TORONTO — Jimmy Vesey thought his NHL career could be over after a trying 2020-21 campaign, in which he played 30 games for the Maple Leafs before he was put on waivers and claimed by the Canucks to finish the season.
With no NHL opportunity in sight that offseason, Vesey actually began talking to European agents about his possibilities overseas.
This was roughly five years after he signed with the Rangers as one of the most coveted college free agents in recent memory.
How much had changed.
But the Devils ultimately extended a professional tryout contract and Vesey suddenly had another chance to alter the trajectory of his NHL career.
“My mindset was it can’t get much worse than this,” Vesey told The Post, referencing Toronto, where the Rangers take the ice Tuesday night for a rematch with the Maple Leafs. “So I might as well go into camp and f—k everything else, just go out and play … What I learned is that it happens, you just pick yourself up and keep going.”
Vesey rejuvenated his career in New Jersey and parlayed a solid 2021-22 season into a second chance with the Rangers, the team he always wanted to play for and win with.
Though it was his perplexing experience with the Maple Leafs during an isolating COVID-19 season that seemed to fuel the 30-year-old’s comeback in the league.
After Vesey signed a one-year deal with the Maple Leafs in October 2020, the team was taking part in filming for a documentary called “All or Nothing” on Amazon Prime.
Vesey wasn’t producing the way the organization had expected him to or filling a role the way they’d hoped — he finished with seven points in 30 games) — but it all played out very publicly in the documentary.
In episode two, an on-ice exchange in practice between Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe and Vesey was aired. Keefe told Vesey they brought him in to make a difference and “I just want to be sure that you know that it’s been very vanilla.”
Vesey responded by saying he felt like Keefe was telling him that he didn’t know or didn’t like his game and, as a result, he’d be out soon.
The Boston native, in fact, was waived by the end of the episode.
There was a clear disconnect between the two, which was only further confirmed just over a year ago when Vesey scored twice to secure a 3-1 Rangers win over the Maple Leafs.
Keefe was asked about Vesey during his postgame press conference and the 43-year-old responded with: “Are we done?”
“I haven’t watched it, but I don’t think I should have been featured as prominently as I was, from what I’ve heard,” Vesey said. “In a documentary about a team that lost in the first round of the playoffs and I wasn’t there for it. I think they had final say on what went in it and sometimes you have to point the arrow somewhere else other than at yourself.”
Everyone has their own adversities that they go through in their careers, Vesey said, this just happened to be his. It may have been on display more than most, but it got him to where he is now.
When he crossed the border back into the United States, Vesey could feel the anxiety leaving his body.
Now, No. 26 is back where he feels he belongs with an important role on a contending team.
How much has changed.
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