Toronto Maple Leafs: Let the Jimmy Vesey Watch Begin

With the Harvard Crimson’s season now over, Toronto Maple Leafs’ fans will keep a keen eye on Jimmy Vesey.

By now I’m sure you’ve heard the name Jimmy Vesey. The 6-foot-1 forward from Harvard University was a third-round pick by the Nashville Predators in the 2012 draft but has yet to sign with the club.

The Walter Brown Award winner, and Hobey Baker finalist, could put an end to all this speculation by signing with the Predators and joining them for the rest of the regular season and playoffs. Or the 22-year-old forward could wait it out and become an unrestricted free agent on August 15.

The idea of Vesey hitting the open market has a number of NHL teams interested, including the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The connection between Vesey and the Leafs has been no secret. Toronto hired Jimmy Vesey Sr. as a scout last summer, and they drafted his brother, Nolan Vesey, in the sixth-round of the 2014 draft.

More from Tip of the Tower

Alec Brownscombe of Maple Leafs Hot Stove reminds fans that Mark Hunter has pulled this move before when he pursued Sam Gagner during his time with the London Knights.

"“Many observers have connected the dots and assumed the Leafs’ hiring of Jimmy Vesey Sr. as a scout last summer was a case of the Leafs buying some loyalties one year out from Jimmy Jr.’s decision time. This is something we’ve seen Mark Hunter pull off in the past in London with the Dave Gagner situation, who was hired as an assistant coach for two years, whereupon his son, Sam Gagner, de-committed from college and joined the Knights.”"

While the idea of joining his family in Toronto has to be an intriguing an idea, Vesey has been very quiet about his situation. Here’s what TSN‘s Darren Dreger had to say when asked about how realistic is it for Vesey to possibly end up with the Leafs?

"Well, I know that the Nashville Predators are worried about it. Optically, when you look at the Toronto Maple Leafs hiring his Dad as an amateur scout with little or no scouting experience prior to that, I think it looks pretty obvious — at least it looks obvious to the teams I’ve talked too — what the Maple Leafs are trying to do. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to be successful in this. Nashville looks like a good fit for this young player.I don’t get it, but there have been other examples of college players who have gone through their college career and not signed, and go into the unrestricted free agent pool. This one is somewhat unique, given, again, where the Nashville Predators are, and the fact that you could burn a year off and step into that lineup and perhaps play a significant role in helping this club in the playoffs and jumpstart his NHL career. But there’s no guarantee of that.I feel like the Toronto Maple Leafs are a long shot. Again, credit to them for being creative, if that’s what they’re trying to do and lure him to Ontario. But given a choice between Nashville and Toronto, in terms of where the hockey is right now, the Maple Leafs don’t make a lot of sense to me."

Sportsnet’s Damien Cox touched on Vesey’s situation during Saturday’s Headlines segment on Hockey Night In Canada.

“His father works them,” Cox said. “His brother has been drafted by them. There’s a lot of other teams that will be interested. Nashville is desperate to sign him. All they’ve done tonight is send out a release saying they hope to meet him in the next several days to sign him. That’s not as confident as they’d like to be.”

Next: Maple Leafs Returns Josh Leivo to Toronto Marlies

Again, nobody truly knows what Vesey will do. But if he is going to sign with the Predators, you figure that the two parties would reach an agreement very shortly. The longer that doesn’t happen, the more the likelihood of Vesey joining the Leafs, or another NHL team, increases.

Home/Toronto Maple Leafs