Curtis Lazar was tabbed by New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald to be a center alongside Erik Haula for the third and fourth lines. Is Curtis Lazar a center? Can he be one? This post finds out.
Two days after the start of 2024’s Free Agency Frenzy, New Jersey Devils General Manager Tom Fitzgerald held a press conference. One of the questions was about who would play center on the third and fourth lines. The latter being an omission from Fitzgerald’s offseason additions since Paul Cotter and his 77 faceoffs over two seasons in Las Vegas strongly suggest he is not a center. You may feel this is not a crucial hole in the lineup but a hole still needs to be filled in. Fortunately, Fitzgerald had an answer. As reported through James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now’s summary of the press conference, the third and fourth line center roles will be filled by Erik Haula and Curtis Lazar. Haula is absolutely a center. But Curtis Lazar? Is Curtis Lazar a center? Can he be one?
Actually…Yes in terms of Faceoffs…Kind Of.
Generally, to find out if someone is a center, I look to see how many faceoffs they have taken. While I do not think faceoffs are that important in the bigger picture – hold on to that point – someone playing center should regularly line up at the dots to take the draw. For Haula it is easy. Just look at many draws he took. But Lazar? Was he one? Can he be one? Let us take a closer look.
Last season, here are the Devils who have taken at least 100 faceoffs last season in order: Nico Hischier, Erik Haula, Michael McLeod, Curtis Lazar, Jack Hughes, Dawson Mercer, Tomas Nosek, and Chris Tierney. Yes, Lazar took more draws than Jack Hughes. And Mercer, who is better as a winger than a center. And actual bottom-six centers Nosek and Tierney, whom both could not stay in the lineup for various reasons. Injuries mostly for Nosek and, um, quality of play for Tierney. Lazar took 365 faceoffs in 2023-24. He won 48.8% of them; a superior percentage than Hughes and Mercer.
However, that was last season where McLeod’s suspension and other injuries in the lineup necessitated some fill-in options. Lazar has been in the NHL since 2014-15 with 524 career games played. Did he take at least a decent number of faceoffs in those past seasons with Ottawa, Boston, Buffalo, Calgary, and/or Vancouver? (Aside: Lazar definitely qualifies as a journeyman player.)
The answer: Actually, yes. Kind of. At least in a pinch. He took 384 draws on the 2015-16 Senators, good for fifth on the team behind Mika Zibanejad, J-G Pageau, Kyle Turris, and Zack Smith. He took 361 draws on the 2019-20 Sabres, good for fourth on the team behind Jack Eichel, Johan Larsson, and Marcus Johansson. He took 335 total in 2021 between Buffalo and Boston. He also took 278 in 2021-22 with the B’s; fifth (and a distant one) behind Patrice Bergeron, Charlie Coyle, Haula, and Nosek. Lazar’s past has him taking on a regular role, at least for part of the season, at lining up at center. Or at least he was the first option as a fill-in if someone was not available. It was not like he took just a few here and there.
As a related question, was Lazar good at winning those draws? Actually, no. He has exactly two seasons where he took over 100 faceoffs and won over half of them: 2019-20 in Buffalo (51.3%, 361 draws) and 2022-23 mostly with Vancouver as injuries kept him to 4 games with the Devils (51.5%, 272 draws). Every other season has him at 48.9% or worse. That may be fine as winning draws is far from the end-all, be-all of what makes a coach put someone in at center.
Two (Extreme) Examples of Good Centers Who Were Bad at Faceoffs
One: Allow me to introduce you to Connor McDavid. He is likely to crack 1,000 career points next season and do so in fewer than 700 games. (He needs to put up 18 points in 55 games. I say he does it.) He just became the first non-Gretzky and non-Lemieux player ever to put up 40 points in the postseason as well as the first to do so since Gretzky did it in 1993. He also has just three seasons of winning over half of his faceoffs in the regular season and just put up a 42.8% faceoff winning percentage with 339 faceoffs taken – the third most in the whole postseason. McDavid is arguably the best player in the world. His one not-amazing aspect to his game is winning draws. I assure you that this is not a thing he needs to be better at in order to continue to be the best player in the world. Or to continue to play the position he absolutely dominates. With an on-ice xGF% of 61.88% and a CF/60 rate above 74 per Natural Stat Trick, he is dominating. As a center.
