Breaking: The Rangers have traded Jimmy Vesey!

I love this trade.

According to a breaking news report from the Buffalo Sabres organization, the team has finally acquired long coveted forward Jimmy Vesey via a trade with the New York Rangers. The move of course comes just a few short years after Vesey snubbed the Buffalo Sabres organization as a free agent, although at that time the Sabres looked very different and were led by then general manager Tim Murray. In exchange for Vesey the Rangers will receive a third round draft selection at the 2021 National Hockey League Entry Draft.

The 26 year old Rangers forward is coming off an 81 game season in which he recorded 17 goals and 18 assists for a total of 35 points. The move comes as somewhat of a surprise given the fact that the Rangers are clearly in the middle of a rebuild, and additionally that Vesey is only just 26 years of age. That being said Vesey has just 1 more year left on his current deal, a year that will cover the upcoming 2019 - 2020 NHL regular season, and will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of that contract. If the Rangers felt that they had little hope of retaining the talented forward then trading him for a valuable asset now does make sense from the perspective of a team that is not expecting to contend next season.

The fact that Vesey will now effectively be forced to play for an organization he snubbed will probably feel like delicious irony for more than a few NHL fans today. Vesey of course was drafted by the Nashville Predators in the 3rd round (66th overall) of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft but infamously refused to sign with that organization, instead choosing to wait out his rights and become a free agent in the NHL. The Sabres and general manager Tim Murray acquired those rights before they expired in an attempt to woo Vesey to their team, but Vesey snubbed them much in the same way that he had snubbed the Nashville Predators. Certainly Vesey was well within his rights to do so, but no doubt there will be more than a few snickers when this trade is discussed today.