Your Thoughts About: #19 Travis Zajac

[Derlique]

Still one of the most important cogs on the team, even if he's been disappointing the last year or so. He gets some very tough assignments and usually does well with them. Maybe with some speed he can go back to that 40-50 point player he was a few years ago. Hopefully Zajac will still be a great shutdown forward when the team gets good, so tune (future) young talent can get the easy assignments

[BostonNala370]

Very necessary player for the Devils, while he has been weak in scoring so have others. He will continue to help the team as long as he is healthy. If you recall we played much worse when Zajac was out with injury or sickness and who would have thought we could play even worse than where we were and yet we did when Zajac was out.

[mfitz804]

He'd be a great third line center, maybe a second. He can't perform the role he has been asked to perform.

[Guadana]

He can be perfect 2nd line center. But with 1st line center with much better offensive skills in squad.

We can Count on fingers of one hands those centers who can play against better than zajac. But zajac isnt a man Who will lead the Guard to storm the trenches.

I think two zachas with travis in one line and with adam in another line can make our team one of the dangerousest team in a league.

Wait of grow of first zacha and try to find another one.

Edited August 9, 2015 by Guadana

[2ELIAS6]

He'd be a great third line center, maybe a second. He can't perform the role he has been asked to perform.

spot on. Travis has been forced into the number 1 center role.. he is really only more like a 2nd line center which we all know. The guy catches way too much heat around here by some fans that really dont realize what he brings to the table. Does he need to score a few more goals yes he does and hopefully this season he can step up and provide that for us..but he plays an awesome 2 way game and is an asset to this team. Often hearing how is contract is crazy and out of line but if you look at what other centers around the league are getting its really not that bad he just got alot of years out of lou.

[Zubie#8]

Love the Travis. Very strong player but he needs some wingers.

[Devilsfan118]

He clearly misses ZP and/or Kovalchuk.  But they helped get him that nice contract so I guess he can't be too upset. 

 

Disappointed that he doesn't seem to possess any sort of offensive game, but he's a very important part of this team nonetheless.

 

Honestly though - stone hands.  Might be the worst finisher in the league who plays on a 1st line.  I can't remember any specifics at this point but I swear there were at least 5 times last season where Zajac was looking at a sure-thing, tap-in goal and flubbed it.

[peteyvegas51]

I thought he'd be better.

[Sharifijanov2099]

Travis Zajac is a "good" player.  But I think in the salary cap era, blanket statements about good and bad are themselves pointless.  The question and discussion of usefulness should always be: "is this a positive-value contract within the construct of the team cap" or "is it a negative-value contract."  And the answer to that might change even year to year depending on what kind of team is iced, how competitive they are projected to be, and so on.  The internal discussion of Zajac is probably the most polarizing of all Devils' topics.  Personally, I think Zajac is an excellent defensive forward and has a lot of in-a-vacuum-value to the Devils.  I also think with the right amount of luck and confidence, Zajac has the skill [potentially] to be a 60 point player in this league.  All that said, do I think his defensive value and his generally-unrealized offensive potential warrants a cap of his magnitude within the construct of the team and league-defined maximum?  I do not.  I think Zajac is a nice player with a nice skillset, but I find his contract to be negative value.  It's not so bad as to be an anchor or anything, and he's not the reason NJ is an unsuccessful team, but paying him what the Devils do, he isn't worth the money.  If the Devils were say in a situation like the Rangers and were inside a cup-window, then yeah, maybe the contract makes more sense.  But since NJ probably won't be good for 3 years, Zajac will be 33 at that time and probably much less relevant.  Overall, the contract was a mistake.  It didn't ruin us, but it certainly didn't help.

[DevsMan84]

Outside of Clowe and soon to be expired Ruutu, if Zajac's contract is the worst we have going forward starting in 2016-17 season then I consider ourselves pretty lucky.

[Sharifijanov2099]

Outside of Clowe and soon to be expired Ruutu, if Zajac's contract is the worst we have going forward starting in 2016-17 season then I consider ourselves pretty lucky.

