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Jimmy Vesey

Metropolitan Notes: Vesey, Wheeler, Mateychuk, Yager

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Rangers winger Jimmy Vesey skated today in a non-contact jersey, notes NHL.com’s Dan Rosen (Twitter link).  He has missed the last three games after suffering an upper-body injury in the second game of their series against Florida.  At the time of the injury, Vesey was given a week-to-week designation so it remains unlikely that he’ll suit up for the rest of this round.  However, if New York can come back and win the series, he could be an option to return at that time.  Vesey had 13 goals and 13 assists in 80 games during the regular season and added three points in a dozen playoff contests before being injured.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • Still with the Rangers, winger Blake Wheeler did not take the skate this morning due to soreness, notes Arthur Staple of The Athletic (Twitter link). The veteran missed the last two months of the season after suffering a leg injury but recovered in time to be available to suit up against Florida.  However, Wheeler has only played once so far in this series and since he’s still dealing with lingering soreness, it’s quite possible they’ll hold him out of the lineup if this gets to a seventh game on Monday.
  • After his junior team was eliminated at the Memorial Cup on Friday, Aaron Portzline of The Athletic suggests (Twitter link) that Blue Jackets prospect Denton Mateychuk is likely to join AHL Cleveland for the balance of their playoff run. The 19-year-old defenseman was the 12th pick in 2022 and was dominant with WHL Moose Jaw this season, recording 75 points in 52 regular season games while adding 30 more in 20 postseason contests.  He also currently leads all scorers at the Memorial Cup with seven points over his four appearances.  It would be Mateychuk’s first taste of professional hockey if he suits up for the Monsters in advance of his first full professional campaign in 2024-25.
  • Penguins prospect Brayden Yager was named the CHL’s Sportsman of the Year today, per a league announcement. The 19-year-old was a first-round pick last year, going 14th overall.  Yager had a very strong year with Moose Jaw, notching 95 points along with just 20 penalty minutes in 57 regular season games.  He added 27 points in 20 playoff contests and is tied for second in Memorial Cup scoring with six points in four games.

Evening Notes: Vesey, Henrique, Rutta

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New York Rangers winger Jimmy Vesey has been designated as week-to-week with an upper-body injury, head coach Peter Laviolette shared with Mollie Walker of the New York Post (Twitter link). Vesey took a hard hit from Florida Panthers’ forward Ryan Lomberg in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals, leaving the game after just 5:47 in ice time.

Vesey has played in all 12 of New York’s postseason games this season, recording three points while averaging third-line minutes. It’s just the third time in his career that Vesey has received considerable playoff ice time, appearing in seven games and scoring one point last year and scoring five points in 12 games in the 2017 playoffs. He’s receiving the ice time after a slight resurgence this season, with Vesey recording 13 goals and 26 points in 80 games and improving his consistency throughout the season.

Vesey’s absence will likely make way for Kaapo Kakko to return to the lineup, after being healthy scratched in Game 2. It was the second time in the last three years that Kakko was scratched in the Eastern Conference Finals, coming after he managed just two points through New York’s first 11 playoff games. Vesey’s injury will also provide a bit more lineup security to bruiser Matt Rempe, who stepped back into the lineup for Game 2 – though the Rangers were very deliberate with his ice time. If not Rempe, then New York will likely turn to veteran Blake Wheeler, who’s been out since February with a leg injury. Wheeler posted 21 points in 54 games this season – his first year away from the Winnipeg Jets since 2010-11.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Edmonton Oilers forward Adam Henrique sat out of Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals after being named a game-time decision and taking warmups with the team, shares Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter link). Henrique has now missed Edmonton’s last seven games with an ankle injury. He continues to be replaced by Sam Carrick and Connor Brown, the latter scoring Edmonton’s first goal of Game 2. Henrique appears to be nearing a return to the lineup, though it’s becoming less clear who will step out to make way.
  • Team Czechia and San Jose Sharks defenseman Jan Rutta has been suspended for one game of the 2024 IIHF World Championship for elbowing Team Sweden and Anaheim Ducks forward Isac Lundestrom. Rutta was not penalized for the hit during the game. He will miss Czechia’s gold medal matchup against Team Switzerland. He’ll conclude his tournament with one goal and eight penalty minutes through nine games, while Team Czechia will likely turn towards David Spacek to fill Rutta’s second-pair ice time. Spacek has five assists in Czechia’s nine games.

