The 2024-25 season was the fifth iteration of the Zac Jones experience. The 24-year-old out of UMass played a career-high 46 games this past season but had an up and down performance. He will be most remembered for voicing his frustration with his inconsistent playing time, telling Larry Brooks: “It (expletive) sucks, it (expletive) sucks. It’s frustrating when you think you’re doing some things well, and it’s just, you just keep getting taken out, taken out, taken out. I just feel like I’m rotting away a little bit.” Now a restricted free agent, Jones could get his chance for a fresh start somewhere else.
Expectations:
Coming into the season, Jones had played 69 games over parts of four seasons and not shown a whole lot. He had just 17 points (3 goals) and had struggled to adjust to the size and speed of the NHL game. This tempered expectations a bit for the former third-round pick but did not nullify the optimism surrounding him. His was still one of the organizations top defensive prospects and had earned a chance with his play with the Hartford Wolfpack in the American Hockey League. In two seasons in the minors Jones had 66 points (17 goals) in 106 games and showcased the strong skating and passing that got him drafted.
During training camp Jones was the front-runner to take the spot vacated by Erik Gustafsson in the Rangers’ everyday lineup. Not only did Jones possess the highest upside but he also fit the role of another puck-moving defenseman that the Rangers needed to fill with Gustafsson gone. With the top two pairs solidified, Jones was expected to slide onto the bottom pair with Braden Schneider to start the year. In that role, the expectation was that Jones would be an effective enough player in transition as both a skater and passer to make up for his smaller stature and tendency to get pushed around in his own zone. More broadly, the expectation was that Jones would prove that he could be a regular in the lineup and perhaps make Ryan Lindgren expendable in free agency this summer.
Performance:
Jones had a weird year in a lot of respects. He started out strong like the rest of the team but by December his play had slipped. While still an excellent skater, he had one or two head-scratching plays a game. He finished the year with just 16 takeaways compared to 40 giveaways and was prone to pinching unnecessarily at the offensive blueline, leading to odd man rushes the other way. No play sticks out more than this dive bomb against the Kings in December that led to a 2-on-1 and an Alex Turcotte goal. I know what Jones is trying to do here but it’s just so risky with no forward back to cover for you if you miss (which he does).
At the Christmas break, with the Rangers in the midst of their 4-15 stretch, Laviolette assigned Jones to the press box, and he would sit for the next 19 games. It was during this stretch that he gave his infamous quote expressing his displeasure with how the organization was handling him. Jones did make his way back into the lineup on February 5th for a 3-2 win against the Bruins and played fairly regularly from then on. After being reinserted to the lineup Jones did play a bit better. He even earned the praise of some fans who felt he was one of the few players giving it his all late in the year when it felt like most of the team had given up. When it was all said and done, Jones’ underlying metrics were solid. When he was on the ice, his Corsi% was 52%, his on-ice goals% was 52.1%, and his expected goals% was 51.9%. His counting stats were underwhelming for an offensive defenseman, as he totaled 1G and 10A for 11P in a career-high 46 games while averaging a career-high 17:15 TOI/G.
I saw what I expected out of Zac Jones this past season. While the underlying metrics show that he was effective at times, the eye test still says that Jones is not a top four NHL defenseman. In particular, he gets pushed off the puck too easily and turns it over a lot. For someone who is supposed to be an offensive-minded defenseman Jones’ point totals are a bit disappointing. He struggled to do much in the offensive zone with the puck and was too focused on pinching in rather than getting back to prevent odd man rushes. That said, Jones played hard until the end of the year even after he endured an unjust, long-term stint as a healthy scratch. He showed enough to be on an NHL roster but is still not someone who should be relied on to provide significant offense or top four minutes.
Where they go from here:
Jones is an RFA and after his comments in January I’m not sure he will be returning. With only ~$11M in cap space and a bevy of RFAs (notably K’Andre Miller and Will Cuylle), Jones may be the odd man out. Adam Fox, Will Borgen, Braden Schneider, Carson Soucy, and Urho Vaakanainen are all under contract for next season and I do expect Miller to be signed. That would leave Jones as the 7th defenseman and that’s what he expressed his displeasure with last season. It would hurt to lose a young defenseman for nothing, but with the cap crunch, a full lineup, and Jones’ middling play, I don’t see Drury rushing to re-sign him if he commands anything more than $1M AAV.