Evans Grows Confidence On Ice, Sense Of Humor Off

Kraken defenseman Ryker Evans by age 6 was out on the ice performing intermission relay races with youth hockey teammates during games played by his hometown Calgary Flames.

Evans was always one of the smallest players on those young teams, a trend that continued deep into his teenage years. He and his parents would wait with him under the arena stands the entire first period, then spend the intermission watching the kids out on the ice, wheeling around cones, skating over and under specially placed sticks and navigating whatever other obstacles were put in their way.

“I don’t think the fans even noticed us,” Evans deadpanned. “They were probably off buying beer or something.”

That wry, offbeat humor from Evans is nothing new for a player those who know him say is far funnier in private than the public often sees. Also, that it’s a sign of emerging self-confidence from somebody who no longer has trouble getting noticed from the stands of an NHL arena as a regular on the Kraken’s second defensive pairing alongside Brandon Montour.

But it wasn’t until nearly his 19^th birthday that Evans truly realized he could someday be out on his hometown’s same Scotiabank Saddledome ice for something other than cute intermission entertainment.

“I guess when you’re the smaller kid you don’t really think you can make the NHL,” Evans said. “A lot of that is a confidence thing especially when you’re smaller. You may have the ability to do everything. But mentally, you may not feel like you belong.”

Evans, now 24, got to step out on that Saddledome ice likely for the last time Friday night as the Kraken played their final regular season game at a 43-year-old arena destined to be replaced next year by a new building across the street. This time, though, unlike the undersized player who went undrafted at 18, then was selected the following year by the Kraken at 19, Evans was now playing his 190^th career NHL game.

“Obviously, when you see yourself progressing and starting to grow it builds up your confidence,” said Evans, who has three goals and four assists already this season for a Kraken defensive core putting up strong offensive numbers. “I’m not the same player I once was.”

But for his parents, Mike and Lisa, watching from the stands once again Friday as the little boy who did intermission relays stood at the blue line pregame as part of the Kraken starting lineup during national anthems, rooting for your child never changes.

“I’m even more nervous than ever now,” his mother said. “The stakes are a lot higher, more intense. I mean, he’s got millions of eyeballs watching and anything he does gets critiqued. It’s unbelievable. I still have to pinch myself sometimes.”

Indeed, the NHL’s intensity far exceeds anything in youth hockey, though her son seems looser and more easy-going than when he first broke into the league three years ago. His growing on-ice confidence appears to have carried off the ice, where teammates say the once quiet, shy player can be one of the loudest and funniest guys in the dressing room.

Whether the on-ice confidence begat the newer off-ice version of Evans, or vice-versa, is a matter for debate. It’s also possible the two simply feed off one another.

During the team’s “Breaking the Ice”  TikTok series, he cracked jokes about everything from astrology to ketchup. On a Signals from the Deep podcast co-hosted by Piper Shaw and JT Brown last year, Evans went into detailed answers about which of his teammates would best handle a zombie apocalypse.

“I think Grubi,” he said of goalie Philipp Grubauer. “He’s got horses. And obviously, you’re going to run out of gas sometime.”

When former Kraken general manager Ron Francis phoned Evans after drafting him in 2021 and asked whether he was watching the draft, Evans quipped: “I just woke up.”

While playing for AHL Coachella Valley, during a mic’d up segment, he spent half the game celebrating every minor play by letting out high-pitched "Woos!" and screaming encouragement at his teammates.

His sense of comedic timing is now apparently pervasive in the Kraken locker room as well.

Teammates say Evans is usually the first one dancing or rapping along to the post-win locker room playlist. He is also known to initiate loud, chaotic pre-skate yells that get the team focused right before they head down the tunnel.

“It depends who he’s talking to,” quipped defensive partner Montour, another known locker room comic who’s occupied the cubicle next to Evans since joining the team two seasons ago. “He’s not very inviting.”

Kraken defenseman Cale Fleury, at the locker stall just to Montour’s left, chimed in: “No, he’s not. He talks a lot of B.S.”

Evans was standing just to the right of Montour and Fleury as his teammates kept ribbing him third person as if he wasn’t there.

“He’s all about his brand,” Montour said. “He’s very about his brand. He’s very team-first. So, whatever the team needs. On the ice, off the ice. But especially off the ice.”

Fleury quipped: “He’ll give you the shirt off his back.”

Montour nodded in agreement and said: “If you need a shirt for the game, he'd give it to you. He’d give it to you off his back. But then you’d have to make sure that you tell everyone who gave it to you. Like if you did something good, he'd want a little credit for it or something.”

