2024 Zac Jones report card

To be honest, I was a little surprised to see that Zac Jones played in 31 games last season, doubling his career high of 16 games. Jones has graduated from spare part to the heir apparent to the 6D spot, so a 2024 Zac Jones report card felt necessary. Given expectations, role, results, and no playoff time, Jones’ grade is pretty easy to judge.

Jones “shattered” career highs in those 31 games, putting up 2 goals and 7 assists for 9 points. It may not seem like much, but when you parse that out over 82 games it becomes 5-18-23 for a third pairing defenseman getting 14:38 TOI with zero special teams minutes. Jones was never going to be a stalwart penalty killer, but he should have been an option–and hopefully will be this season–on PP2.

Jones played mostly with Braden Schneider as an injury fill in during Adam Fox’s and Jacob Trouba’s absences. In the pair’s 206 minutes, they had passable puck possession and xG rates in mostly sheltered zone starts, but there was significant room for improvement as they were under 50% in both stats.

It is also worth noting that Jones’ numbers jumped somewhat significantly to over 50% in both CF% and xG% when away from Schneider. This is likely due to playing with Erik Gustafsson, who was far stronger with the puck than Schneider, but also because Jones simply played much better later in the season when he was paired with Gustafsson. It’s not a slight on Schneider, just different roles, skills, and timing.

Jones was a 7D to start the season and was probably the preferred option over a few guys in the playoffs. If anything, that shows how much he grew in his role when he finally got some extended playing time. It’s tough to grade objectively with just 31 games, but given the expectations, Jones played solidly enough to earn himself that 6D spot this year. If anything, that should speak volumes about what the coaching staff thinks.

2024 Zac Jones report card: B