Paquette's gritty, hard-nosed style has been a valuable addition to the Tampa Bay Lightning, and he was a useful role player during their run to the Stanley Cup in 2020.

The forward from Gaspe, Quebec, earned his first call-up to Tampa Bay at the end of the 2013-14 season, after he scored 20 goals and amassed 153 penalty minutes in 70 games with Syracuse of the American Hockey League.

He had an assist in his two-game stint to close the season, and Paquette made enough of an impression that the Lightning put him in the lineup to open the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Montreal Canadiens. He finished with two assists in four playoff games.

By his second season, Paquette showed he was ready for a regular role with the Lightning, appearing in 64 games. He was put into the penalty-kill rotation but showed he was capable of providing offense as well; Paquette scored his first two NHL goals in his fifth game of the season, against the Calgary Flames Nov. 6.

On Jan. 29, 2015, he scored three goals for his first NHL hat trick in a victory against the Detroit Red Wings. He finished the regular season with 12 goals, 19 points and 51 penalty minutes. Paquette then made an impact during Tampa Bay's run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2015, appearing in 24 of 26 games and scoring the game-winning goal in Game 3 of the Final against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Paquette scored an NHL career-high 13 goals in 2018-19, helping the Lightning tie the NHL single-season record of 62 victories set by the Detroit Red Wings in 1995-96, and finished with 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists) in 2019-20.