Jeannot checked all the boxes for BriseBois and the Lightning

Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois addressed the media Monday morning after the Bolts acquired Tanner Jeannot from the Nashville Predators in exchange for Cal Foote, a first-round pick in 2025, a second-round pick in 2024, as well as third, fourth and fifth-round picks in 2023 on Sunday night.

“I thought I’d start by introducing our new player,” said BriseBois. “So, last night we acquired Tanner Jeannot from the Nashville Predators.

“He’s a big, fast, physical, top-nine forward. He’s hard to play against. He plays with pace. He finishes checks often and hard. He can defend. He manages the puck well. He brings his teammates into the fight.

“By all accounts, he’s an all-around great teammate. He’s the type of player that helps you win when it gets hard.

“His contract status right now – he’s under contract for the remainder of this year. His cap number is $800,000. So, I believe he’s going to bring us really good value for the remainder of this season.

“He’s a restricted free agent in the offseason or next summer. So, we control his rights for at least one additional year beyond the current one. So, that’s checking the three boxes – the player, the person and the contract.”

Video: GM Julien BriseBois on acquisition of Tanner Jeannot

Jeannot and the Bolts have not had talks on an extension yet, but listening to BriseBois discuss the details of the trade and considering the price Tampa Bay paid, it seems clear that a contract extension will be a priority this offseason.

“I expect that at some point we will start talking about an extension, but more than likely, we’ll wait until after the season,” said BriseBois. “Our focus right now is on grabbing the opportunity that we have right now to do something with this season.”

When the trade details were released Sunday night, there was plenty of chatter around the hockey world regarding the price that the Lightning paid to bring Jeannot to Tampa Bay. BriseBois gave a great answer regarding the package that was sent to Nashville and the thought process that went into this deal.

“At the end of the day, I know there’s a perceived value of those picks, but we have a really good idea of what the actual value of those picks are,” said BriseBois. “Individually, you can go, ‘What’s that first-round pick worth? What’s the second-round pick?’ And so forth and so on.

“When we look at what that’s worth to us, based on the odds of those picks turning into good NHL players down the road, I’d rather have the good player right now for this season and next and help this group win right now. Because I know what the odds are of those picks turning into players.

“I also know what the odds are of those picks turning into players that can help us win while we have this group of players right now in their prime, ready to go for another long run. The odds of that are zero. None of those picks were going to help. None of the players we were going to draft with those picks are going to help us win this year, or next, or probably the year after that.

“So, when you put it into that context and you frame it that way, it ends up being a pretty easy decision, actually.”

Jeannot makes life difficult for opposing players. He currently ranks fourth in the NHL with 213 hits this season and is tied for the third-most fighting majors with 9. In his first full season last year, Jeannot led the league in fighting majors with 14 and has dropped the gloves with some of the top fighters across the NHL, including Ryan Reaves, Erik Gudbranson, Nicolas Deslauriers and others.

But beyond the fights, Jeannot showed an ability to put the puck in the back of the net last season as well. He scored 24 goals for the Predators in his rookie season and also racked up 130 penalty minutes.

He’s exactly what the Lightning were looking for heading into the trade deadline – a tough player to play against.

“Those are rather rare traits, but more importantly, they’re valuable traits,” said BriseBois when asked about Jeannot’s combination of toughness, speed and tenacity. “They help you win. You need those guys in order to win.

“We saw it when we had that line of Goodrow, Coleman and Yanni. They all played a similar style.

“None of them were as big as Tanner. None of them had the combination of size and speed that he has, but they made it unpleasant for the other team, and Tanner is really good at making it unpleasant for the other team.

“We already have a lot of scoring. We have one of the top offensive teams in the league. We have one of the top power plays in the league.

“Those aren’t areas we needed to address. What I thought we needed to address was to be a harder team to play against, to be a team that can win the hard-fought, tight-checking games come playoff time.

“And Tanner Jeannot is that guy. That’s how he plays. He plays in a way that helps you win those games.”

BriseBois knows that championship windows don’t last forever. Tampa Bay has one of the best lineups across the NHL, top to bottom, with stars like Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Victor Hedman, Steven Stamkos, Andrei Vasilevskiy and more. They want to capitalize on that collection of talent.

“We have a really good group of players,” BriseBois said. “We have a lot of star players. They’re in their prime. They’re having good seasons.

“Luckily for us, they’re healthy. Hopefully for us, they remain healthy as well. A lot had to go our way in order for us to accumulate such a critical mass of good players all at once.

“My job, my responsibility as the custodian for this group is to sometimes take risks to maximize our potential return on this era. And that’s what I did last night. We’re taking a risk – a calculated risk.”

Is BriseBois done making trades this season? Not necessarily. With the trade deadline coming up on March 3 at 3 p.m. ET, there’s still plenty of time to make a move. If the right deal comes along, don’t be surprised if another deal is made.

“Never say never,” said BriseBois. “The focus has been on this trade the last little while. Now we were able to bring that to the finish line.

“We’re going to reconvene today and look at whether there are other opportunities out there that are worth exploring. And if so, we’ll explore them. And if something comes to materialize, we’ll do this again and I’ll tell you all about it.”

Jeannot’s first opportunity to enter the lineup will come on Tuesday night when the Lightning battle the Florida Panthers at 7 p.m. ET at AMALIE Arena.