Jack-Of-All-Trades Zajac Hangs Up His Skates
Travis Zajac probably had a few more years in his skates if he opted to stick around the NHL. There are plenty of teams, including Stanley Cup contenders, that would have had use for a versatile, high-IQ center at a veteran minimum cost.
Zajac, though, was always known as the consummate team player during his 15 seasons as a Devil and didn’t want to chase after that elusive ring on a roster bubble like he did at the tail end of last season after being traded to the Islanders. The team he needs now is his family in New Jersey, so Monday’s announcement that Zajac retired after signing a one-day contract with the Devils comes with hints of both joy and sadness for him.
A first-round draft pick (20th overall) in 2004, Zajac was the last link to the great Devils teams backstopped by legendary goalie Martin Brodeur. Unfortunately, other than a surprise trip to the Cup Final in 2012, Zajac’s clubs typically underachieved, winning just one other playoff series in his Devils tenure and missing the tournament entirely in eight of his last nine seasons in New Jersey.
That was hardly Zajac’s fault. He was a role player who really could fill any role in a pinch. Top line/third line. Power play/penalty kill. Solid in the faceoff circle (career 53.5% win rate, 52nd all-time among 415 skaters with at least 500 draws since 2005, per NHL.com). He was a guy you wanted on the ice if your club was ahead or down by a goal in the final minute of a game.
Former Devils coach John Hynes once said that when a winger was struggling, he’d put him on a line with Zajac to help get him right. During Taylor Hall’s MVP campaign in 2017-18, he was on the ice with Zajac for 203 minutes, according to NaturalStatTrick.com. The Devils outscored their opposition, 26-6 in those periods.
That included a crucial April game in Montreal with the Devils fighting to hold on to the eighth and final playoff seed. Tied 1-1 late in the third period, New Jersey was down two men on the penalty kill when Zajac blocked a Jeff Petry slap shot from the high slot down to his stick and then flipped a backhand pass up the middle to a streaking Hall coming out of the penalty box. Hall, of course, buried the game-winner.
That was quintessential Zajac. Wonder why he was as solid as anyone in the league at keeping Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby at bay? Not through outsized bulk or top-notch speed, but rather through intelligence. He was consistently on the right side of pucks and kept his stick in proper positions to break up plays in the defensive zone.
He was also durable, playing at least 90% of his team’s games in all but two seasons and reaching the hallowed 1,000-game mark in February, one of 69 players in NHL history to accomplish such a feat with just one team.
Though Zajac potted 203 goals in his career, none more memorable than his 2012 overtime winner in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals versus Florida to extend the series, he wasn’t more than an average playmaker. That he was too often put in roles where more offense was required was more of an indictment of the organization than the player.
Having covered the Devils for several seasons in the latter stages of Zajac’s career, I saw the effect of his leadership, particularly during Nico Hischier’s rookie season. To the media, he was a stand-up guy, never one to make excuses, which must have been difficult in those last few seasons when the Devils were recurring occupants of the basement in the league standings.
That’s why so many Devils fans were rooting hard for the Islanders last postseason. Zajac, along with former long-time Devils Andy Greene and Kyle Palmieri, deserved a better ending. Alas, they fell a goal short in Tampa Bay in the Conference Finals.
It is not known whether Zajac was actually offered a contract to return to Long Island this season, but Islanders General Manager Lou Lamoriello, who ran the Devils organization for 28 years and drafted Zajac, is known for his loyalty, so logic suggests that it was possible.
Too bad, he would have fit in perfectly there. Or anywhere.