You have to try really hard to get Nashville Predators general manager David Poile to the point where he goes on TV and says the situation completely caught him by surprise and has left him confused. There is no more honest or upfront person in hockey. And no one who has seen more and understands more the way this all works.
Yes, Jimmy Vesey has the right to become an unrestricted free agent on August 15. He has always had that right. He could have told the Predators at any point that was an option. He didn't have to tell the Preds he was signing right after his college career. The Preds have been talking to the kid at least once a week for years now. They were supporting his desire to get his degree from Harvard and never pressured him otherwise.
I talked to sources in Nashville who have been telling me all along what they have been hearing; That Vesey appreciated the Preds and their support. The team, as Poile stated, talked in depth to Vesey prior to the trade deadline and felt so confident that he would be joining the team in a few weeks that the Preds based some of their trade deadline strategy around Vesey's assurances.
So what has changed? Either Vesey and his people weren't being at all honest with Nashville or some other team has tampered since then and "changed someone's mind."
Either way it is impossible to prove, and likely nothing will come of it.
We will discuss this an more on today's show at 1:30pm.