Rangers see ‘potential’ of Jimmy Vesey-led 4th line shutting down opposing stars
Jimmy Vesey’s season debut for the New York Rangers on Sunday was somewhat lost in the glow of their 5-2 victory over the New York Islanders at Madison Square Garden. But coach Peter Laviolette was delighted to have the 31-year-old back in the lineup after he missed the first 10 games of the season with a lower-body injury sustained in training camp.
“They take it out of our end, they put it down to the offensive zone and they stay with it,” Laviolette said Monday when asked about Vesey and his fellow fourth-liners, center Sam Carrick and left wing Adam Edstrom, being used as a checking unit against opponents’ top lines. “So yeah, I think there’s potential there for that.”
Vesey played 10 shifts on Sunday for a total of 8:28 in ice time. He finished with two shots on goal, one hit and one takeaway.
“I just played simple, tried to play my game as best I could,” he said after the win. “Unfortunately, I missed some of training camp, so I’m trying to get my legs here on the fly, but it was a good start and I hope I can build on it. I thought we skated well, turned some pucks over and had a few shifts where we sustained that offense and were cycling around the zone. I thought we could have had three goals.”
“I felt a little rusty. I probably need a couple games to get my legs back. But overall I thought our line was pretty good.”
The idea that his line could be used against opponents’ top units was a prospect Vesey relished.
“In theory, it’s great if we can go against one of their top lines,’’ he said. “I think it can kind of shift the matchups within the game and give us more favorable matchups sometimes. I think we did it a little bit.
“I think that’s a goal for us to become that [checking] line, and hopefully we can keep building and get there.”
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Even as a checking-line forward, Laviolette believes Vesey can contribute offensively. He was a big-time scorer at Harvard, who was picked by the Nashville Predators in the third round of the 2012 NHL Draft and won the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey’s top player during 2015-16, his senior season, before signing with the Rangers as an unrestricted free agent in 2016.
He’s never been a big scorer in the NHL — his career highs are 17 goals and 35 points with the Rangers in 2018-19. But he’s been a solid bottom-six presence since returning to New York in 2022-23 after playing for four teams during the previous three seasons.
Vesey had 26 points (13 goals, 13 assists) in 80 games last season, averaging 12:23 of ice time. However, Laviolette is confident he can contribute more offensively than most fourth-liners.
“Jimmy is a veteran player who’s, through the course of his lifetime, put up a lot of points, and I think through the course of his stay in the NHL, has learned how to do a lot of different things other than to put up points,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean that he still can’t contribute offensively. I believe that he can.
“Smart player, veteran player. He’s a guy that can play on any line if he has to.”
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