Evans kept taking the jokes in stride.

“These guys are (bleeping) nuts,” he said.

But Montour is a big reason the younger defenseman has dropped some of his prior shyness, their wry personalities meshing despite a nearly eight-year age difference.

“He was a quiet kid from the start, learning his way still,” Montour said in a more serious moment a couple of days later. “And I think he’s taking advantage of the opportunity. He’s a good friend to me, so obviously I see more of how he really is.”

Evans is appreciative of Montour, saying he was always talking with him since right after coming over two years ago as a free agent from the Florida Panthers. He feels it’s no coincidence the shy kid ended up in a locker adjacent the effusive vet.

“I feel like they put him next to me in the dressing room on purpose,” Evans said. “So we just kind of got to know each other. I feel like I’m the last one who figured it out.”

And Evans agrees with much of what Montour jokingly said about him. That he doesn’t come off as “very inviting” until he gets to know and trust people. Once that happens, he added: “Things are doping up more.”

Evans’ father insists his son has always been this funny in private.

“Our whole family has a really dry sense of humor,” he said. “Sarcastic, dry. All that. Our whole family’s like that.”

Those barbs were again flying when Evans popped by his former Calgary home for a quick dinner with his parents on Thursday night ahead of the Kraken’s road game. His mom had prepared “one of his favorite dishes” of sweet and sour meatballs with pasta, homemade Caeser salad and apple crisp and it didn’t take long for tongues to loosen and “sarcasm and jokes” to surface.

“He's a shy kid that just takes things in before he opens up,” his father said. “And once he opens up, he's loud, obnoxious, funny, all that.”

Having met Montour, his dad isn’t surprised about his son opening up and showing his true inner colors.

“He keeps you at arm's length until he feels comfortable,” he said. “And then watch out.”

But Evans wasn’t feeling all that confident about a pro hockey career as he progressed through his teens. His father was a former college and lower level pro player who ran a power skating business, Core Power, featuring as students the likes of future NHL stars such as Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar, Winnipeg Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey, Tampa Bay Lightning center Brayden Point and Calgary Flames winger Dillon Dube.

Evans by age 10 was out on the ice skating with his future contemporaries.

“I was so young back then skating with them,” Evans said. “I honestly didn't know too much until like I got older, and my dad’s like, ‘Yeah, like you were skating with these guys.’ That's cool to see that.”

Evans then reverted to funny-man form and quipped: “I could imagine that now, if there was an 8-year-old out on the ice training with me, I’d probably be pretty pissed off.

“Yeah, but with me, they couldn't be mad because I was the coach's son.”

And that coach taught him well.

Evans had always shown an aptitude for skating and hockey from the time he put on skates at age 2. Maybe even younger than that, when his parents brought him to his first Flames game at the Saddledome at just six months old.

“The people around us couldn’t believe he watched the game intently the whole three periods,” his mother said. “At six months, he sat there looking around in the club seats.”

Those “hockey IQ” origins that scouts love to tout were apparent in a youngster trying to emulate boyhood idol Joe Sakic of the Avalanche. But as a toddler, Evans had experienced increasing stomach pains and by fourth grade, felt lethargic and wasn’t developing the same as his peers.

Evans finally was diagnosed with Celiac disease, an immune-system reaction to gluten that causes internal inflammation and prevents the body from absorbing key nutrients. The find immediately vaulted his game to another level as his family now had ways of controlling his diet and increasing his nutrition.

His weight and height would still lag for years. But Evans had more strength and began dominating each hockey level with the skill and hockey sense of a much older player.

A junior hockey scout for the Regina Pats, onetime Everett Silvertips winger Campbell Elynuik, put his neck out convincing his general manager they should select 14-year-old Evans in the Western Hockey League’s annual Bantam draft. Though only 5-foot-2, 100 pounds, Evans was skating circles around opponents.

He’d grown to 5-3, 110 pounds once the draft arrived, but the Pats still worried about his size and selected him in the 10^th round, 207^th overall ahead of only 22 other players. Evans grew to 5-foot-6 the following year and another two inches by the time he reached the Pats.

But a broken leg limited his rookie season to 45 games and the next was curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic after 63 games. When an 18-year-old Evans became eligible for the 2020 NHL Draft following a seven-goal, 24 assist campaign, nobody wanted him.

“I didn't think I was even ready that year,” Evans said. “I didn't showcase myself very well, and I felt like I had another level.”

