Boston Bruins: Jimmy Vesey Wants To Play Closer To Home
By Mike Cratty
Coveted unrestricted free agent, Jimmy Vesey, wants to play closer to home. This is a good sign for the Boston Bruins.
On Tuesday, after just recently becoming an unrestricted free agent, former Harvard Crimson star forward and Hobey Baker award winner, Jimmy Vesey, ruled out the Detroit Red Wings as a team that he would sign with.
“We did our best,” Red Wings assistant general manager Ryan Martin said, according to MLive.com’s Ansar Khan. “We spoke to his agent about depth and opportunity. He said he preferred to play closer to home.”
Vesey is a native of North Reading, Massachusetts. Prior to attending Harvard for four years, he played at Belmont Hill school in Belmont, Massachusetts. He also played with the South Shore Kings who are based out of Foxboro, MA. His roots are deep in Massachusetts.
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How this will affect his decision-making process going forward has obviously yet to be seen, as some of the teams linked to Vesey aren’t all that close to Boston. The Detroit Red Wings were never really been considered big contenders for Vesey, so this news isn’t too much of a surprise.
During his four-year Harvard career, Vesey amassed 80 goals and 144 points in 128 games. His incredible efforts won him the 2016 Hobey Baker Award, an award given to the top player in all of college hockey. Vesey started his collegiate career with combined minus-17 in his freshman and sophomore seasons at Harvard. He improved in his last two seasons drastically, however. In his junior and senior seasons, Vesey finished with a combined plus-34 rating.
During his impressive, Hobey Baker winning senior season, Vesey also served as captain of the Harvard Crimson. His strong leadership led his to an overall record of 19-11-4 and third place in the ECAC.
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Jimmy Vesey will look for and very possibly get top-six minutes with any team he signs with and will likely make a solid impact. Teams are lining up to get him after waiting quite some time for him to officially become an unrestricted free agent. The Boston Bruins are one of the teams eagerly awaiting his decision.