Seeing how NJ currently has 2 established NHL forwards (Henrique/Camm) outside of Zajac signed through 16-17, that's not really saying all that much.

[DevsMan84]

Seeing how NJ currently has 2 established NHL forwards (Henrique/Camm) outside of Zajac signed through 16-17, that's not really saying all that much.

 

Anyone else we sign in UFA (and believe me we will sign at least one or two either next off-season or the one after that) will have a much worse contract that Zajac.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

It's too early to call Zajac's contract a mistake.  The payoff isn't always instantaneous on these long-term deals. 

 

Also have to look at the time he was signed to it and all that was going on with the Devils, and what the alternative was.  Let him get to UFA?  And replace him with who?  At what cost?   

[Sharifijanov2099]

Anyone else we sign in UFA (and believe me we will sign at least one or two either next off-season or the one after that) will have a much worse contract that Zajac.

That may be - but that's an unknown.  I don't think comparing 1 negative value contract (Zajac's) against future fictional contracts is a fair way of assessing a player's current (or projected) value.  I hope NJ doesn't sign ANY bad contracts.  Obviously they will because contracts are an exercise in negotiation and prediction.  At any rate, Zajac is overpaid.  He's not overpaid by 4 million or anything absurd like that.  But he is probably overpaid by at least 1 million, possibly more like 1-2.   

[Sharifijanov2099]

It's too early to call Zajac's contract a mistake.  The payoff isn't always instantaneous on these long-term deals. 

 

Also have to look at the time he was signed to it and all that was going on with the Devils, and what the alternative was.  Let him get to UFA?  And replace him with who?  At what cost?   

2 years in, it's a mistake.  If the cap goes up by a crazy amount, the mistake doesn't seem as bad.  But it's a mistake, and  players over 30 don't generally get better than they were in their 20s.  I think Zajac can salvage it if he can be a top defensive player and pot 50 points, but it's going to be hard to see it as anything but negative-value within the context of the cap.  Is it impacting us now that we're gutted and rebuilding?  No.  Not at the moment.  We'll see how it looks in a few years.  But I believe contracts can be judged at any point.  With the caveat that they should probably be re-judged annually.  And since this discussion is taking  place in the summer of 2015, that's when I am judging it.  My 2 cents.

[DevsMan84]

What teams don't have any bad contracts at this point?  Every team has at least 1 bad contract off the top of my head.  Right now it is not hurting the team cap-wise so I really don't see a big deal with it.  Even with his contract along with Gelinas and Larsson being re-signed we are having trouble even meeting the cap floor.

 

Is he being overpaid in actual dollars?  Probably.  But I am not writing the checks so doesn't make a difference to me.

[Sharifijanov2099]

Didn't realize this was a discussion of speculative future bad contract or every other team's bad contracts.  Thought it was a discussion of the corporeal Zajac in the here and now.  My bad.  I dunno that I ever said it was a "big deal."  But 1 bad contract is something.  2 bad contracts is something worse.  3 bad contracts is worse still.  Etc.  Less bad = more better.  That's the only point.  Zajac's contract is not the worst in the league for what he brings.  But it is an overpayment.  I think this horse is dead though.  People want to defend Zajac to no end and I guess that's fine, if that's the objective.  But my objective was in discussing Zajac's value, not whether or not "it's okay to have a bad contract."  

[Guadana]

Zajac showed his game for this contratc with good linemates. Did he score a lot? No. Did he miss to the net often? Yes. Did the management know about his defenive stylie game? Hm... probably yes. I think they are to smart for understand for whom they gave a contratcs, when someone works in your system.

When zajac have good linemates then he will mark 45-60 points. Everybody know he isnt Independent in offensive moves.

