BUFFALO – It’s not much of a mystery that the Bruins have keen interest in Hobey Baker winner Jimmy Vesey.
The Harvard captain is expected to be a free agent on Aug. 15 rather than sign before that date with the Buffalo Sabres despite Buffalo GM Tim Murray trading for his exclusive negotiating rights earlier this week. The Sabres shipped a 2016 third-round pick to the Nashville Predators for Vesey’s rights, and they still remain one of the favorites to land the big winger based in large part on his friendship with Jack Eichel.
Murray also had the wherewithal to take ownership of those rights based on the four third-round picks they owned going into this week, while the Bruins hold zero third-round picks this year, and next, after flipping them for John-Michael Liles and Zac Rinaldo. Still, the Bruins still have a puncher’s chance of signing Vesey based on him growing up in North Reading, Mass., as a B’s fan, and his equally tight relationship with Bruins defenseman prospect Matt Grzelcyk.
Who wouldn’t want Vesey after posting 24 goals and 46 points in 34 games for Harvard last season, and projecting to immediately jump into an NHL lineup as a 23-year-old top-six winger working on an entry level contract.
“I spoke to Nashville on several items, and that player [Vesey] did some up,” said Sweeney. “[The Sabres] took a swing at the window that they think will help them from a recruiting standpoint. I’m sure that even Nashville would admit that if it gets to August that there will be 29 teams courting him. We’ll see what happens between now and them. If we’d had a [third- round pick] then possibly [we could have traded for his rights]. I don’t really deal in whether or not I had or had not and whatnot, but you have to acknowledge that he’s a good player.
Unfortunately there has also been plenty of sentiment from people close to the Vesey camp that the family has wariness about the local kid playing for the Bruins after the way a struggling Jimmy Hayes was knocked around publicly in his first season in Boston. The theory there is that Vesey would be in a better position to succeed in a setting such as Buffalo, with an improving young core group and Eichel already playing the savior role in the eyes of fans and media.
Vesey’s camp maintains that they want to talk to all interested teams when he becomes a free agent on Aug. 15, but it’s believed the Bruins, Sabres, Maple Leafs and Penguins are the strong favorites to land the talented kid’s services.
Boston Bruins
