Jimmy Vesey still has a role to play on the Rangers

The 25-year-old will never live up to the lofty expectations he placed on himself, but that doesn’t mean he can’t serve a purpose

It seems like a lifetime ago that Jimmy Vesey was the most sought-after college UFA in NHL history. The Harvard graduate was originally drafted by the Nashville Predators (third round, 66th overall in 2012) and was promised a spot on one of Smashville’s—a playoff team—top lines:

But Vesey decided to not sign an ELC with the Predators, opting for free agency instead (as he—and every other college UFA—should have). The Rangers signed him, and we were all pretty pumped at the time.

Alas, things haven’t gone swimmingly for Vesey. He’s notched 16–11–27 and 17–11–28 lines in his first two seasons. The Rangers signed Vesey to a two-year, $4.55 million contract on July 17th. In a shocking development, Ranger fans on Twitter were upset with the deal (I hope you were sitting down for this ghastly revelation) because they think Vesey—and every other Ranger, their contracts and GM Jeff Gorton, for that matter—stinks. I’ll tell you one thing, folks: Vesey doesn’t stink, but he’s definitely not good. He’s not going to drive possession, he isn’t a dynamic goal scorer and he still has to improve defensively. But that doesn’t mean he can’t serve a role on the Rangers for the next couple of seasons.

As I mentioned earlier, Vesey isn’t going to drive possession; his career CF% is an underwhelming 44.82%. But I’m a big believer that Vesey can be a solid player on a line where he’s the worst player. For example, Vesey had good fancy stats (CF, xG+/-, CF/60) when playing with Derek Stepan and Rick Nash, and Mats Zuccarello and Vlad Namestnikov. I know, I know: Nash, Stepan and Namestnikov all stink too, according to the fine folks on Twitter.com. But for real, all four of those guys are better players than Vesey, whether using the eye test, advanced statistics, or binoculars from Brooklyn.

Three of those four players—Stepan, Zuccarello and Namestnikov—are playmakers to me. They’re gifted passers who look to get others involved instead of looking for their own shot. Vesey is a player who (as we’ll get to in a moment) scores most of his goals around the net, so while I like that he’s played well with other playmakers, seeing him play with volume shooters who get the puck to the net often would be pretty cool. I don’t think Vesey is going to be a 30-goal scorer, but if paired with the right players he can definitely reach the 20–25 goal mark.

Here’s where Vesey has scored his 33 goals in his two NHL seasons, courtesy of HockeyViz.com.

As you can see, Vesey makes his living in the “dirty areas” below the hashmarks and in front of the net. Obviously, these areas are where most goals are scored, but it still takes some balls to go to these spots time after time; Vesey definitely plays the game with an edge, as showcased here, here and here. I believe he picked a lot of this up from Nash, who was a mentor to Vesey when he first signed on Broadway:

Let’s take a look at some of Vesey’s goals from this year, shall we?

Here he does a nice job going skate-to-stick with the puck and chipping it into the net.

Here Vesey goes to the slot on a rush, finds a soft area and scores on a pretty redirection.

Again, Vesey goes to the front of the net, works to make himself available for a pass and pots a nice goal.

This goal right here is just Vesey outworking everyone—three Devils players to be exact—and jamming the puck home.

And here we have Vesey battling for position in front and pouncing on a loose puck in the crease. (Side note: I really got to get better at keeping these GIFs the same size next year, this shits like reading alternating pages between a children’s book and the fine print in the NY Post.)

Are you sensing a trend here? I would hope so. Vesey is all about the garbage goals, and I respect that as a someone who scored 99% of his lifetime-goals the same way. You can have a long career in the NHL if you’re willing to get the shit kicked out of you to score, especially on the power play. With Nash gone, Chris Kreider (presumably) occupying the front of the net on the top power-play unit and a new coaching staff, maybe Vesey sees more time on the man-advantage squad—he averaged 1:28 of PP time per game, 10th among Rangers forwards last season.

Look, I get people’s problems with Vesey: his GAR—still working on figuring out exactly how this fucking stat works— sucks; his defense leaves a lot to be desired; he’s never going to live up to his college hype; and he’s probably slightly overpaid, although I’m never going to shit on a player for getting their money. (Another quick aside: Big shouts to the Hayes/Skjei/Vesey trio—considering a SoHo Savages nickname for them, stay tuned—for securing a three-way bag worth a little over $12 million; Courtney Lee scratch for those keeping score at home. The city isn’t ready for these three with deep pockets.) But even with all those negatives, Vesey can still provide something to the Rangers if put with the right players, and hopefully David Quinn is the right guy to do that.

*All contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.com, and all stats courtesy of Corsica.Hockey, HockeyReference.com and NHL.com*