World News – CA – Maple Leafs sign Jimmy Vesey

The Maple Leafs continue to add depth up front, announcing Jimmy Vesey’s signing to a one-year contractThe deal will pay the winger $ 900K

The 27-year-old may be remembered better for choosing not to sign with Nashville who drafted him or Buffalo who claimed his rights before embarking on a free agent tour than most university players have the opportunity toWhile he didn’t turn out to be a baseline forward the way the teams had hoped, Vesey was an excellent secondary scorer during his four-year NHL career. After spending his first three seasons with the Rangers, he did. traded to Buffalo last offseason, but the fit wasn’t great as he only managed eight goals and 12 assists in 64 games after getting at least 27 points each year with New YorkIt certainly played a role in it going from a $ 2275MM AAV on that last chord to less than half that of this one

Vesey will likely have the opportunity to fill the vacant position opened by the exchange of Andreas Johnsson in New Jersey on Saturday, although youngster Nick Robertson and KHL acquisition Alexander Barabanov are both likely to be equally. in the mix for this position

Toronto still has winger Ilya Mikheyev (who filed for arbitration yesterday) and defenseman Travis Dermott to re-sign and limited space is limited no matter which players complete their rosterAs a result, the Maple Leafs may still have some cap cuts to make in the days and weeks to come.

I think the Leafs wanted Clifford to come back, but that improved draft pick was probably a deciding factor unless he took the league minimum

Jimmy Vesey