Lamoriello oversaw three Stanley Cup victories with the New Jersey Devils (1995, 2000 and 2003), working with legendary players such as Martin Brodeur, Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer. The Devils, Sabres, Blackhawks, Maple Leafs and Bruins have all been linked to Vesey.
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He first spurned the Predators, never signing an entry-level deal with the team that drafted him in the third round (No. 66 overall) in 2012. As such, he will be a free agent this summer. Those rights will expire tomorrow, August 15th, and he will be free to sign with any team. To be sure, the Rangers’ lineup heading into training camp next month would be stronger with the North Redding, Massachusetts native in the fold. Now the Buffalo Sabres hold the rights to Vesey and have put a hard pitch on the 23-year-old American winger.
In just over 24 hours, 2016 Hobey Baker Award victor Jimmy Vesey will be an unrestricted free agent and able to negotiate with teams other than the Buffalo Sabres, who acquired his rights from the Nashville Predators before the NHL Draft.
It’s intriguing to see a young player like this still available this late in the offseason.
The next phase of the Jimmy Vesey Watch opens this week, when the Hobey Baker Award victor becomes an unrestricted free agent and can speak to any team in the National Hockey League. He’s pretty quiet and quietly goes about his business as a hockey player. As someone who went to college in Boston (Northeastern), I can tell you that these local ties do mean something.
It’s an very bad lot of speculation around a young player who has never played in the National Hockey League.
Brad Marchand and Matt Beleskey are penciled in as Boston’s top two left wingers, so it would be a tough task for Vesey to move into a prime scoring role as a rookie.
Jimmy Murphy is right. They will lose those rights on Monday the 15th when Vesey has his future in front of him.
Technically Nashville could have signed Vesey before the trade to Buffalo and they can still take another run at Vesey when he hits the open market.
Fish is also Eichel’s agent and it bears reminding that this is not a bidding war. It’s a low-risk, high-reward deal if Ray Shero can pull it off. Nevertheless, there is a clear case for why Vesey should come to Philadelphia.
NY Rangers – The Rangers are thought to have missed their championship window, but they still have Henrik Lundqvist.
When it comes down to it, Vesey has never played an National Hockey League game before, so there’s no promises that his game will even translate to the pro level just yet.
Leafs players earn endorsements of all shapes and sizes, no matter how long they play for the team, and Vesey could certainly bring in a lot more extra income in this market compared to others that are vying for his services.
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Vesey’s agent has said that “We’ve looked at depth charts with some teams and talked about them”. Again, there are no guarantees, but it’s exciting to know that the Devils are near the top of Vesey’s list.
