Jeannot traded to Lightning by Predators

Tanner Jeannot was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning by the Nashville Predators on Sunday.

Nashville received defenseman Cal Foote, a conditional first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, a second-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, and a third-, fourth- and fifth-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft.

"As soon as I found out it was Tampa I was really excited to get to be able to go to such a great organization," Jeannot said Friday on Sportsnet. "It's a winning culture and you can just feel that in the room."

Jeannot, who is in the final season of a two-year, $1.6 million contract he signed with Nashville on July 30, 2021, can become a restricted free agent after this season. The 25-year-old forward has 14 points (five goals, nine assists) in 56 games.

"The reality at the trade deadline is you're going to have to overpay," Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois said Monday. "The player goes to the higher bidder. Nashville didn't have to trade him. They controlled his rights for an additional year -- he's a restricted free agent. To acquire the player we would have to make it worth their while. Considering our lack of draft capital the way to do this was a quantity over quality type of offer."

RELATED: 2022-23 NHL Trade Tracker

Signed by the Predators as an undrafted free agent on April 2, 2018, Jeannot has 62 points (34 goals, 28 assists) in 152 regular-season games and two assists in nine Stanley Cup Playoff games.

"He's a big, fast, physical top-line forward," BriseBois said. "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 a great teammate and he's the type of player that helps you win when it gets hard.

"He's a top-9 forward, he's going to produce some secondary scoring for us. That's not why we brought him here. Everything he offers us on offense is an added benefit."

Foote, a 24-year-old defenseman, is in the final season of a two-year, $1.7 million contract he signed on July 29, 2021, and can become a restricted free agent after the season. He has three points (one goal, two assists) in 26 games.

Selected by Tampa Bay in the first round (No. 14) of the 2017 NHL Draft, Foote has 15 points (four goals, 11 assists) in 117 regular-season games, and two assists in 13 playoff games.

The Lightning (37-18-4), who are 2-2-2 in their past six games, are in third place in the Atlantic Division, four points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for second.

The Predators (29-22-6), who have won three in a row, are six points behind the Seattle Kraken, who have played two more games, for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. Nashville traded forward Nino Niederreiter to the Winnipeg Jets for a second-round pick in the 2024 draft Saturday.

"Yeah, I'm open-minded because of where we are, and I think we need to make some changes, do different things," Predators general manager David Poile said Monday. "It's not like we're going out of our way to trade Tanner. But I certainly think the assets we got back were so important to get. I think it was a lot. That could be a game-changer in the draft for the next three years."

NHL.com independent correspondents John Glennon and Corey Long contributed to this report