Zajac makes 5.75 a year? why?
Why not? He's usually still a 45 point player (last year was a down year and he missed the first 5-6 weeks after an offseason injury and probably came back too early) and that deal was given 6 years ago. He's paid like a 2nd line center and he was a 2nd line center (though he was our first line center at the time and before Hischier was here) and he would have been the 2nd line center on more teams than not when he got that deal. He's still a boderline 2/3 C at this point. Is he overpaid now? Probably by a little bit, but with the cap going up as much as it does every year, he's really not that overpaid. And his deal ends in 2 more years.
Ideally, he's your 3rd line center at this point. He's even on pace for his most goals in a season in 9 years, although he is having a quite above career average shooting percentage year. Not really sure why our own fanbase and others are so surprised by his salary. He's 34 in a couple months and got this deal at 28 right before he would have went to UFA. Someone probably would have given him $6 million in UFA had he tested the market that year, considering that was the same year David Clarkson got over $5 million and was allegedly offered $6 million by more than one team.