Travis Zajac and the New Jersey Devils have had an awful year. The Devils have been out of the playoff picture for quite some time and are closing out the season with a whimper. Meanwhile, Zajac is going through arguably his worst season in the second year of his eight-year, $46 million contract.
As you might imagine, a lot of Devils fans believe Zajac isn’t playing up to his paycheck. One fan told Zajac this fact at a season ticket holder event back in February. Via Fire and Ice, here’s how Zajac reacted.
“I’ve got it before a few times. It comes with that territory. I want to be a part of this team for a long time and I can take the highs and the lows of everything. It’s part of the job and for me it’s trying to stay positive and learn a bit right now.”
The problem is that Zajac isn’t just going through a brief slump in which an answer like the one above might be appropriate. His struggles have lasted the entire season and through 72 games, he has only 24 points to his name. To put that in perspective, he tallied 20 points in 48 games back in the lockout-shortened 2012-13.
Shifting back to his salary, Zajac holds an average cap hit of $5.75 million a season. It doesn’t take serious math to realize that Zajac’s production doesn’t match his compensation. Zajac will turn 30 in May and has time to turn things around, but he’s going to need to put up a couple solid years in a row if he wants to shed the “overpaid” label.
