2025 Rangers Report Card: Zac Jones

This post is part of an ongoing series of Rangers Report Cards, grading the performance of each member of the 2024-25 New York Rangers. To view more report cards in this series, go here.

Expectations

In spite of appearing in games across four different seasons for the Rangers heading into the 2024-25 campaign, Zac Jones remained a bit of a mystery box at the onset of the season.

After leaving UMass-Amherst following a national championship to turn pro during the COVID-19 truncated 2020-21 NHL campaign, the former 68th overall pick of the 2019 Entry Draft spent the majority of the following two seasons with the Hartford Wolf Pack before cracking New York's roster full-time in 2023-24, though his role was that of the team's seventh defenseman.

Erik Gustafsson's departure created a clear path for Jones to see regular NHL playing time in his fifth pro season. While Jones was a regular presence on the back end in the early portion of the season, he steadily fell out of favor as the season progressed and Chris Drury orchestrated several moves to acquire defenseman of a different mold than what Jones purportedly brought to the ice.

By the time New York's disappointing season came to an end, what was supposed to be a breakout season for Jones turned out to be one where he drew into lineup barely more than half of the time. Was he another casualty of the since-fired Peter Laviolette's questionable lineup decisions? Or could there have been more to his lack of playing time? Let's find out.

Performance

Boxcar Stats: 46 GP, 1 G, 10 A, 42 SOG, 17:15 TOI/GP, 24 PIM, -8 Penalty Differential, +0 5-on-5 Goal Differential

5-on-5 Analytical Metrics: 0.86 Points/60, -1.46 Relative CF%, -0.83 Relative SF%, 0.35 Relative GF%, 0.28 Relative Expected GF%, -2.68 Relative SCF%, 100.6 On-Ice PDO, -10.4 Goals Above Replacement

Before getting into the nitty-gritty of the numbers, let's discuss his usage throughout the season. Jones' most common defensive partner was Braden Schneider as the pair skated 314 minutes together at 5-on-5, over 200 minutes more than Jones' next-most common partner, Victor Mancini. Carson Soucy was Jones' third-most common partner, and Jones also paired with Calvin de Haan in the disgruntled veteran's three games as a Ranger.

Jones and de Haan played reasonably well in their short time together, but every other combination left something to be desired. The Jones-Schneider combination outscored its opponents 12-9 while being underwater across the full range of shot and scoring chance metrics, and no other defensive pairing featuring Jones outscored its opponents or featured break-even possession numbers.

Jones drew into the lineup in 25 of New York's first 31 games, sitting as a healthy scratch five times in a six-game stretch as the calendar flipped from October to November, and following Ryan Lindgren's return to health, and as the coaching staff opted to get an extended look at Mancini.

As the new year approached, the Rangers made a pair of deals that saw Urho Vaakanainen and Will Borgen arrive on Broadway. Borgen debuted for the Blueshirts in the team's 32nd game, and that contest marked the beginning of a time span where Jones was the odd man out 20 times in the next 21 games. That stretch included 18-straight games in the press box that began as the Rangers returned from the Christmas break, spanned the entire month of January (a month where the Rangers played some of their best hockey and put together a season-high 10-game point streak) and spilled over into the first two games of February.

Jones sat for another spell of games leading into and out off the 4 Nations Face-Off, even playing a pair of games for Hartford on a conditioning loan in February, but was in the lineup for the majority of New York's games following the trade deadline. What we saw was unspectacular to say the least. From a statistical perspective, Jones' graded out as a middling-at-best defender by the traditional shot and chance metrics, and by Evolving Hockey's Goals Above Replacement (GAR) model, he was one of the worst players in the entire league.

GAR is a cumulative stat, so players who play more have more opportunities to accumulate more (or less) of the metric. In spite of only skating in 46 games, Jones managed to grade out as the fifth-worst player, and third-worst defenseman, in the league by GAR. For a player who profiled as an offense-first defender, Jones's offensive contributions are shockingly what knock him down here.

Only St. Louis' Justin Faulk graded out as bigger cumulative drag on his team's overall offense than Jones, and that comes with Faulk playing nearly 1,000 more minutes. Jones' power play time was more or less limited to second unit-duty and a 2-for-26 stretch across eight games quarterbacking the top unit in the absence of Adam Fox. Not that he'd be bumping Fox off of the top unit even if he did play well, but the late-season power play struggles that helped sink the Blueshirts began when Jones had an opportunity to prove himself, and he failed that test.

Jones' defense wasn't "jump off the page" bad in the way his offense was, statistically speaking, but bad pinches leading to odd-man rushes the other way were commonplace for him. Peter Laviolette was no exception to the rule that NHL coaches tend to be more risk-averse than they should be at times. The visible defensive miscues combined with unremarkable offensive contributions played a big part in Jones' lack of playing time throughout the season.

Grades

Author Grade: D

Banter Consensus: C+

Final Evaluation

The first words out of Jones' mouth at breakup day were interesting. You'll never hear a player say being in and out of the lineup on a regular basis helped them play well, but getting shuttled in and out of the lineup usually happens for a reason. Jones was a non-needle mover at best when he played, and gave the coaching staff plenty of reasons to send him back to the press box at his worst.

Jones' extended stints as a healthy scratch were (and still are) a hot topic among the residents of Rangerstown. Maybe it's his status as a homegrown player that gave him more leash from the fan base than the likes of Borgen, Vaakanainen, and Carson Soucy, but Jones was not remarkably better than any of them.

As much as some wanted the Rangers to punt on the season and focus on playing younger players following the deadline, the team remained in the thick of the wild card race until April. Jones turned 24 less than two weeks after opening night and was in the midst of his D+6 season in 24-25.

There's less room for player development at that point than we'd like to believe, and with Jones not being demonstrably better than his peers as bottom pairing defensive options, the case for Jones sitting as much as he did on the merits of his play is easy to make.

All data via Natural Stat Trick, Evolving Hockey, and NHL.com