Edited August 11, 2015 by Guadana

[Triumph]

Didn't realize this was a discussion of speculative future bad contract or every other team's bad contracts.  Thought it was a discussion of the corporeal Zajac in the here and now.  My bad.  I dunno that I ever said it was a "big deal."  But 1 bad contract is something.  2 bad contracts is something worse.  3 bad contracts is worse still.  Etc.  Less bad = more better.  That's the only point.  Zajac's contract is not the worst in the league for what he brings.  But it is an overpayment.  I think this horse is dead though.  People want to defend Zajac to no end and I guess that's fine, if that's the objective.  But my objective was in discussing Zajac's value, not whether or not "it's okay to have a bad contract."  

 

No, you're right in general, Zajac's contract is not good.  That doesn't mean that signing that contract is a bad decision, though.  The truth is that the Devils haven't found a better center in the 2+ seasons since that contract was signed and none of their young players/prospects look close to being better, either.  Which was why that contract was signed - losing Zajac would've been catastrophic, and still would be, even though this team stinks.

Edited August 11, 2015 by Triumph

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

No, you're right in general, Zajac's contract is not good.  That doesn't mean that signing that contract is a bad decision, though.  The truth is that the Devils haven't found a better center in the 2+ seasons since that contract was signed and none of their young players/prospects look close to being better, either.  Which was why that contract was signed - losing Zajac would've been catastrophic, and still would be, even though this team stinks.

 

This is basically what I was trying to say (taking in all of the circumstances at the time he was locked up, etc.)...this just fleshes it out a bit.  Deals like this tend to be shaky by default from the second they're signed.  Still hopeful that the right linemates could spark some more offense out of Zajac in the next 3-4 seasons, but I don't know that the Devils ever find those guys while Zajac's still in his prime years.  I should probably add that while it's still early to make any definitive statements about this contract, it's definitely NOT headed in the right direction. 

[Sharifijanov2099]

No, you're right in general, Zajac's contract is not good.  That doesn't mean that signing that contract is a bad decision, though.  The truth is that the Devils haven't found a better center in the 2+ seasons since that contract was signed and none of their young players/prospects look close to being better, either.  Which was why that contract was signed - losing Zajac would've been catastrophic, and still would be, even though this team stinks.

That's an opinion I can respect and say "sure, that makes sense."  But may I ask a follow-up question (that isn't meant to be incendiary or anything)... can you define what you mean by "catastrophic"?  What would not having Zajac meant for the past 2 years or the next several?  For me, those types of exercises are difficult to prove out.  Would NJ have been the worst team in the league last year?  If so, would they have had a higher pick?  Would Schneider have demanded a trade?  Would NJ have signed an over-rated free agent center or traded for Mike Richards to fill the hole?  I don't know.  But catastrophic is a strong word, so I'm curious to know what it means.  The Devils have lost several key players over the last two decades.  I don't know that any of their losses produced an immediate catastrophe - ie, no tickets were sold, fans stopped coming, and the Devils had to move to a new city (which is how I would define it).

[Triumph]

That's an opinion I can respect and say "sure, that makes sense."  But may I ask a follow-up question (that isn't meant to be incendiary or anything)... can you define what you mean by "catastrophic"?  What would not having Zajac meant for the past 2 years or the next several?  For me, those types of exercises are difficult to prove out.  Would NJ have been the worst team in the league last year?  If so, would they have had a higher pick?  Would Schneider have demanded a trade?  Would NJ have signed an over-rated free agent center or traded for Mike Richards to fill the hole?  I don't know.  But catastrophic is a strong word, so I'm curious to know what it means.  The Devils have lost several key players over the last two decades.  I don't know that any of their losses produced an immediate catastrophe - ie, no tickets were sold, fans stopped coming, and the Devils had to move to a new city (which is how I would define it).

 

It's very clear from the context that I don't mean catastrophic in that sense.  The Devils as constituted now do not have anyone at forward besides Zajac who demonstrably pushes the puck forward - what I mean by this is a player who is continually better than his teammates at being on the ice for a greater portion of shots on goal for versus shots on goal against.  Zajac as a great defensive player enables NJ to prevent shots on goal at their end, and I think generate some shots on goal at the other end.  Players like Palmieri, Cammalleri, and Henrique appear to have no impact on territorial play - they're not falling behind, but they're not going forward either.  The D when healthy looks pretty okay at pushing the puck forward though that 3rd pairing may be a disaster.  The Devils struggled to push play forward, especially after the coaching change - they were getting 45.8% of the shots taken at even strength last year.  It was dismal.  I expect they will do better this year though I still think they'll be below 50%.

