Anytime a player eschews the team that owns their draft rights in favor of hand-picking a landing spot, a debate is sure to follow. In the case of the 2016 Hobey Baker award winner, Jimmy Vesey spurned two different teams, the Nashville Predators and Buffalo Sabres in favor of the New York Rangers.
When Vesey joined what appeared to be a New York team on the downswing, critics complained about his choice of the Rangers. Dave Lozo of ESPN once said on his then podcast “Hockey Soup,” that “Vesey could have found a beer pong partner in another city,” and that the move “did not make a whole lot of sense, since Nashville is so good.