It’s all well and good to recruit studs who turn pro after a year or two, but solid, four-year players are the foundation on which many successful college hockey programs are built.
Right winger Jonny Evans is just such a player for UConn.
After good freshman and sophomore years, Evans exploded last season, leading Hockey East in regular-season scoring with 14-14-28 in 22 games. He earned first-team All-Hockey East and second-team All-American honors and was a finalist for Hockey East player of the year.
And now he’s back for his senior year.
“I don’t really think there’s a huge rush in jumping to the next level,’’ says Evans, a native of Delta, B.C. “I stayed until I was 20 in juniors, played four years there. I wanted to play four years here and try to win something with this group.’’
Away from the rink, finishing with a diploma is important to him, too. “I wanted to get my degree. I’m super close – I only have like five classes left,’’ he said.
UConn is trending in a positive direction under coach Mike Cavanaugh, who enters his ninth season and whose contract was extended to 2026 by the school over the summer.
Work is underway on a new on-campus rink and the Huskies are coming off a season in which they finished in fourth place in Hockey East, their best finish since joining the league in 2014-15.
“I think it’s important that UConn is a player in Hockey East. It’s a brand-name school that should be competing in the league. (The new rink) helps,’’ said Cavanaugh.
Cavanaugh sees UMass as the clear favorite in Hockey East, but “there’s a lot of teams that I think are going to be really good. I’ve learned in this league, it’s really, really deep and there’s no nights off.’’
Evans heads a deep cast of returning players who should help the Huskies build on last season.
The strength and conditioning work that he did during the summer of 2020, at Cavanaugh’s urging, paid off in a breakout season.
Evans, listed at 5-foot-9, 170 pounds, worked just as hard this past summer.
“My trainer back home (in British Columbia) does an awesome job. We developed a plan this summer to build off what we did last summer and also incorporate a lot of movement stuff, band activities,’’ he said.
“I focused on a lot of speed and agility, trying to be more explosive in my first couple of strides. I actually beat my numbers in early August. So I was happy with that before I came back to UConn.’’
For a player with Evans’ workload, being in great shape is critical.
“It’s always your strength and your conditioning when you’re a player like Jonny who’s going to play 20 minutes a night. You’ve got to be in elite shape.
“He put all the work in to be that type of player last year. It can disappear if you don’t stay on top of it. He’s continued to do that and he wants to build off last year and prove to himself and to everybody else it wasn’t just a one-off type of year,’’ said Cavanaugh.
Evans again will have 6-foot-5 Nashville draft pick Jachym Kondelik as his center. The left wing is to be determined.
“We haven’t really set who we’re going to play there. (Evans and Kondelik) have been playing together in the preseason, but I’m not sure who is going to play on that left wing yet with them. It will certainly be a good player.’’
It’s been an interesting journey from British Columbia to Storrs for Evans and his friend Carter Turnbull, who will serve as one of UConn’s captains this year.
They were teammates with Powell River of the BCHL and are roommates now at UConn.
“We always kind of talked about going to the same college together. That was a little dream or goal that we had. We didn’t really know if it would work out with the same team,’’ said Evans.
They were halfway there when Turnbull decided on UConn.
“After he committed, obviously (UConn was) watching the games and they started to call me, as well. One thing led to another,’’ said Evans. “Luckily enough, they offered and I jumped on the opportunity. It’s been a good ride ever since.’’
Evans had to get over an academic hurdle before he could come to UConn.
“When we were watching him, we were like, who is this kid? Why isn’t anybody recruiting him? It was right around when (the NCAA) changed the requirements to be a qualifier, where it went from, I think, 13 core requirements to 16 core requirements,’’ said Cavanaugh.
“Jonny had decent grades, he just didn’t have the number of core classes to qualify. So he was just a non-qualifier at the time, but it wasn’t because of grades, he didn’t have the core classes. He wound up going online and doing his first year of college online and that’s how he became a qualifier.’’
Turnbull has a big supporter in Evans.
“He puts a lot of hard work in, that’s why he’s a leader on and off the ice and why he’s one of the captains. Even though I’m older than him, I look up to him, the way he treats his body and how he goes about his everyday life,’’ said Evans.
Tampa Bay Lightning star Brayden Point, listed at 5-10, 183 pounds, is a favorite of Evans.
“I try to model my game after him. We play similar spots on the power play, too. I try to watch him as much as I can,’’ said Evans.
When Cavanaugh was an assistant coach at Boston College, the Eagles had a number of smaller players who made an outsized impact, such as Cam Atkinson, Joe and Steven Whitney, Johnny Gaudreau, Nathan Gerbe and Brian Gibbons.
“The first time I saw him play, he reminded me of Brian Gibbons a little bit. Jonny’s a righty and Gibby’s a lefty, but similar in stature. They both have that — two steps and they can get separation from somebody. And they are real crafty with the puck,’’ said Cavanaugh.
Another strong year should set Evans up for the next step.
“I want to see him be put in a position where an NHL team wants to sign him and not just an American League deal,’’ said Cavanaugh.
“I think if he’s able to put up another season like he did last year – if he leads Hockey East in scoring again – there will be an NHL team that will take a chance on him.’’
