Prospect to Pro: Tanner Jeannot's Historic Rookie Season

While the 2021-22 regular season in many ways marked a return to normalcy around the NHL, the Nashville Predators year was anything but.
Chock-full of memorable moments, like Pekka Rinne's jersey retirement or the outdoor 2022 NHL Stadium Series game at Nissan Stadium, Nashville's season also saw career performances from a number of key players.
Perhaps the most surprising of those was 25-year-old Tanner Jeannot, who quietly iced one of the best rookie seasons in franchise history after controversially being protected from the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft.

For a considerable portion of the 2021-22 season, Jeannot was continually butting his way into talks for the Calder Memorial Trophy, awarded each year to the most impactful, proficient rookie in the League.
While he was ultimately left off the list of finalists, it's hard not to argue against his exclusion.
In 2021-22, the Oxbow, Saskatchewan native led the NHL's rookies in goals (24), hits (318), and penalty minutes (130), and set a franchise record for hits in a single season.

All following a 2020-21 campaign that saw the forward appear in just 15 games with Nashville, logging just over 180 minutes of total ice time.
"Maybe for those on the outside it was a long shot, but internally we knew what we were going to get," Assistant General Manager and Milwaukee Admirals General Manager Scott Nichol said. "I don't think any of us thought he would score 24 goals this year, but we knew he'd be super competitive and help morph and change our culture a bit."
Much of that confidence in the winger's ability to impact Nashville's game came from his tenacious work ethic, which has received high praise from Jeannot's coaches and peers on numerous occasions.
"He's kind of always had that progression where nothing's been handed to him," Head Coach John Hynes said. "He has a hunger and a drive and a coachability to be able to take adverse situations and learn from them, and then build off of them. And I think that's what he did, even from last year and into this year."
That drive to improve not only earned Jeannot a regular spot back in Nashville's lineup, but opportunities to play key minutes for the Predators in a variety of situations as well, including the penalty kill and power play.

"It's important to have that throughout your lineup, to have guys that are really versatile and Tanner has certainly done that," Hynes said. "We started to use him more and more, and he turned into a top-four penalty killer. We gave him some power-play time, and I think that's another step for him next year, is to give him more opportunities on the power play to see if he can make a major impact on that special team.
"I think it just speaks volumes to his abilities. He's a modern day NHL player and he's got really good size. He's got great speed, he's a tenacious hungry player. He's got the body I think to be able to play in a lot of situations and play big minutes because of the way he takes care of himself. And he's still a young player who's gaining experience, and I think he's only going to be better off for it."
Apart from his on ice performance, Jeannot has also undoubtedly grown in his personal life.

A new dad to baby Jayce, Jeannot will celebrate his first Father's Day this Sunday. And, in keeping with one of the Preds organization's core values, earlier in the season Jeannot

as well.
"You have to figure at some point there's a ceiling to this guy, but I don't know where it is because he's just a beast, and he's an equally good human being off the ice," Assistant Coach Dan Hinote said. "So, that makes it even more exciting for us."
With a fresh season just on the horizon, Hinote says the goal for Jeannot is to hit that ceiling.
"You just want to keep pushing it - find it, push it, find it, push it - and he's got the drive for it," Hinote said. "Some players can go their whole career and never find out how good they could have been. He's always going to know that because he pushes the envelope. We're going to be here to help him figure that out, too."

"He looks as though he's becoming a young leader for us," Hynes said. "I think that he has the character and the personality traits to be able to command a room at the NHL level. And it's nice to see him be able to continue to grow his game and round his game out as a big, strong power forward, physical player that impacts the game in those areas, but also with his ability to impact the game in a positive way both through his work ethic and his intensity level and his ability to produce."
Regardless of what happens come October, one thing is certain of Jeannot:
"He's not sneaking up on anybody next year," Nichol said. "I can tell you that."