Boston Bruins: Don Sweeney chooses to pass on a Jimmy Vesey deal
By Luke Ryan
There was once a time when Jimmy Vesey was hitting free agency that the Boston Bruins would’ve been more than happy to acquire him at the cost of a single mid-round draft pick.
However, times have changed and Jimmy Vesey, a former Hobey Baker Award winner no longer garners anywhere near as much attention from the Boston Bruins organisation, despite him being a home-town guy.
At a cost to the Buffalo Sabres of a third-round pick in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, it’s not too much of a risk and comes with limited reward for the trading team, the New York Rangers. However, that is just the state of the trade market these days – it’s hard to get particularly good returns.
Don Sweeney has definitely made a wise decision on behalf of the Boston Bruins by not allowing emotion to play a factor in his decision-making. Of course, there’s the temptation to bring in a home-town guy, especially having seen how that status motivated Charlie Coyle this past post-season.
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However, the move wouldn’t have done him any favours with regards to cap space and just generally lack of positional need to acquire Jimmy Vesey.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Hobey Baker Award winners are good players, but with a career-high in the NHL of just 35 points last season, he’s not exactly a world-beater. All up in 240 regular-season NHL games, he has totals of 50 goals and 40 assists – he clearly has an eye for goal, but at $2.275 million this season wouldn’t have been a good fit.
His status as a top-dog in the NCAA that was hedging his bets on NHL free agency possibly means his name holds higher value than his actual production. It’s safe to say that he has been rather underwhelming for the New York Rangers and the Boston Bruins don’t need that sort of drain on their cap space.
Especially, that is, when there are comparable players available on $1 million contracts. Brett Ritchie‘s career-year a couple of seasons back compares quite nicley with Jimmy Vesey’s NHL totals season-on-season. I think I’m glad that Don Sweeney has used some common sense on this one.
Next. Par Lindholm a useful depth addition. dark
It’s not often that a ‘non-deal’ proves better than an actual deal, but in this scenario, I think I’m glad the Boston Bruins ignored the chance to acquire someone that seemed a decent bet a few years back, but hasn’t turned out all that great in the big-time.