evangelista was under a microscope entering the season for the Nashville Predators due to his holding out throughout training camp for a new contract, and now the fourth-year NHL pro has been all over the scoresheet in seven of the last night games.

Nashville has won six of eight since that November 25 embarassing loss to the Florida Panthers in a 8-3 score. Even being so early in the season, many put the death nail into the Predators after that lopsided loss.

However, not so fast as since then Evangelista has been engine that is driving the Predators into a much more connected offense.

Luke Evangelista is surging while the Nashville Predators are winners in 6 of their last 8

During this six of eight stretch, that includes an upset win over the NHL's top team the Colorado Avalanche, Evangelista has 12 points and mostly coming via the assist. He is distributing the puck to his teammates and reading the ice around him better than we've ever seen him in his now 201 career NHL games.

Steven Stamkos exploded for four goals last night in the dominant win over the floudering St. Louis Blues, while Evangelsita connected on three primary assists to different goal scorers on all three. One to Stamkos, one to Ryan O'Reilly and one on the power play to a streaking Michael Bunting on the backdoor.

The vision that Evangelista shows here to find Bunting is oustanding and really highlights his growth in his game. These are the types of plays that can keep a guy in the NHL for a very long time, and not just in the NHL, but in the top-six of the lineup.

Evangelista got the nod on Nashville's top line against the Blues on Thursday night with fellow linemates Stamkos and O'Reilly.

With the Predators skating with seven defensemen and 11 forwards, the lines in warmups were shuffled throughout the game. Forsberg, O'Reilly and Evangelista ended up leading all line combinations among the forward in time on ice at 7:55 at 5-on-5, per MoneyPuck.

Even though the goal scoring isn't really there with only four goals on the season, Evangelista is doing what great players do which is letting the game unfold and making the right plays to set his teammates up. The goals will eventually more often, but for now this guy is making everyone around him better.

Evangelista is now tied for the team lead in points with 23 alongside O'Reilly. That's despite a 6.3 shooting percentage. If that shooting percentage ever balances out to a more normal rate, then the goal scoring will follow.

The fact that Evangelista is still finding ways to pile up the assists tells me that he's not forcing the game to come to him. When a younger player, or really any player, does that it usually ends up hurting the team. He's playing like a true veteran and it is really encouraging to see the growth in his game as of late.

The Predators are still facing an impending selloff of trade assets even though they're suddenly winning and only five points behind the wildcard bubble. Stastney was actually just traded on Friday morning to the Edmonton Oilers for a 2027 third-round draft pick.

Some of these veterans are almost certainly going to be traded, which will increase Evangelista's role even more. Bunting is on an expiring contract next offseason and is expected to be traded eventually. Others like Erik Haula and even a high profile player like Stamkos, Marchessault or O'Reilly are still possible trade targets.

As for Evangelista, he's showing right now that he's ready to be one of Nashville's top forwards once the dust settles and some of these guys get traded in the coming months.

Could Evangelista also come up in trade talks on a short deal and how much he's raising his stock right now? Sure, anything is possible but it would be a baffling move by Nashville to trade Evangelista while claiming they want to get younger. If anything, Evangelista is showing that they're going to have to revisit this two-year deal and get ready to give him a huge pay raise as early as next season.