Morning Notes: Vesey, Guentzel, Skjei

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Sportsnet is reporting that New York Rangers forward Jimmy Vesey left Game 2 last night against the Florida Panthers after taking a high hit from Panthers forward Ryan Lomberg. Vesey was ruled out of the game with an upper-body injury before the start of the third period. The Boston, Massachusetts native has dressed in 11 playoff games this season, tallying a goal and two assists.

Vesey’s injury could allow forward Blake Wheeler to return to action. Wheeler skated in the pre-game last night but ultimately did not dress. The 37-year-old Wheeler has been out of action since he suffered a scary lower-body injury back on February 15th. There is no word yet on Vesey’s status as he is being evaluated.

In other morning notes:

  • Despite the movement in their front office with Don Waddell’s departure, the Carolina Hurricanes are reportedly engaged in contract extension talks with trade deadline acquisition Jake Guentzel (per Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic). The forward was a seamless fit in Carolina and has expressed an interest in staying with the Hurricanes long-term. LeBrun says that the Hurricanes initiated the contract talks with the star forward but it remains to be seen if they will be able to meet his asking price which could hover around $9MM annually on a long-term contract. Guenzel has averaged 36 goals per 82 games during his career and will be in high demand should he reach the open market.
  • The Hurricanes have also reportedly continued contract discussions with defenseman Brady Skjei (as per Pierre LeBrun). The 30-year-old has been with Carolina for five seasons and has been in extension talks with the Hurricanes intermittently since last summer. Skjei is coming off a career year in which he posted 13 goals and 34 assists in 80 games and has become an exceptional two-way defenseman playing alongside Brett Pesce. Skjei does a bit of everything and his offensive outburst this past season isn’t outside of the norm for him given that he had 18 goals during the 2022-23 season. He will be in high demand if he reaches free agency on July 1st.

Metropolitan Notes: Panarin, Vesey, Acciari, Fasching

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Rangers forwards Artemi Panarin and Jimmy Vesey missed Wednesday’s practice and are out on a day-to-day basis with lower-body injuries, per the team’s public relations department. Both players were banged up in yesterday’s win over the Stars but did not miss significant chunks of the game.

Panarin has been on a tear this past week, notching a goal and six assists in his last three games. The 32-year-old is on pace to break the 40-goal barrier for the first time and is tied for fifth in points league-wide with 75 in 56 games.

Vesey is one of the Rangers’ most valuable depth talents, posting 12 goals and 18 points in 54 games despite extreme even-strength shutdown usage. Now 30 years old, Vesey is in his second go-around with the Rangers after spending the first three seasons of his NHL career there from 2016 to 2019.

Averaging 12:26 per game, Vesey has been elevated into the top six alongside Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad after Blake Wheeler sustained a season-ending leg injury last week. Alex Belzile is on the roster as a 13th forward and will make his season debut against the Devils tomorrow if one of Panarin or Vesey can’t play, and the Rangers have roster and cap space for an additional recall if both miss time.

More updates from the Metro:

  • Penguins forward Noel Acciari is on a fast-track recovery from his concussion, skating in a regular jersey at Wednesday’s practice after being cleared for non-contact practice yesterday (via Seth Rorabaugh of Tribune-Review Sports). He’s missed six games after sustaining the concussion on a hit from Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon, which earned him a three-game suspension. It’s been a trying first season in Pittsburgh for the 32-year-old, who’s mustered three goals and one assist in 39 games despite averaging nearly 13 minutes. Acciari joined former Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas on the Toronto-to-Pittsburgh pipeline last summer, signing a three-year, $6MM contract with a modified no-trade clause that’s looking like a regrettable decision for the Penguins’ front office.
  • The Islanders moved winger Hudson Fasching to LTIR on Wednesday, per a team announcement. The move is retroactive to Jan. 25; he’s missed seven games with a lower-body injury and is now dealing with an illness. He has been ruled out of the Islanders’ next three contests as a result and will be eligible to return on Feb. 29 against the Red Wings. Placing him on LTIR frees up the necessary roster and cap space for the Islanders to recall a forward from AHL Bridgeport after fourth-line anchor Casey Cizikas sustained a hand injury in last night’s win in Pittsburgh. Fasching, 28, has scored three times and added five assists in 35 games.

Nominees Announced For 2023 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy

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The Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy is given out annually to the NHL player who exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey. The Professional Hockey Writers’ Association has voted on the award since 1968, and today they announced their nominees for 2023.

Past winners of the award include Carey Price (2022), Oskar Lindblom (2021), Bobby Ryan (2020), Robin Lehner (2019), Brian Boyle (2018), Craig Anderson (2017), and Jaromir Jagr (2016).

