Murray: It's Your Show Now, Jimmy https://t.co/iJAkNeIvSh pic.twitter.com/3jM8Jph1tp
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) July 13, 2016
Ask Tim Murray to give you a status update on pending unrestricted free agent power forward Jimmy Vesey and Tim Murray will throw you a "WTF" look and snark you like you've never been snarked before.
Murray has heard all of the impassionate cries of Chicken Littles who claim the sky over Western New York is falling just because Murray hasn't gotten Vesey to sign his entry level contract with the Buffalo Sabres.
"I’ve talked about this literally less than anyone else in Buffalo,… the always entertaining Buffalo Sabres GM said Tuesday at his post-development camp media availability.
Murray's antenna is always up. He is a voracious consumer of sports talk radio, blogs, Twitter, and newspaper. Murray is a Twitter Egg who knows what's up in the court of public opinion. Murray doesn't manage his hockey team to appease his fans. He plans his work and works his plan. Murray refuses to answer to the chat room pundits, blog commenters, radio call in show legends. Murray works for Terry and Kim Pegula. They compensate him well to build the best Buffalo Sabres roster that he possibly can.
“I hear the guys on the radio and people are mad. This is like top-end news. I think I paid less attention to this than anybody."
Murray senses the frustration of the vocal minority in Buffalo yet he has bigger fish to fry right now than to stand below Jimmy Vesey's window holding a boom box on his shoulder, lip synching Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes".
Local bar stool prophets in Buffalo think that Murray is in peril of losing Vesey to unrestricted free agency on August 15. Others, myself included, tend to allow the process to play itself out. Murray would tell you that any negotiation is a marathon, not a sprint.
Murray didn't fly to Boston last Thursday with Dan Bylsma and Jerry Forton to give Vesey the Doppler 2000 weather forecast for the Buffalo area.
Murray went there to extol the virtues of playing in Buffalo in front of the most rabid hockey fanatics in the NHL. Murray was selling the Pegulas, the HARBORCenter, the world class facilities; the robust housing market, where there is never a "bubble; the love affair that exists between the Sabres and their adoring fans. Murray also was selling the Buffalo Sabres roster and organizational depth. Vesey has the opportunity to bypass the AHL and cement an opening night roster spot waiting for him on one of Buffalo's top two forward lines.
It would have been nice had Murray gotten the kid to sign on the dotted line before flying home to Buffalo, however, it was more of a fact finding session. Vesey had questions and Murray, Bylsma and Forton had answers. P.S- Forton helped to recruit Vesey to Harvard while he was an assistant coach for the Harvard Crimson. In last Thursday's meeting, Vesey did 90% of the listening and 10% of the talking. Murray knew this going into that meeting. It wasn't a one-call close. It was the first of several steps to creating a win-win proposition for Vesey and the Sabres. Vesey isn't buying a cheap tattoo on Clifton Hill at 4am after a long night with the boys at Boston Pizza. He's a Harvard graduate who is known to his friends to be an analytical thinker. A good Harvard man isn't going to get closed in round one of a negotiation. He's going to take his time and process the deluge of Buffalo-centric intel that Murray, Bylsma, Forton, and Jack Eichel have been sharing with him.
Afterwards, Camp Vesey and Team Murray came away with the same impression of the give and take meeting. Both sides shook hands and stepped away from the table better informed of the other's side's position.
in the days leading up to the NHL Draft in Buffalo, Murray traded one of the four 2016 third-round selections to the Nashville Predators for Vesey's exclusive negotiating rights. In April, Vesey opted out of signing his entry level contract with the Predators.
No other team can speak with Vesey before August 15. Murray is making the most of his one on one time with the 6"3" 210 lb. power winger.
On Monday, Dan Bylsma told NHL.com that he feels strongly that with Vesey in Buffalo's top six forward group in 2016-17 that he thinks that the Sabres can be a 95+ point team in the Eastern Conference standings. Bylsma has high expectations of taking his Sabres to the Stanley Cup playoffs next spring. Having Vesey playing in the Buffalo top six just might be the tipping point to nudge the Sabres back into the postseason tournament.
Vesey’s agent has said on more than one occasion that the 2016 Hobey Baker winner (and 2015 Hobey Baker runner up to Jack Eichel) plans to become a free agent on August.
The agent also said recently that Vesey is open to all opportunities.
Translation:
Murray hasn't scored off the one-timer. He just needs to keep peppering Vesey with valid business reasons why he should forego the UFA market on August 15 and sign his ELC with Buffalo now. Wayne Gretzky said "You'll miss 100% of the shots you don't take". By that logic, Murray continues to rifle pucks at Vesey. The lamp will eventually light red.
On Friday morning, Fish said that the meeting went well. Murray echoed the same sentiment.
Murray could not have been more candid nor succinct when he said Tuesday that the puck is now in Jimmy Vesey end of the rink. The Buffalo offer is his to do with what he will. Murray isn't sitting staring at his cell phone to vibrate and buzz with an incoming call from Vesey's agent.
“I told him he doesn’t owe anybody anything,… Murray said. “He went to school for four years and he became a free agent. So now he’s got to make the right decision for him. There’s no timetable. I felt really good about the meeting. I got great feedback about the meeting. But this is his show right now".
“If he wants to come in here, or, if he wants to reach out to us and have another meeting, then we’re there. But for me, this is his court. I don’t sit at home and speculate about this. He’s either going to sign here or he’s not. If he doesn’t, it’s going to be obviously not the decision we want, and then you guys will call me a dummy for trading away a third-round pick. I got all the scenarios and I’m ready for them all. But it’s up to him.…
Murray has four and a half weeks left to finalize a deal with Vesey and his agent. Frankly, I like Murray's chances.