Tampa Bay Lightning place Tanner Jeannot on injured reserve

Jeannot, 26, has been out of the lineup since January 6th after he left the Lightning’s game against the Boston Bruins that day with an injury. Upon further evaluation, he was labelled as week-to-week, so the Lightning have placed the Oxbow, Saskatchewan native on injured reserve to make room on their roster for other players.

Jeannot has underperformed this season for the Lightning, with just 6 goals and 6 assists for 12 points in 41 games. While his 24-point pace is an improvement on his 2022-23 season, it’s still nowhere close to his 41-point breakout season in 2021-22.

Scoring isn’t the only thing Jeannot has struggled with lately, as he’s had troubles in the penalty department since establishing himself in the league in 2021-22, both with taking too many and not drawing enough himself. In that span, his -4 penalty goals above replacement is tied with Sean Kuraly for the fifth-worst among forwards.

Jeannot was an undrafted free agent signing by the Nashville Predators out of the Western Hockey League, spending parts of three seasons in the AHL and ECHL before making his NHL debut in the 2020-21 season. He then spent parts of three seasons with the Preds before he was dealt to the Lightning at the 2023 trade deadline for Cal Foote and draft picks in the first five rounds.

Jeannot is currently in the first year of a two-year contract with a $2.665 million cap hit, one he signed with the Lightning in the 2023 offseason.

The Lightning also announced that they’ve recalled defenseman Max Crozier to the NHL. The North Vancouver, BC native currently has 1 goal and 6 assists for 7 points in 24 games with the Syracuse Crunch in the AHL this season.

The Lightning will look to continue their stretch of three wins in the last four games when they host the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday at 7 p.m. EST. They currently sit in fourth in the Atlantic Division with a 21-17-5 record, good enough for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, although they’ve played the most games in the league.