Below are the nominees from each team:

Anaheim Ducks – Jakob Silfverberg

Arizona Coyotes – Clayton Keller

Boston Bruins – Nick Foligno

Buffalo Sabres – Craig Anderson

Calgary Flames – Mikael Backlund

Carolina Hurricanes – Jordan Martinook

Chicago Blackhawks – Alex Stalock

Colorado Avalanche – Andrew Cogliano

Columbus Blue Jackets – Boone Jenner

Dallas Stars – Jamie Benn

Detroit Red Wings – Robby Fabbri

Edmonton Oilers – Derek Ryan

Florida Panthers – Patric Hornqvist

Los Angeles Kings – Pheonix Copley

Minnesota Wild – Mason Shaw

Montreal Canadiens – Alex Belzile

Nashville Predators – Cody Glass

New Jersey Devils – Dougie Hamilton

New York Islanders – Zach Parise

New York Rangers – Jimmy Vesey

Ottawa Senators – Derick Brassard

Philadelphia Flyers – Nick Seeler

Pittsburgh Penguins – Kris Letang

San Jose Sharks – Nikolai Knyzhov

Seattle Kraken – Brandon Tanev

St. Louis Blues – Sammy Blais

Tampa Bay Lightning – Pierre-Edouard Bellemare

Toronto Maple Leafs – Mark Giordano

Vancouver Canucks – Brock Boeser

Vegas Golden Knights – Phil Kessel

Washington Capitals – John Carlson

Winnipeg Jets – Sam Gagner

New York Rangers Extend Jimmy Vesey

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Jimmy Vesey has picked the New York Rangers once again, this time signing an extension with the team. The two-year deal will keep him in New York through the 2024-25 season and according to Emily Kaplan of ESPN, will cost the Rangers just $800K each year.

Vesey, 29, said no to both the Nashville Predators and Buffalo Sabres before signing with the Rangers back in 2016, after his outstanding college career at Harvard University made him a hot commodity. Things went okay through those first few years in New York but were never the same after leaving the Rangers. After setting a career-high 17 goals and 35 points in 2018-19, Vesey bounced around the league, playing for Buffalo, Toronto, Vancouver, and New Jersey, struggling at each stop.

Last summer, he decided to go back to the beginning, signing a one-year, $750K deal with the Rangers to try and get his career back on track. It has worked out pretty well so far, with Vesey gaining the trust of the coaching staff and adding a bit of depth scoring to a talented lineup. Through 38 games he has six goals and 12 points while averaging more than 13 minutes a night. He has been more physical than ever before, is committed to the defensive side of the puck, and has shown versatility when asked to move up and down the lineup.

For $800K against the cap, he can be a valuable depth piece for the Rangers to work with. Vesey likely won’t ever reach the hype that followed him out of school, but he’ll at least get a chance for some stability and consistency with a new contract extension.

Metropolitan Notes: Carlson, Vesey, Clutterbuck

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The Capitals will be without defenseman John Carlson for an extended period of time as Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic reports (subscription link) that his recovery timeline is a matter of months, not weeks.  He took a slap shot to the side of the head just before the holiday break and was subsequently moved to injured reserve.  Notably, the extended absence will allow them to place Carlson on LTIR which will make it considerably easier to activate Nicklas Backstrom when the veteran center is ready to return.  However, Carlson is expected to return this season which means that Washington won’t be able to spend any of his cap hit on external replacements as they’ll need to get back into cap compliance when he’s cleared to return.  His loss will be a big one for the Caps as Carlson has 21 points in 30 games this season while logging more than 23 minutes a night, a role that’s difficult to fill internally.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • It took a PTO for Jimmy Vesey to eventually land a contract with the Rangers but now that he’s eligible to sign an extension, Larry Brooks of the New York Post suggests that they’d be wise to try to sign the winger to a new deal now. The 29-year-old has six goals and six assists in 37 games this season and has largely played on the top three lines for the bulk of the year.  Knowing that Vesey has gone through the PTO route for two straight years, it’s possible that he’d be amenable to an early extension, one that would give him a bit of stability at a price tag that likely wouldn’t be much higher than the league minimum.
  • The Islanders are hopeful that winger Cal Clutterbuck will be able to return to the lineup tomorrow against Vancouver, relays Newsday’s Andrew Gross (Twitter link). The 35-year-old returned from an upper-body injury last month only to sustain another upper-body issue soon after as he landed on injured reserve once again a week later.  Clutterbuck has five points and 98 hits in 26 games so far this season.