And he feels being rejected by the NHL ultimately helped.

“Obviously, just being pissed off and wanting to prove everyone wrong,” he said.

It also helped that his teammate in Regina the following 2020-21 season would be 15-year-old future No. 1 overall NHL draft pick Connor Bedard.

“I knew there was going to be a lot of eyes on him,” Evans said. “So just kind of took the opportunity to kind of prove myself.”

That he did, playing in only 24 games in a reduced COVID-19 season played in an isolated “bubble” arena. But Evans scored three goals and added 24 assists those two dozen matchups.

It seemed he’d definitely be drafted this time as a19-year-old. Some public draft boards and prognosticators had him maybe going in the third round. Others were mostly fourth round and higher.

The Kraken selected him in the second round, 35^th overall. Kraken amateur scouting director Robert Kron said the scouts in the room were unanimous he was worthy of the pick.

But even Evans didn’t think he’d go that high.

“I was surprised,” he said. “I honestly thought I was going to go later. I knew I’d had a good year and I was going to go, but I just didn’t know it was going to be that high.”

Evans said he wasn’t aware his pick had been somewhat controversial. Unlike his prior year’s draft snub, he didn’t use the public questioning of the Kraken’s acumen as a motivator.

“I mean, it was a surprise to everyone but I didn’t know it was like that,” he said with a chuckle. “Everyone’s got their opinion, I guess. I guess they’re all entitled.”

His father, who’d worked with Evans on his skating and skills throughout the WHL pandemic layoff, said: “I’m pleasantly surprised people got to see what I saw for all these years.

“And he's always been there,” he added. “He's always been one of the better players. It’s easier to be a naysayer in this day and age than to praise somebody.”

Corey Pronman, a senior prospects writer for The Athletic initially surprised by the pick, later admitted he’d “completely whiffed” on Evans. “I underrated exactly how much offense was in Evans' game, as he went on to be a great AHL player shortly after and is now an important part of Seattle's offense several years since the draft,” Pronman wrote, adding: “He's a legit NHL player who can play both ways, and I didn't think he was more than a camp invite type going into his second NHL draft.”

Evans put up a dominant junior hockey season after the draft, then broke in with AHL Coachella Valley. By his second pro season, he made his NHL debut with the Kraken for 36 games in 2023-24 while spending the rest with the Firebirds and on their playoff run.

He hasn’t been back to the AHL since.

Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn has seen the progression in Evans both personally and professionally.

“As a person, he’s definitely loosened up more,” Dunn said. “He’s very quiet and very serious about his craft. But I think he’s loosened up a bit now and it’s probably been the best for him, especially mentally.”

Dunn has seen Evans adjust to “the anguish” of playing through an entire season, with all the highs and lows. He feels his sense of humor definitely helps with that.

“I think like once you get him to start talking, he doesn't shut up in a good way,” Dunn said. “But now he's funny. He's certainly very shy in his own ways, and has a good sense of humor. But more on the quiet side.”

Evans doesn’t know about the “shutting up” part. He agrees with Dunn that learning to care for himself in-season has been his biggest NHL takeaway.

“It's just taking care of yourself, trying to find different ways to conserve your energy so you're able to go 100% every night,” Evans said. “It's obviously mentally draining. And then it’s just finding ways to kind of just take yourself out of it for a bit. When you're home, or you have days off. So, you can come back reset and get at it again.”

Kraken head coach Lane Lambert feels Evans has always been a gifted skater with a proclivity for offense. But the reason he’s on pace to shatter his career high of eight goals and 25 points has a lot to do with self-belief.

“The bottom line for me with Ryker is it’s a confidence thing and a mindset thing,” Lambert said. “And I think he’s done a really good job of understanding that. He’s made some adjustments to his mindset over the summer and he’s getting (scoring) opportunities. And he’s going to continue to get opportunities.”

As well as opportunities to work on his outgoing side. His parents visited him in Seattle for a week late last month, touring sites, fishing for large and smallmouth bass on Lake Washington and trading dinner table barbs as they’ve long been known to do.

They gathered again postgame Friday night in Calgary, knowing it was likely their last time they’d seen him on the ice of his youth. It was bittersweet, especially after a Kraken loss, but also affirmation of how far he’s come.

Evans hopes the good times keep rolling at other arenas and behind locker room doors as well.

“I just want to do me,” he said. “Hopefully, people think that’s a good thing. Because I don’t know how to do anyone else.”