A year as a Bruin under his belt, Tanner Jeannot looking to build his game

When looking back at the 2025-26 Bruins’ surprising run to the playoffs, many factors were at play.

There was, of course, the performance of Jeremy Swayman that earned the goalie a Vezina Trophy nomination from the NHL’s general managers. There was David Pastrnak’s fourth straight 100-point season, Morgan Geekie’s second straight 30-goal season and arguably Charlie McAvoy’s best career year.

But one thing that should not be underrated is the emergence of a fourth line that brought some more belligerence back to the Bruin experience, a quality that went missing as they bottomed out two years ago.

The two constants of the unit were bruising wings Tanner Jeannot and Mark Kastelic. Fraser Minten centered them first and then Sean Kuraly took over as Minten ascended in the lineup.

It was Jeannot’s first season with the B’s after signing an eyebrow-raising five-year deal worth $3.4 million a season. With the exception of his 24-goal, 41-point season with the Nashville Predators in 2021-22, Jeannot has never been a huge point producer and that held true last season when he posted a 6-16-22 line, which was his second-best point total of his career.

But there were not a lot of complaints from Bruin fans. One of Jeannot’s traits is that he’s one of the fiercest fighters in the NHL and a couple of his well-timed bouts served their intended purpose throughout the season.

The B’s fourth line was an issue for a lot of opponents, for a few reasons.

“Mark and I are pretty similar players. We like to get in there and forecheck. But also we’re defensively minded as well. But we like to play that physical game that not a lot of teams want to play against,” said Jeannot, who was at the annual Back-to-School event at the Garden on Wednesday. “We were with Sean a lot last year and he was the same way so I thought we jelled pretty good. And the more time you get to play with people, the more chemistry you build up and the more trust you have with each other and where you’re going to be on the ice. It was something we could do to just help the team. We tried to bring an identity to the team in being hard to play and that was what we felt our role was. Obviously it didn’t turn out the way we wanted at the of the year, losing in the first round. It’s something that we can continue to build on and just get better.”

The 29-year-old Jeannot wants to continue to grow his game in 2026-27.

“I just want to be a guy that’s steady and trustworthy in every zone of the ice,” said Jeannot. “I want to have a really good 200-foot game. I want to hold onto pucks a bit more. I’m a big body and I think that I can generate a little more puck possession time for our team. And, obviously, just doing the same things in being a physical presence on the ice and going hard to the net. I want to continue to do that, be a great teammate, do everything I can, control pucks down low, be a part of the forecheck and play a 200-foot game that’s trustworthy everywhere.”

Lines don’t always stay together from year to year, though it would seem natural for Jeannot and Kastelic to stay together. Who their center will be remains to be seen. While there other candidates to play center (unsigned RFA Matt Poitras comes to mind), Kuraly is certainly a possibility again. While that trio won’t become Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak 2.0, Jeannot does believe the group can squeeze out a little more production.

“I think there’s potential for offense, for sure,” said Jeannot. “All three of us can score. All three of us can make plays. There’s definitely potential for it. Is it necessarily our number one mindset? I don’t think so. We want to be out there being an identity and playing the right way and showing by example how hard the Bruins want to play. I think if we’re doing that, we have enough skill and smarts out there that we can generate some offense. That will come but our focus is to be an identity, be hard to play against and create momentum and help our team win any way we can, whether it’s trying to create as much offense as we can, being as physical as we can or being good defensively. All three of us were penalty killers, too.”

For Jeannot, being part of the kill was key. He’d done it earlier in his career but had not in the several seasons prior to coming to Boston. It’s a good way for a fourth line player to bump up his ice time, get into the game and make an impact he might not be able to make on his regular shift.

“It’s huge,” said Jeannot. “It gives you something to take pride in. It gets you out there against other team’s top players, which can be scary but for me it’s my opportunity to make my impact. I don’t necessarily always get to play against the top players because our top line is playing against their top line. That’s an opportunity for me to get into other team’s top players’ heads and show them that I’m going to be on the ice against them sometimes. That can be a mental aspect of the game, too. But you’re in the game, you’re engaged and you’re taking pride in killing off a penalty for your team. It’s something I take a lot of pride in.”

What comes next for Jeannot is to be determined. But in his first season as a Bruin, he showed he was worth the investment.