Jimmy Vesey Could Still Sign With Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are still interested in grabbing Jimmy Vesey, and they’re not officially out of the running just yet.
The 23-yeard old Vesey officially becomes a free agent target at midnight. The Buffalo Sabres spent the last few weeks doing everything legally possible to sign him. They even gave up a third-round draft pick to the Nashville Predators in order to get first crack at wooing him. There are plenty of teams hoping to sign him, including the Boston Bruins.
“Tomorrow, we start to find out what our opportunities are,” said Vesey’s agent. “But I can tell you from Buffalo’s standpoint, Jimmy is please with what they’ve done and said thus far.”
Buffalo did attempt to throw out all the stops in order to nab him. They invited Vesey to skate with Jack Eichel,(who is also a client of Fish), Buffalo’s top draft pick in 2015. Both of them have Massachusetts connections, and the team was hoping to generate some chemistry.
In spite of all the hoopla between the Sabres organization and Vesey, he will likely take his time in picking his team. Peter Fish is Vesey’s agent. According to him, college’s hottest hockey player isn’t in any rush to sign his first NHL deal.
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“It’s certainly not going to be tomorrow,” told fish to the Associated Press. “I would say the earliest may be Friday or Saturday, but I wouldn’t expect it to drag on much into the following week.
The Black and Gold aren’t out of the running just yet. While Joe Haggerty has eliminated the Bruins from the race, it doesn’t seem likely that Vesey (who played four years in Boston as a member of the Harvard Crimson) would dismiss the Black and Gold out of hand. The Bruins will certainly have someone from their front office (likely Bruins GM Don Sweeney himself) make the call to Vesey sometime tomorrow.
In the end, it comes down to what team Vesey likes the most. It certainly won’t be about the money. NHL salary rules limit Vesey to a two-year, entry-level deal that has a cap of $925,000 a year. While there could also be signing and performances bonuses, those would be capped as well.
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Realistically, the Bruins are still going to be one of the top teams on Vesey’s list. It just comes down to the kind of pitch the Bruins can make to him, and what kind of ice time they can let him have next season. If the Bruins can give him top-six time, then the Bruins might walk away with one of the hottest prizes in free agency this offseason.