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The Boston Bruins are in on Jimmy Vesey. The Bruins are out on Jimmy Vesey.
By now, it’s been said a billion times and in a billion different ways, too. It changes every time you ask somebody new, too. CSNNE’s Joe Haggerty reported yesterday that the Bruins were not considered to be among the finalists -- he listed the Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, and New Jersey Devils as the favorites -- for Vesey, who scored 24 goals and 46 points in 33 games for Harvard this past season. Others tell you that it’s all grandstanding thus far, and that the Bruins, along with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres (the team that acquired Vesey’s rights from Nashville in June), are still in it.
So, everyone does what they’ve done since the summer, and will continue to do until at least Aug. 15, when Vesey is finally allowed to talk to a team besides the Sabres, and that’s wait.
The No. Reading, Mass. native has long been linked to the Black and Gold given his local connections, and the Bruins are still expected to make their pitch to the 23-year-old even if he’s not necessarily considering the Bruins among his top choices. And it’s expected that Vesey’s camp will hear them out.
But what if Vesey does indeed not have an interest in the local team?
For one, it would go against the somewhat antiquated notion that every kid wants to play in his hometown. (I’d make the case that Steven Stamkos’ decision not to sign in Toronto should have put that whole thing to bed back in July.) But it would be a little weird considering that Vesey subtly admitted that it’s any kid’s ‘dream’ to play for his hometown team just a few months ago.
But now you’re allegedly behind three: the Blackhawks, Devils, and Rangers.
If you’re Vesey and the Blackhawks call and say, “Hey, come here and play next to Jonathan Toews… then you’d understand why the Bruins would lose out, but if the B’s lose Vesey to a team like the Devils? That would have to feel like a rough, rough indictment on where you are as a hockey team. Yes, the Devils have huge building blocks in guys like Taylor Hall and Cory Schneider, but it’s still Newark, N.J., and you, the Bruins, are supposed to be the team with the inside track on local talent. It’s worth noting that both the Rangers and Devils do have their own local connections to Vesey, too. Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton is a native of Melrose, Mass., and Tom Fitzgerald, now the assistant manager of the Devils, has connections in Massachusetts from Charlestown to Billerica.
And maybe that’s enough for Vesey.
It’s easy to say “I wanna go to my hometown team and be the hero.… Again, it’s easy to say that. But it’s incredibly tough to actually follow through on that. The struggles of B’s winger and Massachusetts native Jimmy Hayes epitomized that. Hayes arrived to town with an incredible amount of fanfare, and when things didn’t go right right away, you could tell that it all began to weigh on him. Hayes did not look like the Hayes you saw thrive in a secondary scoring role with the Florida Panthers, and now the Bruins are left to hope for a big rebound after a frustrating, 13-goal, 29-point first year with Boston.
It goes without saying that Vesey would not want to begin his NHL career with a bad start anywhere, let alone in his hometown, with his friends and family watching him every single night.
But that hasn't ruled the Bruins out just yet.
“He’s wanted to go to free agency and he’s going to see it through,… Peter Fish, Vesey’s agent (who also represents B’s defenseman Kevan Miller), said to the Boston Herald. “There’s about four to five teams other than Buffalo that he wants to hear from. And then after that he’s going to make a decision. I think he’d love for the Bruins to be one of those teams. I assume that we will be taking a call from them.…
In other words, the Bruins are in it as much as they’ve been since the start. Until Monday, anyways.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.