 

When you don't have any play drivers, it has a ripple effect on the whole roster.  When you're not getting enough shots (NJ was 29th in shots/60 at even strength, and were 3 shots/60 behind 26th place Edmonton - though some of this is the stingy home scorer), you're not scoring enough goals, so everyone on the team looks like a weaker player than they are because their goals and assists numbers aren't where they should be.  It's harder to draw penalties when you are constantly on defense, and easier to take them - NJ was last in penalties drawn and 7th in penalties taken last season.  Everyone ends up looking worse.  Edmonton has dealt with this for years, they've traded away so many players for less than they're worth because they simply don't have good enough pieces around those players.  Teams don't trust that they are any good.  Hemsky, Petry, Visnovsky, the list goes on.  It makes a rebuild that much more challenging.  Now I think the Devils will finish low in the standings this year, but I think there's only one really awful team in the league this season, and then the Devils are in the mix with 5 or 6 other teams for 2nd worst.  I expect 2nd worst this year could get as many as 70 points.  I don't want the Devils to be terrible, because they have a lot of young players now, and a super low finish suggests those young players aren't very good.  They're going to need these players if they hope to be good in the next 5 years.

 

Now Zajac may be through as an offensive force, and I don't think he's a good offensive player at this stage of his career regardless.  He's not good on the power play and on a good team I'm not sure he would be on the power play at all, he doesn't move the puck quick enough and his shot release is not very good.  I still hope he can score 40 points while playing 18 minutes a game and soaking up the difficult minutes so that the young players on the team can maybe not sink.  He's a much better player than Mike Richards, whose territorial game collapsed.

Edited August 11, 2015 by Triumph

[Sharifijanov2099]

All those things are true.  And yet, I'm unconvinced anything catastrophic would have resulted in the Devils having cut ties with Zajac.  The team would have had to turn elsewhere for its marginal play driving.  NJ was basically Buffalo-bad last year.  At any rate, I am not advocating that NJ should have absolutely not re-signed Zajac.  At the time, it seemed to make a lot of sense to make sure one of our guys was locked up, and after losing others, it was a calculated risk.  LL calculated the money a little too highly in Zajac's favor, and that's all any of this is about - assessing Zajac as a team asset within the confines of his cap hit and actual team value.  Had I been the GM at the time, I would have also tried to keep Zajac.  But most posters on this forum view the Zajac question in black and white, which annoys me.  

 

As I said, he's a good player, who just doesn't happen to be worth his current contract for what he brings, which subsequently means that his contract is negative value.  Many teams have these kinds of contracts.  It's unavoidable in the cap era.  All the same, it's still better not to have guys signed to overpayments, because cup teams are built on cashing in on player-value before the player cashes in on dollar value.  With Zajac, we're starting from the rear, knowing his contract isn't a "good" one, ie, one where the player outperforms the dollars and nets us additional "value".

 

Anyway, I like Zajac.  I hope he has better fortunes.  I hope he logs big minutes, can pot 40+ points and play well defensively.  It is what it is.  But on the question of value... his is a diminishing return, and it has been from the moment the contract got signed.  

[hystyk28]

You can't teach finishing, but man he gets great looks at the net. He would be a 25-30 goal guy if he had the ability to bury. He seems to get 1 to 2 per game from about 8 feet out on his forehand. Damn shame.

[2ELIAS6]

You can't teach finishing, but man he gets great looks at the net. He would be a 25-30 goal guy if he had the ability to bury. He seems to get 1 to 2 per game from about 8 feet out on his forehand. Damn shame.

I agree with you he does seem like he flubs on some really squared away chances that seem like he's been given the goal.. I'm not sure how you can fix having stone hands like that, but hopefully he can try to sharpen up whatever skill that is lacking there.