New Jersey Devils: Travis Zajac Splits Tell The Story

New Jersey Devils center Travis Zajac remains one of the most polarizing players on the roster. Looking at his win-loss splits tells the story of his season.

Trying to figure out Travis Zajac is one of the most confusing stories of the New Jersey Devils season. It was clear he returned too quickly from a torn pectoral he suffered in offseason training, but it also looks like he lost a step.

Taking a deep dive into his stats, his goal numbers are what you’d expect, but his assist numbers are way down. He was averaging just over 14 goals per season and about 26 assists over the past four years. This season, he has 10 goals and 10 assists.

Obviously, his assists were inflated by playing on the top line in previous years. He was centering Kyle Palmieri and Taylor Hall last season. He had a rejuvenated Jaromir Jagr a few seasons ago. Centering skilled forwards makes a center’s job much easier.

This season, however, he still centers skilled players. At times, he had Palmieri, Miles Wood and Marcus Johansson on his wings.

What’s really bizarre about Zajac’s season is his splits betweens wins and losses. In fact, most of the Devils have very odd splits between wins and losses.

Sure, it seems like it makes sense on paper. A team’s play in losses is worse than wins. This is simple math, right?

Not necessarily. Let’s compare Nick Foligno to Travis Zajac. It’s not a perfect comparison, but for argument’s sake let’s take a look. In wins, Zajac records 13 points. In losses, he has just seven. The Devils actually have five more losses than wins with Zajac on the ice. On the other hand, Foligno has 15 points in wins and 13 points in losses.

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Again, Zajac isn’t the only one. Nico Hischier, for example, has an even bigger split with 29 points in wins and 14 points in losses.

Zajac does take a lot of faceoffs in the defensive zone. That obviously hurts his offensive numbers. He is one of the players the Devils lean on to clear the zone when they are down.

However, Zajac is one to carry the team to victory one game, then disappear for the next four. He scored two goals against the Penguins on Feburary second, and added an assist for good measure. Then he scored one point over the next four Devils losses.

The point of this exercise is to show that Zajac with consistency can help this team over the final 13 games. If he is able to find a groove towards the end of the season, this could be key to ending the season on a high note.