The Tampa Bay Lightning have extended restricted free agent forward on a two year $5.33M deal the club announced Saturday.
Jeannot was acquired from the Nashville Predators in February, and suited up for 20 contests with the Bolts. Tampa paid a hefty price to acquire the 26 year old, giving up defenseman Cal Foote, a 2025 1st rounder, a 2024 2nd round pick, and 3rd, 4th, and 5th round picks in 2023.
Across 20 regular season contests, Jeannot posted 4pts (1G, 3A) while blocking 11 shots and dishing out 77 hits. That figure led all Tampa Bay players down the homestretch last year, as the Estevan, SK native brought a physical element to the Bolts lineup that was missing for large stretches of the season.
Originally signed as an undrafted free agent by Nashville in 2018, Jeannot has accumulated 35G, 31A and 239PIMs across 172 NHL games. While he primarily played a physical, in your face style role with Tampa, he’s demonstrated in the past a knack for finding the back of the net. A trait that if he’s able to rediscover will make his $2.665M AAV deal look like a steal for the Lightning.
Jeannot wrapped up his junior career with the Moose Jaw Warriors of the WHL in 2017-18. That season he potted 40G, and dished out another 40A for 80pts across 72 contests.
While technically still a rookie (as he only skated in 15 games in 2020-21), the 6’2” winger finished 7th in Calder Trophy voting in 2021-22 after netting 24G, and 17A to go along with 130PIMs for the Predators.
Jeannot is likely to open the 2023-24 campaign on the team’s third line alongside Nick Paul, but has the versatility to play up and down the lineup. A trait that has made him such a sought after player in the minds of Julien BriseBois and the rest of the team’s front office.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Jenn G. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.