Lightning Pay Full Price and Then Some In Tanner Jeannot Trade

In a trade many have deemed shocking in terms of the number of assets required to get the player, the Tampa Bay Lightning paid full price (and then some) for Tanner Jeannot of the Nashville Predators. As one NHL scout put it, “What the actual —” when commenting on the deal. The Lightning sent Cal Foote and five …yes five draft picks, to the Predators in the most intriguing trade of this season’s deadline to date.

We have acquired forward Tanner Jeannot from the Nashville Predators in exchange for defenseman Cal Foote and five future draft picks. https://t.co/rxnLRDROnl

— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) February 27, 2023

Nashville gets Tampa 1st in 2025 (top 10 protected), Tampa’s 2nd in 2024, Tampa 3rd, 4th, and 5th in ‘23, and Cal Foote. As Corey Masisak of The Athletic wrote on Twitter, “That’s a draft pick for every goal Tanner Jeannot has scored this season.” The player has value and there were certainly multiple teams kicking tires on him ahead of the March 3 trade deadline, but this is an incredible return for Nashville and on the same day it was reported Barry Trotz would be coming aboard as the team’s next general manager.

In fairness, part of this deal is the appeal for the Lightning to add a player that only costs $800K on the salary cap. So too, Jeannot did have 24 goals (led all rookies) 318 hits, and 130 PM last season. He is a solid power forward who could produce results on a team like the Lightning. At the same time, that’s one season’s worth of stats and there’s no guarantee he’ll get back to those totals.

Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff writes, “Multiple NHL GMs are stunned by the return. Like jaws on the floor.” It will be fascinating to see how this reverberates around the rest of the league as there are only four days left remaining before the deadline and selling teams will see this and wonder if they should be asking more for their assets. One Twitter user (@WizKidBrandon) points out: “As an RFA this summer, the Preds could have walked from an $8.4M per year offer sheet on Jeannot (insane to even think about) and received LESS (1st, 2nd, and 3rd round picks total) than they got back in this trade. Wowzers.”

Shocking That It’s Tampa Who Paid This Much

What might be so fascinating about all of this is that it was Tampa who did it. Julien Brisebois is widely considered one of the savviest GMs in the NHL and there has to be a reason he was willing to pay this kind of price to acquire a player many believe has value, but not this kind of value. Did their scouts see something no one else does? Did Tampa want to set a new market with this deal?

Next: Blackhawks Trade Jack Johnson to the Colorado Avalanche