In my
last blog, I reviewed Jim Benning's latest interview with Ben Kuzma. The Vancouver Canucks' general manager indicates that the team is still looking for a left winger with some grit and scoring ability.
Once again, Benning gives us a strong indication that he has a specific plan in mind. "Teams know what we’re looking for and we’ll see how it goes," he told Kuzma.
If the team is waiting for other chips to fall before making a deal, Jimmy Vesey's fate could trigger Benning's next move. Vesey is the Hobey Baker-winning left winger out of Harvard who elected not to sign with the Nashville Predators, who drafted him in 2012, after his graduation. Instead, he becomes a free agent on August 15.
Vesey's a native of the Boston area. It was widely assumed when he elected to go the free-agent route that he'd stay in the area where he grew up and where he went to college, and sign with the Bruins. But there are a couple of other wrinkles. Vesey's father is a scout with Toronto and his younger brother Nolan is a Maple Leafs prospect. And the Buffalo Sabres traded for Vesey's rights in an effort to bring him into their fold. Vesey trains in the offseason with Jack Eichel and they're close, so there's another connection that could sway him.
Here's the latest, from
CSN's Joe Haggerty last week:
Vesey said he had a "very good meeting" with the Sabres management team when they came to Boston to give him their pitch about why he should sign with the Sabres. But he's determined to go to free agency on August 15 and see what other options are available.
"We have a little bit of a short list going that I’ve worked on with my agents and my family. We’re going to narrow it down as best as we can, and get through it as quickly as we can on Aug. 15."
Vesey did admit that the Bruins are one of the teams that he plans to meet with. Haggerty suggests the other teams on the short list are Buffalo, Toronto and New Jersey, with an outside chance that Pittsburgh could come into play.
Here's where it gets interesting for Vancouver: the team that signs Vesey may need to move a left wing in order to create a top-six roster spot and/or free up cap space to bring in the new player.
That's where the Evander Kane idea starts to make a lot of sense. If Vesey signs with the Sabres, Kane likely becomes expendable—and general manager Tim Murray might be quite keen to cut ties after the big power forward managed just 35 points in 65 games this season. Kane has also had a couple of run-ins with the law while in Buffalo but does not face any charges—
The Comeback has details.
Like Milan Lucic, Kane is a Vancouver boy who played junior hockey with the Vancouver Giants. He has soft enough hands that he scored 30 goals with the Winnipeg Jets in 2011-12, and even last year he managed 20 in Buffalo. He also has a certain snarl to his game. At 6'2" and 204 pounds, he's not as big as Lucic but he hit a career high with 91 penalty minutes in Buffalo last season.
When Kane was traded from Winnipeg to Buffalo in February of 2015, Benning admitted interest—perhaps a little more than he should have—in an interview on TSN1040. Geez, that sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Click here for the rundown of those events from Mike Halford at NBC Sports. When asked about Kane, Benning said "We can’t really talk about other teams’ players, but we would be interested for sure."
Kane brings some skills, he's still pretty young at 24 and the cost of acquisition might not be that high if Murray gets Vesey and is eager to get Kane out of Buffalo. But like Milan Lucic, he's divisive.
Let's keep the question simple:
survey solutions
What if Vesey signs with a different team?
• Boston only has 12 forwards currently signed, according to General Fanager, and has more than $6 million in cap space, so the Bruins wouldn't need to move a player to bring Vesey in.
• Toronto is listed with only $3 million in cap space, but they'll put Nathan Horton and Stephane Robidas back on injured reserve when the season begins, so they've got room. The Leafs are listed as having a glut of left wingers but nobody on the right side. I could see Joffrey Lupul being available at his $5.25 million cap hit but he's now 32 and has played just 101 games in the last two seasons combined. Not sure he has enough offensive punch to help the Canucks at this stage of his career.
It's probably a long shot, but I wonder if the Leafs would consider parting with James van Riemsdyk if they acquire Vesey? He's only 27, signed to a reasonable deal at $4.25 million for two more years, and scored 30 goals in 2013-14—although injuries also limited him to just 40 games last season.
• New Jersey has plenty of cap space, and is suddenly rich on the left side with Mike Cammalleri and new acquisition Taylor Hall. But the Devils finished last in the league in scoring 2015-16, so I don't think they'd be in a rush to part with any of their offensive wingers.
• That leaves Pittsburgh. They're already tight to the cap after re-signing Justin Schultz, though they'll be able to move Pascal Dupuis to injured reserve after the season begins. I'm sure the Penguins wouldn't mind parting with 36-year-old Chris Kunitz if they acquired Vesey, but he's past his best-before date and his skating is highly suspect. Hopefully that'd be a no-go for Vancouver.
I can't imagine Jim Rutherford being willing to break up the HBK Line, but speedy Carl Hagelin, at 27 (and Swedish!) would fit nicely into the Canucks' mix. As good as Conor Sheary was in the playoffs, I don't know that he'd be an automatic upgrade over Sven Baertschi.
Jared Clinton adds a few other names to the mix in
this article in
The Hockey News.
Clinton suggests that the Red Wings are looking for a defenseman in exchange for a forward, perhaps Gustav Nyqvist or Tomas Tatar. I'd look into that option, especially if Luca Sbisa could be used as blueline bait.
Clinton also offers up Chris Kunitz or Scott Hartnell as possibilities, but I think they're both too old. Kunitz only has one year left on his current deal but Hartnell charges out at $4.75 million for another three seasons. He is a consistent scorer—20-plus goals in each of the last three seasons—and he's a character guy who can also play a physical game. And he's been amazingly durable through his career—he has missed just 12 games in his past three seasons. But he's 34!!
If Columbus trades Hartnell, they'll be looking for cap relief. The Blue Jackets will want an inexpensive young player and/or a draft pick back in return although, considering there was talk that they might just buy Hartnell out, maybe the price of acquisition would be reasonably affordable for a Canucks team that doesn't have a lot of assets to dangle as trade bait.
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