Penguins Trade Target: Tanner Jeannot

When former GM Jim Rutherford took over the Penguins’ helm back in 2014, the first thing he did was swing a trade with Nashville to change team’s culture. Enter Patric Hornqvist, a maniacal net-front presence and Tasmanian Devil on skates.

Fast forward to now. If ever a team’s culture needed changing, it’s our present-day Pens. To that end, current GM Ron Hextall should follow his predecessor’s lead.

There’s absolutely nothing in the rumor mill connecting our Pens to Nashville left wing Tanner Jeannot. Nor is there any indication Hextall has even remotely considered pursuing the aggressive 25-year-old forward.

But he should.

I won’t beat around the bush. We desperately (and I mean desperately) lack the physical edge and competitive fire Jeannot would provide. The 6’2” 208-pounder plays an aggressive, in-your-face game. Since making his NHL debut during the 2020-21 stretch run, Jeannot’s registered a staggering 584 hits in 152 big-league games. He’s dropped the gloves 23 times, too. Five more fights than our entire team has had over that span.

No spot picker, the Oxbow, Saskatchewan native’s taken on and held his own against many of the league’s top heavies, including Nicolas Deslauriers, Arber Xhekaj and former Pens Ryan Reaves and Erik Gudbranson. Needless to say, he brooks no indiscretions against his teammates.

Nor is the “Oxbow Ox” a one-dimensional thug. Indeed, Jeannot can play. After spending time in the ECHL at the start of his pro career, he worked hard to improve his game. Evolving from a fringe player into a power forward of genuine promise, he tallied a whopping 10 goals and 21 points in only 13 games for the Chicago Wolves of the AHL to start the ’20-21 campaign, a performance that earned him a call-up to the big show.

Jeannot continued to produce through his first two pro seasons, culminating in a 24-goal rookie season in ’21-22 that earned the hard-nosed winger Calder Trophy consideration. However, after scoring three goals in his first eight games this season, Jeannot’s offense has dried up. In a way, mirroring present Pens winger Danton Heinen, although he’s continued to see regular duty for the Preds (15:05 ATOI).

The reason for the drop off? According to an A to Z Sports article by Shaun Smith, Jeannot hasn’t had a consistent pair of linemates as he did in the past, when he skated almost exclusively on the hard-checking “Herd Line” with Yakov Trenin and Colton Sissons.

Too, his shooting percentage has tumbled from an unsustainable 19.7 during his first two seasons to 5.7 this season. Shot metrics indicate that while he’s still driving to the net, he hasn’t been the same net-front menace he was as a rookie.

Could Jeannot’s drop-off present an opportunity for the Pens? While there’s no hint the Preds are shopping him, if I were Hextall, I’d go after Tanner the way he once did Robbie Brown.

We could desperately use a battler who employs a net-crashing, body-banging style. Someone to provide a spark with their hitting and lead us into battle. While Jason Zucker, Josh Archibald and Mark Friedman (when he plays) provide some mustard, it’s not nearly enough when compared to other teams around the league. And I’m sure if you asked our aging stars, privately, if they were tired of fighting their own battles, the answer would be an unequivocal ‘yes.”

Plus, with a cap hit of only $800 K, Jeannot’s ultra-affordable. While he’s an RFA-to-be, my guess is he could be wrapped up for somewhere around $1.5 to $2 million, a bargain in my book.

Expecting him to duplicate his rookie-season output may be too much to ask. But if the Pens could get 10-15 goals a season from him while providing the type of physical edge we haven’t had since Brandon Tanev, he’d be well worth whatever price we’d need to pay.

Would acquiring Jeannot guarantee us a playoff berth? Probably not. But adding a player of his ilk would help establish a badly needed course correction and culture shift for down the road. Much as Hornqvist’s presence once did.

To quote former coach Michel Therrien, we’re way too “soff,” physically and otherwise. We could use a shot of hard.