Tanner Jeannot certainly had no desire to be the most polarizing figure of this offseason for the Boston Bruins, but here we are nonetheless.
The 28-year-old Saskatchewan native worked his way up to being an NHL player by earning it at every level, including a couple of ECHL stints after being an undrafted player while getting better and better at the WHL level for the Moose Jaw Warriors. It wasn’t star-studded teams that he played on, but familiar NHL names like Brett Howden, Noah Gregor and Kale Clague dotted the same junior roster as his game elevated.
He also made a big NHL splash when he debuted with the Nashville Predators by posting 24 goals and 41 points in his first full NHL season before moving over to the Tampa Bay Lightning, where he was reunited with former Moose Jaw teammates Brayden Point. The 6-foot-2, 220-pounder has never again reached those offensive numbers from his first season in Music City, and instead has battled to stay healthy while averaging seven goals and 15 points over the last three NHL seasons.
In the eyes of many Bruins fans, a contract like the one given to Jeannot gives the B’s a glut of fourth-line players among their 13 forwards likely to earn NHL jobs this season.
The Bruins would be overjoyed if Jeannot can find a way to score 15-20 goals once again, but would probably also like him to see him get a little closer to the 130 penalty minutes registered in that first season as well. It’s pretty clear that the B’s signed him to the five-year, $17-million contract that they once envisioned possibly giving to Trent Frederic instead, so his first and foremost job requirement is playing a classic big, tough guy’s game.
“I bring a physical game and hard to play against. I want to make sure other guys know that I’m on the ice and make them feel uncomfortable, and maybe that makes them get rid of the puck quicker and put their teammate in a tougher spot,” said Jeannot. “That tends to create more turnovers and gets the puck into my teammates’ hands a little bit more often, so that’s the type of element I can bring to a line. When we do have the puck, I can be hard down low [by the net] and make plays down low. As far creating space for my teammates, it’s just playing a really physical, hardnosed game and throwing my body around. It’s about making sure guys are aware of my presence on the ice.”
The offensive numbers are actually pretty similar between the two players, Jeannot and Frederic, as is their age, but the one big difference is that one is a former first-round pick and the other is a self-made player who needed to battle, scratch and claw their way to the NHL. There may be a differing hunger level between the two players, as a result just as there appears to be much more consistent willingness for Jeannot to take on opposing heavyweights still around the league.
Just last season Jeannot tangled with Matt Rempe, Zack MacEwan, Markus Foligno and Luke Schenn, and has had multiple altercations with Ryan Reaves during his career as well. Frederic and Jeannot actually tangled with each other a year ago as well with Frederic bloodied and covering up at the end of the rumble after a big uppercut at the start of the fight.
Sometimes in the hockey world, where it can be like the rules of the jungle, an NHL team is going to pay the guy delivering the uppercuts rather than the guy eating them.
Some Bruins fans griped about the term length of the contract handing out five years of security to a brawny, physical player like Jeannot that could slow down a bit in his 30s, but it’s also pretty clear the Bruins want this big, tough winger to be protection for current star players, and for the future generation like James Hagens that will need somebody like Jeannot clearing space for them when they make it to the NHL.
That’s exactly what the Black and Gold had in mind while keeping Jeannot in the fold for the foreseeable future, and with fellow bottom-six energy guy Mark Kastelic coming back from concussion issues last season, with a question as to how fervently he will be dropping the gloves.
“We want the infusion [of physicality] right now and then playing forward, I think it’s hard to find. I really do. I think the younger skilled players that we plan to incorporate moving forward are going to need a little breathing room. I think Tanner is going to bring a lot of that,” Sweeney said. “I think the room itself, his leadership skills, how he prepares to play the game, I think that all just boils over into what we need to continue to improve upon. And also support [the current leadership group].
“I don’t know if he’s getting back to scoring 27 goals. I sure hope so. Deep down we think he’ll bring a whole lot more energy to our group, that we need. The physicality is there. We run through a tough division. I just think everybody gets a little taller (with Jeannot out there). I think if we fast-forward what we’ve tried to do from a draft perspective, an eye towards that as well and introducing those young players — that we hopefully are infusing skill — I do believe that the complement Tanner brings will help in that regard.”
According to Hockey Night in Canada insider Elliotte Friedman, the Maple Leafs, Rangers, Senators and LA Kings were also interested in the rugged left winger during the free agency period. Maybe the Bruins had to overpay in terms of AAV and the five-year term handed out in the contract, but paying a premium is what happens in free agency when an organization like Boston can draft and develop a tough guy of their own like Jeannot.
They tried with Frederic, but in the end decided to go with somebody who had a few more TKOs on his fight card while looking for somebody to protect everybody else on the roster.
ONE TIMERS
• Great to see the Bourque name back in the Boston Bruins fold as Ryan Bourque was hired as an assistant coach for the Providence Bruins this past week. The youngest Bourque son spent last season as the head coach at Cushing Academy, but had spent the previous season coaching at the US National Team Development Program, where he worked with James Hagens and Will Moore on the 17U team.
On a P-Bruins team with a couple of coaches in 49-year-old head coach Ryan Mougenel and 48-year-old assistant coach Trent Whitfield that are a few years removed from playing the game at this point, it’s good to have a guy like Bourque on the staff that’s a little closer in age to the players in the development pipeline.
The 34-year-old Bourque wrapped up his career in 2020 with the Charlotte Checkers after a long run in the AHL that included a 2015 Calder Cup playoff matchup against then-David Pastrnak playing for the P-Bruins, and Bourque skating for the Hartford Wolfpack, before his postseason was shut down after taking a massive hit along the sideboards from Dylan McIlrath.
• Another player on that 2015 Hartford Wolfpack team? Nick Tarnasky, who recently went viral after handing out a beatdown to a drunk golfer on a Canadian golf course that definitely didn’t know what he was getting himself into.
Can you imagine running your mouth at the golf course only to get fed by former NHLer Nick Tarnasky 😂 The Bangs were straight out of the WWE and the guy was warned. Mess with the bull you get the horns! Hockey players are the best pic.twitter.com/2FbJdhh5yB
— The Morning Skate (@morning_skate) July 8, 2025
Pro tip for that guy on the losing end of the beatdown: If a guy confidently says he’s going to toss you into the pond if you don’t shut your mouth and keep your golf game moving, it’s a pretty safe bet he knows that he’s capable of doing it.
