The New Jersey Devils have a changing of the guard, with youth taking over the lineup. That means the team should change the role of Travis Zajac.
Before the year started, the expectation around Travis Zajac’s return he would slot into his first line center role with the New Jersey Devils.
Fortunately for the Devils, 1st overall pick Nico Hischier took over the role and hasn’t looked back.
Unfortunately for the Devils, Travis Zajac is seriously struggling in his role as a 2nd line center. Let’s take a look at some numbers from Natural Stat Trick and start with the good. He’s won 51.85% of his faceoffs and leads the Devils in FO%. That’s essentially where the good ends for Zajac.
Zajac has played 22 games this year and has 4 points at 5v5. The only Devils forward’s with less points than Zajac are Drew Stafford, who is tied, and Nick Lappin who only played two games in New Jersey. Zajac’s Total Points/60 rate of .85 only beats Drew Stafford again. Of NHL forwards who have played at least 250 minutes of 5v5 ice time that places Zajac 28th from the bottom. Not ideal when you’re discussing a 2nd line center.
Now that we’ve talked about his production let’s get into some possession numbers. Hint: They are also bad.
Zajac is 2nd to last on the Devils when it comes to CF% with a 44.33. Only Jimmy Hayes is behind him.
Impressively enough, Zajac is middle of the pack with a FF% of 46.13.
Zajac is ahead of only Marcus Johansson, Brian Boyle, and Jimmy Hayes when it comes to SCF% with a 45.02.
And finally, Zajac, touted as a defensive specialist, is last of all Devils forwards with a HDCF% of 45.45.
Only three Devils have HDCF%’s below 50%.
These are not 2nd line center numbers. This aren’t even 3rd line center numbers. The reality is, if Zajac is not producing offensively he needs to be a shut down center. However, Zajac isn’t playing like a shut down center.
Replacements
I’ve pitched for Pavel Zacha on the 2nd line for a while now. Zacha’s numbers won’t blow anyone away, but his offensive skill is an immediate upgrade. Moving Zajac into a role as a 3rd line center takes the offensive pressure off and allows him to be utilized as a shut down center.
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There are downsides to this. The trio of Zacha, Miles Wood, and Stefan Noesen have been outstanding as a 3rd line. They work extremely well together. One has to wonder if splitting them up might affect all three.
Simply looking at cap numbers, demoting Zajac to the 3rd line means you’re 3rd line center is your 2nd highest paid forward carrying a cap hit of 5.75 million. And he’s signed through 2021. In fact, if you add the salaries of Miles Wood, Nico Hischier, Pavel Zacha, Jesper Bratt, Stefan Noesen, Blake Coleman, and Brian Gibbons you still don’t equal Zajac’s cap hit.
The Devils have the opportunity to become a great team. The emergence of both Hischier and Jesper Bratt as first liners allows Marcus Johansson and Kyle Palmier to be utilized as secondary scorers. The issue is that the two combined with Zajac are providing almost no scoring.
Maybe swapping Zacha and Zajac is the middle 6 shakes things up. This team needs to start generating secondary scoring. Either way, something needs to change because Hall, Hischier, and Bratt can’t provide all of the Devils scoring.