2023 NHL Trade Deadline: Grading Every Nashville Predators Trade

Predators Get a Haul of Draft Picks for Jeannot

The trade rumors for Tanner Jeannot were boiling over as the Nashville Predators were getting ready to face the Arizona Coyotes. Leading up to warm-ups, Jeannot was benched for trade related reasons and quickly thereafter traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

This was hard to swallow even for the Predators fans who were all on board with selling everyone. Jeannot was beloved and embodied the identity and culture of how the Predators want to play.

When this trade happened, everyone started taking notice that the Predators were for real about being “open for business”. It sent shockwaves around the NHL trade landscape.

This comes down to a offer that’s too valuable to refuse for the Predators. The Lightning really, really wanted Jeannot to offer that many draft picks and also a young defenseman in Cal Foote who still has promise to grow into an everyday starter for the blueline.

In reality, it’s the simple case of two franchises being in very different situations. One one hand you have the Lightning in “win now” mode and with a Stanley Cup window that is still very much wide open, and on the other hand you have a Predators team that clearly has to reconfigure this roster from the top down.

I love this trade for Nashville because you’re acquiring so much draft capital to work with. You can use these picks to facilitate a future trade and it gives new GM Barry Trotz a lot to work with. Like taking a new leadership position at any job and the boss immediately gives you a massive budget to get the tools you need to be successful.

I’m not going to give this a perfect grade because there’s still that possibility that Jeannot returns back to his 2021-22 rookie season form and becomes a regular 20-plus goal scorer in a much better system with Tampa.

Again, Nashville just couldn’t turn this down. Hopefully Foote becomes the effective replacement for Mark Borowiecki as the physical grinder and rotational third-pairing defenseman. He didn’t look too bad in his Predators debut against the Penguins with one hit and two blocks in 12:14 of ice time.

If anything, this trade can end up being a win for both sides when we look back on it in three years.