Rangers Believed To Be Shopping Jimmy Vesey

While Chris Kreider and the since-traded Jacob Trouba were the headliners among the available for trade memo that went to teams last month, it appears those two Rangers weren’t the only ones on there.  Arthur Staple of The Athletic reports (subscription link) that veteran winger Jimmy Vesey is also being shopped around and has been for the last month.

Last season, Vesey had a solid showing, putting up 13 goals and 13 assists in 80 games despite only averaging 12:23 per game.  For a depth scorer, that’s not a bad level of output and it was his best point total since the 2018-19 campaign, the last year of his first stint with New York.  At a price tag that was only $25K above the league minimum, that was a solid value deal for them.

However, the second year of that agreement hasn’t gone as well.  Vesey has been limited to just 19 appearances out of 34 thus far, some due to a lower-body injury but other missed games were as a healthy scratch.  Production has been harder to come by for the 31-year-old as he has just three goals and one assist so far while his playing time is down under ten minutes a night now with his playing time shorthanded down by more than 75% compared to a year ago.

This is the final year of Vesey’s contract and he’ll be eligible for unrestricted free agency this summer.  With his early-season struggles, his trade value has almost certainly taken a hit to the point where their likeliest return would be a later-round draft pick or a similar low-cost depth player.  That said, GM Chris Drury appears to be intent on shaking up his roster and it would appear that it’s not just the prominent veteran that are available but some of the end-of-roster pieces as well.