The Tampa Bay Lightning took care of the final thing on their summer checklist as they agreed to a two-year contract with restricted free agent forward Tanner Jeannot.
HEEEEERE’S JEANNOT
We have signed restricted free agent forward Tanner Jeannot to a two-year contract worth an average annual value of $2.665 million.
📝: https://t.co/d71YjRM8S5 pic.twitter.com/gjMAHJ7mcn
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) July 15, 2023
As you can see in the referenced Tweet, the AAV of the deal is $2.665 million, a hefty raise over the $713,333 he played for last year on the final season of his three-year entry contract he signed with Nashville in 2018.
The deal comes in a little higher than the projected two-year, $2.1 million that Evolving Hockey had projected for him this summer, so sadly, no hometown discount for the Bolts. Jeannot will also be an unrestricted free agent when this contract is up, so there is incentive for him to perform well.
Earlier this summer, Jeannot opted for arbitration following the Lightning’s qualifying offer and had a hearing date set for July 24. Both sides can cancel that meeting and go about their summer plans now.
According to Cap Friendly, the signing puts the Lightning at a projected cap hit of $90,060,833 which is $6,560,833 above the limit. However, once Brent Seabrook’s LTIR salary ($6,875,000) they have at least $314,167 of space left to work with. In actuality, probably a little more as Cap Friendly has them carrying 8 defensemen right now, something that is unlikely to happen in the regular season.
General manager Julien BriseBois can free up a little more space by sending Haydn Fleury ($762,500) or Phillipe Myers ($1.125 of his $1.4 million) to Syracuse. Due to the fact that Jeannot chose to go to arbitration Mr. BriseBois can also take advantage of a second buyout period that begins in three days and lasts for 48 hours. The catch is that the player bought out must have a cap hit of at least $4 million for the 2023 offseason. A quick glance at the roster doesn’t bring to mind any candidates.
Jeannot has been a bit of a … sigh … lightning rod since the team acquired him at the trade deadline for Cal Foote and five draft picks. He played in 20 regular season games with the Bolts, with one goal and three assists, before sustaining a bad ankle sprain just before the end of the season. The 26-year-old was able to come back for three largely ineffective playoff games where he didn’t record a point, but did throw 16 hits.
There was little doubt that the two sides would work something out. It’s Mr. BriseBois’ style to make sure he signs his trade deadline acquisitions to keep them in the system. With a full training camp ahead of him, and his injury hopefully behind him, Jeannot will look to earn a spot in the middle-six next season. It wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for him to work his way up to the second line, but chances are he’s going to start on the third or fourth line.
For his three-year career with Nashville and Tampa Bay, Jeannot has appeared in 172 games with 35 goals and 31 assists,