New York Rangers Sign Jimmy Vesey

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Jimmy Vesey has officially found his way back to the Big Apple. The New York Rangers announced this afternoon that they’ve signed the forward to a one-year deal. The team has not yet disclosed the salary or whether the contract is a one-way or two-way deal. The New York Post’s Mollie Walker reports that the deal is worth $750,000, the league minimum. Vesey had been in Rangers camp on a PTO after spending the 2021-22 season as a member of rival New Jersey Devils.

Much like Zach Aston-Reese who signed moments earlier with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Rangers bring in a scrappy two-way forward of their own who should help them round out their game and contribute to the unsung areas of the game. Vesey was in fact one of the league’s better penalty killers during his time in New Jersey, where he also added an additional eight goals and seven assists in 68 games. Now 29, Vesey returns to the Rangers for the first time since the 2018-19 season, a career-year for him, but his last in Manhattan before the team dealt him upstate o the Buffalo Sabres that offseason.

Vesey is perhaps best known as the exciting prospect out of Harvard University who ultimately refused to sign his ELC with either team that held his rights – the Nashville Predators, who drafted him, and the Sabres, who acquired his rights. After becoming a free agent in the summer of 2016, a then-23-year-old Vesey opted to sign with the Rangers. The forward was far from bad during his first stint with the team, but he had failed to live up to the lofty expectations many had set for him. After being dealt to Buffalo in 2019, he bounced around, eventually spending time with Toronto, New Jersey, and even briefly the Vancouver Canucks.

Despite not putting up the offensive numbers he was once able to earlier in his career, Vesey did impress this season with the Devils, his ability to work hard and kill penalties evident, which seemed to give him an opportunity this offseason to prove he still belongs in the NHL. The Rangers gave him that opportunity with an invite to training camp in early September and the winger returned the favor with a strong showing in camp. Now, as the Rangers eye their first Stanley Cup since 1994, they’ll have another veteran to rely on, especially in the difficult situations along the way.

Jimmy Vesey Signs Professional Tryout

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After being linked to the New York Rangers last month, Jimmy Vesey has agreed to attend camp on a professional tryout, according to CapFriendly. The veteran forward is an unrestricted free agent after his one-year, $800K contract with the New Jersey Devils expired this summer.

It’s been quite a career so far for the 29-year-old Vesey, who was once considered the “next big thing” out of college hockey. Selected in the third round of the 2012 draft, he became such a dominant force at Harvard that there were sweepstakes when he decided not to sign with the Nashville Predators–the team that had picked him.

First, the Buffalo Sabres sent a third-round pick to the Predators for a chance to sign him before he hit free agency, and then when he turned them down, several clubs put on the full-court press. He decided then to sign with the Rangers, and he would be relatively effective for them in his first three seasons, scoring 16, 17, and 17 goals. A trade then took him back to Buffalo, before stops in Toronto, Vancouver, and New Jersey have led him to today.

Given the fact that he has just 22 goals in 155 games since leaving the Rangers, it makes sense why he might want to go back. One might have expected him to be able to land more than just a PTO but rosters are tight at this point in the summer. He’ll now have to try and showcase his skills and land himself a contract in New York or elsewhere, even if it ends up being a two-way deal.

Vesey has never played a single game in the AHL and would need to clear waivers to be sent there, but at this point in his career, it is unclear whether he will be able to secure a full-time NHL gig.

Rangers Linked To Jimmy Vesey

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Jimmy Vesey spent the first three seasons of his career as a member of the Rangers before bouncing around in recent years.  However, it appears a return to New York is on the horizon as Larry Brooks of the New York Post reports that the unrestricted free agent is expected to sign with the Rangers.

After opting not to sign with Nashville and later Buffalo, Vesey became one of the more prominent mid-August college free agents in recent memory.  He eventually agreed to join the Rangers and was a serviceable depth scorer, notching 50 goals and 40 assists in 240 games over three seasons.

Things haven’t gone as well since then as the 29-year-old has moved around frequently.  In the last three seasons, he has only put up half of the points that he did with New York while playing for four different teams – Buffalo, Toronto, Vancouver, and New Jersey.  Vesey spent last season with the Devils, collecting eight goals and seven assists in 68 games while averaging 14:25 per night.

Brooks suggests that Vesey’s contract should check in at or around the league minimum of $750K, making it a low-risk proposition.  If he’s able to secure a spot at the end of their roster, he’ll give them some low-cost depth.  If he’s unable to do so, the Rangers can clear his entire contract off the books by waiving him and sending him to AHL Hartford.

After starting his career with plenty of fanfare, Vesey has seen his stock drop quickly as of late.  With that in mind, a return to the one team that he had some success with makes a lot of sense as he looks to get back on track and extend his NHL career.

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