Maybe in the New York Rangers‘ endless search for a running mate for Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad, the answer has been under their nose all along.
Perhaps the solution isn’t another go-round with former No. 2 overall draft pick Kaapo Kakko, new acquisition Reilly Smith or a promising youngster such as Brennan Othmann or Brett Berard. Perhaps the right course of action is being overlooked as the club heads into training camp for the 2024-25 season.
Could Jimmy Vesey, the Rangers’ highly-successful reclamation project who’s heading into the third season of his second stint with the team, be ready for a return to the top six – the role for which he seemed destined as a highly sought-after free-agent prospect eight years ago? Unlikely as it may seem, Vesey’s track record with Zibanejad and Kreider – thanks to a style that has meshed well with the BFFs – make it an appealing option that should at least be experimented with during camp.
This space was used recently to examine the options, none of which were wildly appealing, to fix the Rangers’ right-wing depth issues that have plagued them since the trade of Pavel Buchnevich. Kakko, who despite being just 23 has a murky future with the organization, has never been able to find chemistry with Kreider and Zibanejad despite multiples opportunities to do so. Smith profiles more as a useful middle-six option, and Othmann and Berard are unproven prospects. There’s at least a good chance that the club might be looking for outside help at the trade deadline for the fourth straight season next spring.
Vesey hasn’t seemed to be in the conversation as a candidate for the assignment, but past results indicate that he should be. While the 6-foot-3, 202-pound forward has played limited minutes with the long-time duo over the past two seasons, the numbers indicate that it would behoove the Blueshirts to change that.
Metrics Show Vesey to Be a Strong Fit With Kreider and Zibanejad
In nearly 200 minutes together at 5-on-5 over 157 games, Kreider-Zibanejad-Vesey has posted a 59.4 expected goal share. The unit has outchanced opponents 118-82, including 50-37 in high-danger chances, while outscoring the opposition 11-9. Vesey’s effect on the BFFs is clear, as Kreider and Zibanejad’s expected goal share drops to 51.3 without him during that span, while the pair was outchanced 1,076-1,063 with other linemates.
Such encouraging metrics make one wonder why this alignment hasn’t been tried more consistently. Vesey’s strong all-around game seems to complement those of Kreider and Zibanejad well, as his defensive abilities and responsible play in his own zone appear to shore up that element of the trio. Yet Vesey’s strongest attribute – his relentless forechecking and hunting of pucks – might be the key for why the line works.
Fans and media have for years speculated on the best type of linemate for Kreider and Zibanejad – a speed guy, a shooter, a pass-first player, a big grinder. The duo has played with all kinds since Buchnevich’s departure threw the right-wing spot on their unit into a perpetual state of flux. Maybe Vesey is a fit because he incorporates a little bit of all of those elements.
Kreider and Zibanejad are elite offensive players, but they have a tendency to become passive at times. Vesey plays with high intensity, possibly giving them a jolt of energy – his all-out style no doubt the product of his path that nearly led him out of the NHL. He works the walls and is especially effective pressuring pucks in open ice, which leads to turnovers and recovery that results in puck possession for his linemates. He’s a quick skater with an underrated shot who’s not afraid to pull the trigger, as well as being a heady player who moves the puck well.
In short, Kreider and Zibanejad seem to need a variety of skills from their third wheel, and Vesey might be the only candidate on the roster who can provide all of them – unless the Rangers believe the solution is to move rising young winger Alexis Lafreniere from the Artemi Panarin-Vincent Trocheck line, which doesn’t appear to be a sound overall solution.
Would putting Vesey in the top six on a permanent basis result in him finally becoming the offensive player that most NHL teams believed he could become after a high-scoring career at Harvard? It’s been a long and winding road for Vesey, who was in high demand coming out of college following his refusal to sign with the Nashville Predators after they drafted him 66th overall in 2012, and inked a contract with the Rangers in 2016 intead.
That began a mostly discouraging march through five teams that resulted in Vesey eventually hitting rock bottom during the 2020-21 season, then reinventing himself as a solid bottom-six penalty-killing option after making the New Jersey Devils roster off of a PTO in 2021. He did the same with the Rangers the next season, then signed a two-year, $1.6 million extension that takes him through this season and has proved to be a huge bargain.
Can Vesey Still Become a Scorer if He Plays Consistently in Top-6?
What if Vesey’s metamorphosis from supposed scorer to versatile penalty killer, however, was the first step back toward fulfilling his offensive promise, rather than his destined NHL identity? While he might not say it, Vesey may very well have felt the pressure of trying to live up to heightened expectations brought on by the competition for his services in his first three years in a Blueshirt. The timing wasn’t right then. Vesey played often in the top six in his first stint on Broadway and was out of place, a 23-year-old rookie on a mostly rebuilding team, but an Original Six one in a major media market with a fan base that always carried with it big expectations.
Though he scored 50 goals with 40 assists in those three seasons from 2016-19, he never looked comfortable. Clearly at ease now – he cited a sense of familiarity as his reason for signing his extension in January 2023 – and more mature, it’s possible that a promotion to the Kreider-Zibanejad line might unlock some of the offensive potential that made him so sought-after eight years ago. Vesey scored 13 goals in 80 games despite playing often on the fourth line and in his familiar penalty-killing role last season.
“I always envisioned myself as a 20-goal guy and when I left here after three years, I thought I pretty much had figured it out,” Vesey said in September 2022 after making the roster. (From ‘Jimmy Vesey Reinvented Himself For Second Rangers Act After Miserable Career Turn’, New York Post, 9/26/22)
Vesey has never reached 20 goals in the NHL, and it’s probably wildly optimistic at this point in his career to expect him to become the sniper that he was at Harvard, where he totaled 56 goals in 70 games his final two seasons. A full-time assignment with gifted offensive players such as Kreider and Zibanejad, though, could mean he becomes a dependable scorer who also lifts the play of linemates with whom he clicked before – and in the process finally stabilizes a top-two forward unit that has been largely a two-man operation for the past three seasons.
If that were to happen, it would certify Vesey’s journey as truly a full-circle one – and maybe the result he thought he’d get all along when he reached the NHL, even if it happens about eight years later than expected.
