The Tampa Bay Lightning began their trade season with a deal that brought a bit of size into the organization. On Wednesday, they announced that they had sent Jesse Ylonen to the Nashville Predators in exchange for 6’5″, 209 lbs. forward Anthony Angello. The 28-year-old will report to the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL.
In a sense, it’s a bit of a homecoming for Angello. The former fifth-round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins is from the Albany, NY area and played for the Syracuse Jr. Stars (along with Alex Tuch) from 2011-2013 before heading off to the USHL. He made his NHL debut with the Penguins in 2019-20 and has appeared in a total of 31 NHL games, recording 3 goals and 2 assists.
Angello is a big forward that isn’t completely absent of offensive ability. He has 68 goals in 320 AHL games and has hit double digit goal totals in three seasons while being on pace to do it again this year. He is signed through this season with a $775,000 cap hit and will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
While it’s a nice addition for the Crunch, the deal seems to benefit the Predators and Jesse Ylonen a bit more. The 25-year-old forward signed with the Bolts this summer and had a shot to make the team as a depth forward. With the exception of a brief one-day call-up during the 4 Nations Face-Off break, Ylonen has spent the entire season with the Crunch where he was third in scoring with 25 points (8 goals, 17 assists) in 47 games.
The Lightning plan to add forwards at the deadline, not subtract them, so the chances of Ylonen seeing any NHL time with them this season was virtually non-existent. The opposite is true for the Predators. They are likely to be sellers over the next week and that could open up some spots in Smashville, and with 111 games of NHL experience, Ylonen could get the call-up and show the Preds, or another NHL team, that he is worth a free agent deal on July 1st.
The Crunch themselves are also starting to get healthy again with Niko Huuhtanen and Joel Teasdale returning from month-long absences, so playing time among the forwards is getting tight. There also could be an influx of college and junior hockey players coming in about a month that they will have to find playing time for, so freeing up Ylonen’s spot makes sense.
