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Vesey's Ever Expanding "Short List" |
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If I were Buffalo Sabres GM Tim Murray, I would be pissed off.
A month ago, Murray traded a third round draft choice to the Nashville Predators for the exclusive negotiating rights to former Harvard standout forward Jimmy Vesey.
Since then, Vesey's "short list" of teams has grown.
Murray bought Vesey's first position negotiating rights.
Today, it doesn't seem to matter.
Wanna get your team in the Vesey list of teams that he will meet with on August 15?
Stick around long enough and you will achieve your goal.
In my opinion, neither the Chicago Blackhawks nor the Boston Bruins have respected Murray and the Sabres during this run-up period to unrestricted free agency.
Vesey will become an unrestricted free agent on August 15. The NHL rules state that if a player completes his four year commitment to an NCAA institution then he reserves the right to say "no thank you" to the team that drafted said player into the NHL. In Vesey's case, its the Nashville Predators who were left at the alter when the 2016 Hobey Baker winner informed David Poile and Peter Laviolette in April that Vesey was not interested in signing with the predators, who were holding a top six roster spot open for Vesey for the 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs. When Vesey bailed on the Preds, it left a very bitter taste in the mouths of Nashville fans and team personnel.
Rightly so.
Vesey was well within his rights to skate away from the Preds. Now, it appears that he and his reps are content to invite more teams to the Vesey lottery while on Tim Murray's dime. Murray gave David Poile a third round draft pick in exchange for Vesey's negotiating rights. The third rounder represents the third rounder that Nashville invested in Vesey at the 2012 NHL Draft.
Tim Murray and the Buffalo Sabres have made their intentions known from day one. They want Vesey to play alongside his great friend and generational talent Jack Eichel for the next decade. Murray and the Sabres have made their best pitch to Vesey. They have deployed their closer Eichel to convince Vesey to sign with Buffalo where he will ride shotgun Eichel and Samson Reinhart next season. It hasn't worked. Yet. Eichel's sales pitch appears to be flying into one of Vesey's ears and out the other.
Vesey and his reps appear to love the thrill of the chase. It's an exciting time.
Sabres fans feel like they are getting conned a bit by Veseymania. They would prefer it if Vesey simply signed with Buffalo today rather than waiting until August 15 to meet with a growing list of NHL teams. That isn't going to happen. Sabres fans want Vesey. Does he want to be a Sabres star for the next decade?
Only time will tell.
Murray has had a couple of face to face meetings with Vesey and his reps since the trade of his exclusive rights went down. One meeting was in Buffalo on June 25, day two of the NHL Draft. The other meeting occurred in Boston two weeks ago when Murray, Dan Bylsma and Jerry Forton (Sabres scout and Vesey's former coach at Harvard his freshman season) sat down with Vesey and his agents. Both parties have since characterized their meeting as being informative and enlightening. Murray said that he would not be making a circus out of the Vesey recruitment process. In other words, Vesey already knows the deal. He knows that Buffalo wants him badly and that playing with Eichel, Reinhart, Ryan O'Reilly, Kyle Okposo, Evander Kane, Rasmus Ristolainen, Jake McCabe, and the upstart Sabres will provide him with a great opportunity to make the playoffs in his rookie NHL season in Buffalo.
Still, Vesey and his people continue to say that they are intent on taking their time before they select the NHL team that the power forward will be signing with.
Again, it's well within their rights to wait it out.
Vesey's camp has a "short list" of teams that seemingly is getting longer by the week.
The list now includes Buffalo, Boston, and Chicago. Possibly Toronto and San Jose. Give it a week. The list will grow again. NHL GMs can now follow Bowman's lead and gawk at Vesey in person on Wednesday nights in Foxboro.
On Monday night, Vesey's agent revealed one more of the teams on the not-so-short list of team's that his client will be speaking to when he becomes available in August.
“Chicago will be a team we want to talk to on August 15,” said agent Peter Donatelli via The Athletic's Scott Powers on Monday.
“Chicago will be on the list, but it shouldn’t be read as they’re ahead of anyone else.”
This is newsworthy only because before July 1 the Blackhawks were not on Vesey's list.
Funny how Hawks GM Stan Bowman making two in person visits to watch Vesey live in men's league games in Foxboro, Mass. on consecutive Wednesday nights the past two weeks. When the general manager of the galaxy of hall of fame bound stars who have won three of the past seven Stanley Cups is making eye contact with you through the glass while window shopping it can be a bit unnerving. Don't you think so?
It appears that Bowman has zero respect for Tim Murray and the exclusive negotiating process. The Hawks GM has brazenly scouted Vesey in person, all by himself the past two weeks. Bowman could have easily sent his area scout to Vesey's shinny games who then would have filed a report for Bowman to read the next morning. If you ask me, Bowman's tactics are greasy and desperate. Bowman knows that Buffalo holds Vesey's rights until August 15. Has it stopped him from pursuing Vesey? Nope. Some would say that Bowman is toeing the line of tampering with Vesey,
Don't get me started on the Boston Bruins. I find it "coincidental" that a Boston area sports channel conducted an exclusive one on one interview with the Harvard hero last Wednesday night before he and Eichel skated in their mens league game. Vesey granted the network a seven minute interview in which he espoused his boyhood love for the Bruins the city of Boston, Joe Thornton, and Jimmy Hayes, and Torey Krug. The piece flowed like an infomercial to pump up the Boston Bruins as the logical landing destination for Vesey. "Hometown kid, father was a Bruins prospect, relationship with current Bruins players, loves Boston restaurants, has a tin of family to watch him play in Beantown".
Yada, yada, yada.
On Monday night, Vesey's rep sold the old "give it the old college try" philosophy to the teams who will be invited to pitch his client, who has yet to skate one second TOI in an NHL game.
“He really has no idea where he’s going to be,” Donatelli said. “It’s going to be up to the teams to sell him. Yes, [we have criteria], but we’re interested in what the teams say rather than telling the teams what they have to say.”
Donatelli said Vesey will likely meet with two to three teams per day over a few days in Boston come August. From there, Vesey will either trim his list or make a decision.
“We’re not going to pigeonhole ourselves in how we’re doing it,” Donatelli said.
So, how short is this list afterall?
Vesey's two year entry level contract is already pegged at the rookie max of $932K. Thats based on the NHL CBA. Add on attainable Schedule A bonuses of $1 million to $1.5 million and the deal is done.
I'm not an analytics guy or a math whiz, but I'll give it the old college try.
If Vesey meets with 2-3 teams per day for a few days that's a list of 6 to 9 NHL teams, right?
"A few" equals three in my world.
I need a Prilosec with a Pepto Bismol chaser.
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