Travis Zajac's striking success vs Sidney Crosby says a lot about his career

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Today’s post was written by C.J. TURTORO. You can find C.J. on Twitter @CJTDevil.

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On Monday, Travis Zajac signed a one-day contract and retired a member of the New Jersey Devils.

He is a unique Devils figure in terms of assessing his impact, because he’s the first Devils staple whose career almost perfectly overlaps with the so-called “analytics era” -- since 2007, when on-ice data and shot locations started to be recorded. 

When the retirement was announced there was absolutely no shortage of players, coaches, management, and media (including our very own Todd), talking about what a consummate professional he was.

Trav was generally perceived around the league as a great leader, a great person, and a great teammate. If you ask fans, though, they might not recognize him as a “great player” due to his somewhat unremarkable point totals.

Coaches certainly identified him as one of the most reliable players on the team over his entire career. It became something of a meme every year that the coach would give Zajac 20 minutes a night while sending blue-chip prospects to the AHL for seasoning.

Even as recently as last season there was a period of time where Zajac centered Yegor Sharangovich, and Janne Kuokkanen, serving as essentially the 1C.

I’m sure many fans had a hard time figuring out why Zajac was used in this fashion so often. But I think one role he had, in particular, helps shed light on just how effective he was in terms of playing against the other team’s best players.

And that role was shutting down the greatest player of his generation: Sidney Crosby.

Like Zajac, Crosby’s career almost perfectly overlaps with the analytics era. There are a couple of seasons at the beginning that we don’t get but, for every other season, we can check his performance against every player in the NHL (I scraped it from NaturalStatTrick). 

Fast facts about Travis Zajac vs Sidney Crosby (since 2007):

• Travis Zajac played 312:46 against Sidney Crosby, more than any other forward in the NHL. 

• During Zajac’s shifts vs Crosby, the Devils outscored the Penguins 20 to 9. That 11 goal differential is the highest for any player in the NHL at any position vs Crosby.

• Among the 76 players with 100+ minutes vs Crosby, Travis ranks 3rd in GF%. His frequent linemates -- Taylor Hall and Kyle Palmieri -- rank 2nd and 4th. Alex Steen was #1, but only barely cleared the 100 minute threshold (101 minutes).

• Among centers with 100+ minutes, no one had a higher GF% vs Crosby than Travis Zajac. Only two had a better GA/60.

Overall, this is the performance of all major opponents vs Sidney Crosby.

What you should notice is that the red bubble (Zajac) is by far the upper-rightmost (best) of any of the big bubbles (players who played Crosby a lot). Most of the league is drowning, the really good guys were treading water, and Zajac was spitting straight fire.

The reason I go through all of this is so that you consider it when you remember Zajac’s legacy.

He was absolutely a consummate professional, a model teammate, and a great person. But, he was also a kick-ass hockey player. And you should need no other evidence than the fact that he tortured the greatest player of his generation for a decade and a half.