Two: Allow me to also introduce you to Patrik Elias. Wait, Elias was a center? Actually, yes, for a time he was. Since Elias entered the NHL in 1995-96 for one (1) game through to his last season in 2015-16, Patrik Elias took 5,765 faceoffs. While that is a low rate per season, it is evidence that he was in the pivot for more than just a handful of those 1,240 games with the Devils. Elias is fifth on the Devils in total faceoffs taken in that time frame. He trailed John Madden, Travis Zajac, Bobby Holik, and Scott Gomez. For specifics to identify when Center Elias was a Thing, it was mostly in the second half of his career. Elias took at least 400 faceoffs in 2002-03 (427), 2009-10 (457), and 2010-11 (498). He took over 600 draws in 2013-14 (677) and 2014-15 (673). He took 776 in 2007-08. And the most he took, which drove a lot of that number, was the 2011-12 season where he took 1,369 draws. At the very least, we have to say that Elias was a center for a good portion of his Devils career even if his best work was at left wing.
Was Elias good at faceoffs? Absolutely not. His best winning percentage out of all of those seasons was 45.6% (2007-08) and it was as low as 39.1% (2014-15). I am sure I complained about it but multiple coaches kept doing it. Why? Because Elias was great at everything else you would want in a center. Elias was an on-ice 5-on-5 machine in the years the data was available in that 2007-08 season. He was also a productive player in his own right. Of course, not even close to what McDavid is doing. But more than enough that the low faceoff winning percentages are not enough to force a change. And the 5-on-5 on-ice rates demonstrate that he was a very effective player save for that 2014-15 season (I blame Father Time).
Why: Curtis Lazar is obviously not on the level of McDavid or Elias. However, my larger point in bringing up those two examples is that the point of someone playing center goes beyond whether they take faceoffs well. If a player can do what the coaches are asking him to do, play a responsible game, and – crucially for a fourth line role – not be a drain on the team in 5-on-5, then that is sufficient. Even if you and I may hold our breath a bit every time you see them line up for a defensive zone draw.
(Aside: What about the reverse? Sure, some of the best centers in the world are great at taking draws, like Aleksander Barkov. But if faceoffs were/are so important, then why didn’t it ever get Michael McLeod paid or give a longer career to David Steckel? Answer: Because they were not so great after the faceoff. Additionally, at the team level, the Devils were awesome as a team at faceoffs last season. Third best in the NHL. They still missed the playoffs by 10 points. Winning even more draws would not get them those points. Just ask Pittsburgh.)
To that end, the real question is…
Can Lazar Be a Responsible Fourth Liner?
Actually, yes.
It is not a guarantee. His on-ice rates in 5-on-5 at Natural Stat Trick have fluctuated from positive to real bad. However, his first full season in NJ had him finish up with a 48.35 CF%, 48.50% SF%, 53.23% GF%, and a 52.55% xGF%. There is definitely room for improvement but finishing in the green in both expected and actual goals on the ice is a positive for a player in that position. Especially on a not-so-good Devils team with a revolving door among the bottom-six forwards.
What about discipline? While taking 12 minor penalties in 5-on-5 is not great, drawing 17 calls puts him favorable in that regard. Lazar did not take as much as he gave, which is good. What about production? Six goals and 15 assists for 21 points in 5-on-5 play is perfectly fine production for a fourth-liner. It is also his most productive season in 5-on-5 play in his whole career. Maybe it does not exactly repeat in 2024-25 considering six of those assists were to McLeod.
And, to be clear, Lazar was definitely in that end of the lineup with his most common forward teammates being Nathan Bastian, Haula, McLeod, and Mercer. When he was with Haula or McLeod, it is fair to presume he was not actually lining up at center. But with the others, he could have been. Given that his most common forwards still totaled less than 200 minutes of ice time, plenty saw time next to Lazar. Especially if the Devils were going with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen.
All together, Lazar was a perfectly fine bottom-six forward for the Devils last season. Provided he does not get too crazy with this newfound team emphasis on being meaner, he can probably be a decent player in that end of the lineup. And if that is what Sheldon Keefe and his staff expect, then Lazar will be fine even if he only wins, say, 45% of the faceoffs he takes. It would be nice if he won half of them but I do not think it is essential for him to take the role Fitzgerald has him penciled in for. It is not like there is a lot of competition as Nosek is gone, Tierney is unsigned, McLeod is definitely gone, and the Utica centers include Justin Dowling and Shane Bowers.
Of course, that can change. Do not be stunned if the Devils try to add a fourth-line caliber center closer to training camp. Possibly on a try-out basis. They could even look to acquire one during the season. Especially if Lazar struggles to fill the role or gets hurt and the other options out of Utica do not do so as well. Still, here is an answer to the headline. Yes, Lazar is a center. To a degree. He can do it at least in a pinch. And it is not outlandish for Fitzgerald to name him as someone to play center.
Your Take
Now I turn to you, the People Who Matter. Do you think Curtis Lazar is a center? Do you think he is capable of being a fourth-line center? What do you expect from him to do as a center? What would you consider a successful season for Lazar? Please leave your answers and other thoughts about Lazar and fourth-line centers in the comments. Thank you for reading.