Bruins sign Tanner Jeannot to five-year contract

According to multiple reports, the Boston Bruins have signed forward Tanner Jeannot to a five-year contract. The deal will carry an AAV of $3.4 million through the 2029-30 season.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report the news on Tuesday.

The length of the deal might be a head-scratcher to some, as Jeannot’s role as a grinder will fit into the bottom six of the Bruins’ lineup. However, Boston has the cap space, and clearly, general manager Don Sweeney feels like the team needs to get a little bit tougher as they head into a rebuild after the old core of Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand have moved on.

Jeannot is getting a pay raise from his previous contract, a two-year deal that he signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning in July 2023, which had a cap hit of $2.665 million. The Saskatchewan native went to Tampa Bay after he was traded by the Nashville Predators prior to the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline. After a little over one season in Tampa, he was dealt to the Los Angeles Kings in June 2024.

This past season, Jeannot scored seven goals and six assists for 13 points in 67 games, providing depth as L.A. made it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a fourth year in a row. However, the Kings ended up getting knocked out by the Edmonton Oilers (again) in the first round. Jeannot didn’t appear in the postseason due to an undisclosed injury suffered late in the regular season.

It’s a far cry from Jeannot’s coming-out party with the Preds in 2021-22, when he posted an outlying 24 goals and 17 assists for 41 points, along with 130 penalty minutes. It’s still the only time he’s scored 20 points in a single season in his NHL career.

Across five seasons in the NHL, the 28-year-old has appeared in 294 games, scoring 49 goals and 44 assists for 93 points, amassing 403 PIM. He’s also posted three assists in 16 playoff games.

According to PuckPedia, the Bruins have a little over $5.3 million in projected cap space next season.