Free agent winger Jimmy Vesey is receiving offers from multiple Kontinental Hockey League clubs without an NHL offer on the table so far this offseason, according to Daria Tuboltseva of RG.org.
Vesey, 32, finished the season with the Avalanche after they acquired him from the Rangers in March in the Ryan Lindgren deal. He was hoping for a more consistent role in Denver after a string of healthy scratches in New York led Vesey to tell Larry Brooks of the New York Post that he was “kind of dying by being here,” but that didn’t happen. He only played in 10 of Colorado’s final 21 regular-season games and did not dress in their first-round playoff loss to the Stars.
Vesey finished the season with a 5-3–8 scoring line in 43 games of action between the Rangers and Avs, his fewest NHL appearances in a single season since beginning his career in 2016. The 6’2′, 203-lb winger also averaged a career-low 10:39 per game with only 12 blocks and 32 hits. His possession impacts were similarly pedestrian, as they have been for most of his nine NHL seasons.
Understandably, Vesey was not offered an extension by the Avs and has had a hard time finding a deal nearly a month into free agency. That has him “seriously considering offers” from the KHL as compared to trying to look for a minor-league contract to continue playing in North America.
SKA St. Petersburg has been the most aggressive in pursuing the veteran of over 600 NHL games, Tuboltseva reports. He’s also fielded calls from Ak Bars Kazan, Dinamo Minsk, and Kunlun Red Star, where he could reunite with former Rangers coach Gerard Gallant, under whom he spent the 2022-23 season.