Jimmy Vesey Signing Day approaches as forward narrows list

We’re now just four days away from the beginning of the end of the Jimmy Vesey signing saga.

The 23-year-old forward out of Harvard will become an unrestricted free agent on Monday should he not decide to sign with the Buffalo Sabres, who currently hold his rights after a June trade.

Where will he land? His hometown Boston Bruins have been pegged as a possibility. Maybe. Then there’s the Chicago Blackhawks, who have had GM Stan Bowman scouting Vesey during summer league play this.

Tim Murray and the Sabres have had plenty of time to try and convince Vesey to play with his good buddy Jack Eichel, but the reigning Hobey Baker Award winner and his agent have said all along that he will not sign before Aug. 15. We can also add the New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders to the list of suitors after Garth Snow and Ray Shero were spotted at the Foxboro Sports Center on Wednesday night.

Whatever Vesey decides, it’s not going to be about the money considering the contract he signs will be similar whether he lands in Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, New Jersey, New York, Toronto or, taking a page from baseball free agency, a mystery team; it will be about the best fit since he’ll likely enter a top-six role with his new team.

“We’ve looked at depth charts with some teams and talked about them,” Vesey’s agent, Peter Fish, told Stephen Harris of the Boston Herald. “There’s obviously a lot of thought that goes into it: The city, the coach, the GM, the salary structure, how a team treats their players in the second and third contracts down the road.”

Missing from that list: the size of persuasive billboards on main highways.

Fish added that Vesey is whittling down his list to a half dozen teams that they plan to speak with next week before making a decision.

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy