32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Don’t Underestimate Tanner Jeannot

Episode Date: March 16, 2022

Tanner Jeannot wasn’t drafted into the WHL or the NHL, but he’s in the race for the Calder Trophy this season. He join Jeff and Elliotte to talk about his journey to the NHL from small-town Saskatchewan, the obstacles he overcame along the way, playing on a line with Colton Sissons and Yakov Trenin, playing under John Hynes, what made Tim Hunter the coach for him in Moose Jaw, the support he’s received from his community in Oxbow, and he talks about his workout routine and what he excels at most.Music Outro: Library Voices - Regina I Don’t Want To FightListen to the full discography by Library Voices on SpotifyThis podcast is produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: 102.5 THE GAME and Bally Sports South.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

Welcome to another interview version of 32 Thoughts to the Podcast, presented as always by the all-new GMC AT4 lineup. Now, I can't even pretend to be objective about this next hockey player. That's how much I enjoy watching him play hockey. It's to the point where after he does anything, I get a note from David Amber, something along the lines of, did you see what your boy just did? Tanner Jeannot is a 24-year-old rookie winger playing with the Nashville Predators. And when you think of Janot, think of the word impact. He's one of the top rookie scorers in the NHL, and he has this old school physicality mentality.

He makes hits. He takes hits. He's not shy about stepping up. As we mentioned in the interview, one of my favorite things about watching Tanner Janot is watching guys that don't know him take runs at him and then get knocked over the minute they initiate

collision. He's one of the most jacked players in the league as well. All the cliches, light matches off of him, pouring up like a bad report card, all of it. He plays on a line with Colton Sissons and Yakov Trenin, one of the best third lines in the entire NHL. He's a great fit for Nashville in a lot of ways.

Even going back to the early days of the Predators, fans have always liked rough and tough hockey players. Oh, and one more thing about Cheneau. He was never drafted in the NHL. His story is one of hard work and perseverance. Let's get to the interview. Here he is on 32 Thoughts to Podcast, Nashville's Tanner Janot. Yossi does a great job to get it back now he collides with the defender but he starts it back the other way, tic-tac-toe score

Tanner Janot Well Forsberg's out so you need someone to step up why not tanner you know right on the back door beautiful play now we're going to have a scrap tanner jano ed keegan colasar a couple of rights colasar getting his right three. Overhand left. Thrown there by Janot. And the linesman there as the Predators in the midst of a line change. A shot by Benning in the far. Janot is right in front.

And the Predators take a 6-1 lead. Elliot, very pleased to welcome to the program someone who is a combination of new school skill and old school toughness. He's Tanner Jeannot of the National Predators and he joins us on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Tanner, how are you today? I'm doing good. How are you guys? We're doing well. We've talked a lot about you this season. Wait, wait, wait.

You've talked a lot about him this season. I've talked a lot about Tanner Jeannot this season, I know. But for good reason. I'll tell you, like, one of my about Tanner Jeannot this season, I know. But for good reason. I'll tell you, one of my guilty pleasures, Tanner, this season has been watching Nashville Predators games for a number of reasons, but one of them is watching players who don't

know you try to hit you. And watching them bounce off in almost cartoon fashion. How many times have you heard a player from the other team say i didn't think that kid was that strong yeah i heard well i heard it a couple times even if a guy doesn't go you know if i don't put him down or anything he'll kind of say oh that was pretty solid and i'll say the same thing if guys are solid so yeah there's definitely been some

pretty heavy collisions. There's some big guys out there. And I kind of like the challenge of one of the guys thinking they got me lined up and they want to try and step up on me. I'll give them all they can handle and win the battle. So I just like that as a challenge. Okay, so who is the hardest guy you've hit then? Well, like I said, there's been lots.

I guess, like, it's been in recent memory here. It was a really solid collision that I remember. Neither of us fell over or anything, but it was just one of those ones that kind of just takes your breath away. It was Hawk and Paw on Dallas, and it was just one of the most. He's a big man. Yeah. He's a big dude.

Yeah. So that was just in of the most he's a big man yeah he's a big dude yeah so that was uh just in most recent memory that was one of the most solid ones i've i've had so i'm curious about your entire journey tanner so i was interviewing david poyle about a month ago and it was a night that you played a really nice game in edmonton and he said he got into the elevator and there was another scout who got in there with him and said that when Tanner Janot was 17 years old, he played at Moose Jaw and had one goal in 52 games. Who would have ever thought that it would turn out like this? And I'm just curious about your journey, how you feel you got from there to here, you're on the cusp of a 20 goal season if you really thought it was possible when you began to believe it was possible and

you know just take us through the last seven or eight years and how you made it it's been a pretty crazy journey a lot of ups and downs and twists and turns um but yeah, that's true. And my first year in the WHL there, I had one goal and five points, I think. So it wasn't necessarily an outstanding year by any means. But, you know, I was kind of just proud of myself for being there. I wasn't drafted into the WHL or anything. And I went to camp as just an invite to the camp, not listed or drafted or anything. So really, if you're in that kind of a position, you're just kind of a spot filler. And no one's really expecting anything out of you. But I ended up making a good impression on coaches and management there.

And I ended up making the team that year and I was pretty ecstatic to be in the WHL at that point that's something you dream about growing up in Western Canada that's kind of where you want to make it to and then going through that year I was pretty fortunate I got to play some really good players. Most notable, probably Braden Point. I got to play with him for two years. So I got to just kind of watch him and see how he did things and the skill level he had. So every year I just kind of improved. I got more opportunities each year and just tried to make the most of them. And then my last year there as an overage or 20-year-old, I ended up scoring 40 goals and 80 points.

And that's kind of what led me into, I signed my first NHL contract with Nashville in playoffs that year. Really, before that, I didn't really see myself like being able to be a professional hockey player just seemed so out of reach for me and then that last year having a really good offensive year and everything like that things were kind of coming into fruition where you know I was hearing from teams and my agent was you know talking with teams about contracts and stuff. And it was just all pretty crazy for me.

I went and I played my first year professional in Milwaukee at the Nationals farm team. And my second year, I knew what the league was like. I knew what pro hockey was all about. And I was just excited to get going. And then I ended up getting sent down to the east coast right off the bat so that was uh kind of a little bit of a shock I guess and then I didn't last down there too long I played pretty well down there and then I went back up to Milwaukee and we had a really good team that year I think we were in first place in the American League when

the league stopped so that was a really good year. And then the next year after that, coming into the last year of my entry-level contract, Milwaukee decided to opt out of the season with COVID still happening. So I played for the Chicago Wolves. There, I just kind of got more opportunity. We had a younger team. I was getting some power play and penalty kill. I was just kind of got more opportunity we had a younger team I was getting some power play and penalty kill I was just kind of doing everything and I played really well that down there

which earned me my first call up to the NHL played my first game against Carolina we we went down three nothing pretty quick in the first period there so I didn't get to play too much that game but it kind of gave me gave me a taste and I saw what the skill level was and the speed of the game at that level and I knew that I knew then that that's when I could play at the NHL level so I ended up getting sent down again after that game for a couple weeks back to Chicago with that experience of getting my first game, I knew from the level that it was, I knew that I could be there. So my goal was to just continue to improve and show Nashville that I could be there and then ended up getting called back up and spending the rest of the year with them, signing my new contract this past summer

and coming into this year, just being really excited, keep making the people that gave me this opportunity happy and proud that they gave me the opportunity. One of my favorite things to do is talk to junior hockey coaches. I want to go back to Moose Jaw here. Talk to junior hockey coaches and have them talk about their players. And I can recall whenever I would check in with Tim Hunter, your coach in Moose Jaw, you know, we talk about Braden Point. You mentioned him. We talk about Brett Howden.

Some of the more interesting conversations would be around Nikita Popogaev. We talk with Noah Greger, these types of players. And, you know, I remember the first time Tim Hunter talked about you with me and he talked about two things. He talked about your work ethic and he talked about how in shape you were. And we were talking off air a little bit and you know the story about how Tim Hunter wrecked it for everybody in the NHL because he would show up, you know, to camp every year, you know,

torn up like a bad report card and everybody else had to, you know, work their boilers off. And he kind of, all of a sudden the expectation was you had to show up looking like tim hunter um two things one did you ever work out with tim when you're in moose jaw and what are your thoughts on on tim hunter your your ex-coach of the moose jaw warriors um no i i never uh never got to work out with him you know even then he probably would have shown us all up in the gym he was still in pretty good shape yeah and then um you know Tim was one of those guys that gave me the opportunity

to play you know in the WHO um like I said I went there as a invite to the camp I wasn't drafted by them I wasn't listed didn't have anyone pulling for me in the back room. I came in and I guess I was a little bit like him where I came in and I had a really good fitness testing, kind of stood out there. And then I just tried to play a hardworking game just like I do now. You know, he was a guy that saw that and he gave me, you know, he fought for me and he gave me an opportunity to, you know, have a career in the WHL and then continuing on for the next four years. My mindset was to get better, but, you know, he did a really good job of continuing to inspire me to do better and as well, just give me more and more opportunity as I was earning it so it was

definitely a good experience you know my my four years in the WHL and he definitely contributed to that. One of my favorite players in of recent vintage in the NHL was John Madden and John Madden played at the University of Michigan and there was a story and I don't really think anybody likes talking about it Tanner but where John Madden and Red Berenson's relationship kind of fell apart for a while because Red Berenson told him you know you're probably not going to play in the NHL and you should think about something else and Madden took that very personally did anyone ever have that kind of a conversation with you where they said, you know, hey, Tanner, this might not work out or anything like that?

I wouldn't say that it was straight to my face where people would say that. It was more so people kind of saying, well, what's your backup plan and things like that. And obviously, like I said, until I signed my NHL contract I wasn't sure if I was going to play you know professional hockey or whatnot so you know I did have a backup plan if I didn't sign a contract I was going to go play you know CIS and go to school so you know it was more so things like that rather than someone sitting me down and saying, you're not going to make it.

What else are you going to do? But I feel like that's a lot of players and a lot of pro athletes go through that, I think. And that's a big part of being a pro athlete is that kind of mental toughness to get over mental obstacles like that. is that kind of mental toughness to get over mental obstacles like that so what my dad told me all the time when I was you know younger and he still tells me today is to just control what you can control and so that's what I wake up trying to do every day is try not to think about the things that you can't control whether it's you know back then it was not getting drafted and not, you know, not being scouted or things like that. All you can control is your work ethic and what you do away from every, all the noise and everything else and what's going to prepare you for, you know, the big moments. So that's

kind of what I like to think about. Okay. let me follow up on that with this question then. If you only focus on the things you can control, does that mean you never have a look at what Lucas Raymond or Dawson Mercer or Trevor Zegres or Michael Bunting are doing? Well, you see highlights and things like that, but I like to use it as motivation. If other guys are succeeding, I think, you know, it's good for them. You know, everyone's trying to succeed.

So if they're doing it, good for them. But I want to do it just as good or better. You know, that's what sport is all about. You want to play against the best and you want to be the best. So you can't be a best against if you're not playing against the best so um seeing guys have success is is good but it kind of just sets a fire under you and you want to do just as good one of the other stories that poil told was that you were not thrilled with going down to the echl and he tried to explain it as, we think this will be better for you,

but you weren't really too interested in the explanation. How did that conversation go? Yeah, well, no players ever excited to be sent down. You know, it was just a situation where the year before, I was a rookie, and I was starting to play pretty well, and in my mind, when I got injured, and then I got injured, and I didn't really have a chance and I was, you know, I was starting to play pretty well. And in my mind, when I got injured and then I got injured and I didn't really have a chance to come back. So in my mind, coming back for my second year, I was it was go time and it was ready. I was going to show them who I was and how I was going to the type of player I was going to be for them.

And then it just felt like my feet were getting taken out from under me right off the bat but um that's part of the mental toughness you have to have too it I I had to change from that mindset to seeing it as another challenge and you know just doing what I could do in the situation that I was in and that was just trying to play the best I could in the east coast and then that got me back to the American League and then continuing to do the same thing until I made my ultimate goal of making the NHL. So, yeah, it was it was a tough conversation for sure. I'm sure a lot of other guys have had similar conversations to that.

But it's just all about your mindset that you got to take out of there. And sometimes it takes time. You're going to be pissed off sometimes. But you've just got to fix that mindset as best you can and as quick as you can. It's a very brave thing, Tanner, for a young player to give his GM an honest answer sometimes. Did any of you, part of you, walk out after that and say, yeah, I'm not sure that was the smartest thing I ever could have done? Well, I don't think I was disrespectful in any way.

You know, maybe I was wearing my heart on my sleeve a little bit, but that's the type of person I am. I want to do the best I can all the time. So I ended up just taking it as a challenge. Like they were challenging me to continue to improve. So and I'm here now. So maybe it was the right call at the time, you know, like it did set that fire underneath me. So, you know, I don't regret anything. It was a good experience. It got it gave me just that extra experience to draw from, I guess. And now I can use that in the future. And I know that I don't want to ever have that conversation again.

So that's, I don't want to ever get sent down again. So I just want to keep going and keep playing well. Your line is a really interesting one. I've talked plenty about the makeup of this line and the players on this line. And, you know, there's a couple of things that stand out from this season. Yakov Trenin, I still, I mean, full marks to him. But when I watch him challenging Zdeno Chara, I always say to myself, man, this guy is tough.

This guy has a lot of guts. But, you know, one of the coolest things I've seen your centerman Colton Sissons do was a game against the Florida Panthers. And I think you know where I'm going with this one. I can't recall the last time I saw someone go perfect at the dot. Yeah. And he,

you guys had a game against Florida where he went 16 for 16. Like normally on the face off percentage, when you see someone's like at a hundred percent, they won like two draws, but he goes 16 for 16 at the draw. I'm curious. One, how aware are you guys of that as he's going through it? And two, as the game goes on, do you treat it like players treat pitchers

when they have a no-hitter going, that you just don't talk to them, you don't mention anything about the face-off because you don't want to jinx it? Yeah, well, you're definitely aware of it, and that was an incredible game for him. That was awesome. And he's he's been good all year. Like he's he's an elite centerman for sure. Like, you know, we're starting off with the puck definitely more times than one or not. So that's a huge plus for our line just having him in the middle there. But yeah, that game. So we were aware just by how many times we would have the puck in possession right off the bat. So that's how you're aware of it. And then, well, definitely me. I didn't say anything about it, but I don't know about Trenny, but you just try to let him do his thing. You know, like that's what we always do. He knows what he's doing in the center. Just let him do his thing. I'm not going to give him any advice. He knows what he's doing. So just try to let him keep the hot streak going. And yeah, he did great. It was awesome.

Jeff, I know you want to go on a roll here. I know you've got a lot of questions for Tanner. So I'm going to just sit back a bit and let you empty out your wheelbarrow here. Okay. Yeah, I do have a lot. Like there's the welcome to the nhl moment that you have when you go and you do your first lap but then there are other sort of markers along the way the first goal the first fight the first big hit like all of it when you think of the firsts

that you had in this league which are the ones that stand out for like which like were there moments where you said okay now it feels like i'm in the nhl because i'm sure it doesn't feel like that when you're going out and you're doing your warm-up lap. Yeah, that first game, your eyes are pretty wide, and you try to take it all in, but really your adrenaline's going, and you're looking at the crowd, you see the crowd, and you're hearing it. The game goes by. Honestly, it went by pretty quickly for me.

It was definitely a great experience, and it was honestly it went by pretty quickly for me it was definitely a great experience and it was awesome but uh bigger moments for me were scoring my first goal that was an amazing feeling now back to benning on the right board in the nashville zone flipped it where janeau was able to chip it out now trennan follows up on shen sergache lost it to Trennan. His shot stopped. Rebound reflect there. And Janot scores. Tanner Janot scores. And the Predators lead is 6-2.

How about that? The beast line just tenacious on the forecheck. Trennan is there. Forces it up the board. Janot comes down. Disrupts the play. Gets it to Trennan. Trennan is there. Forces it up the board. Janot comes down. Disrupts the play. Gets it to Trennan. Trennan attacks. Shoots it and Janot right there

on the doorstep going to the net. Buries his first career NHL goal. Congrats. Not bad. Is there again? Well he's had an impact all over the ice. Now he's had an impact on the score sheet.

I was so excited I fell over when I was celebrating. Honestly, it was just almost like blacking out. You're so happy. All the guys are celebrating with you. Even after the game, all the guys were just so happy that they were a part of it. And it just makes you feel more special about it. So that was definitely one of my best experiences. Another big one was in the playoffs.

It was during a TV intermission and we were at Bridgestone and what they did was they told the crowd to make some noise and then they turned all the music off and there was nothing, no noise except for the crowd. And everyone was just going nuts and it was louder than any arena I've ever been in. And John Heinze was trying to talk to us and you had to be within like a foot of him just to hear him. But for a moment there, I think everyone kind of just took that in and just seeing and hearing all the crowd just going nuts. And that was a pretty that was a big moment for me, just kind of seeing all the all the support and, you know, being at the highest level. And that's what it's all about is for the fans to have a good time too so that was a pretty incredible one the stadium series game this year was really special too that was a really cool experience as well so there's been so many great experiences that I've had so far and my career is just getting started so

it's been a great experience and I just want to keep it going, take each day, day by day and keep having fun with it. You mentioned John Heinzer a couple of seconds ago, and I think he's one of the more underrated coaches in the NHL. And, you know, he's finally got a full season with the team, no disruptions, no shortened season. And we're seeing players do some pretty special things this season, whether it's,

you know, the rejuvenation of Matt DeShane, whether it's what Philip Forsberg is doing right now. Roman Yossi leads all NHL defensemen in points and you've popped as well. What has John Hines worked with you on or helped you with that you can point to and say, I'm this player in this area because of that coach? I think what he does really well is he knows the types of player each person is, and he helps bring out the best of that type of player. So for example, for me, I'm not a player like Matt Duchesne or Philip Forsberg. I need to get in there more and be more physical and have those good details in my game for me to be offensively successful to do that. And it's just a different type of way of doing it. But that's my way of doing it. And I think he's really good at recognizing what that is.

And I think that's why, you know my line is having success too is because we're all three of us are kind of the same type of player i think he finds really good combinations in that sense it's been really good having him as a coach and i'm excited for the future i'm pretty good friends with um a professional wrestler by the name of eric young um he wrestled he works with impact wrestling and he's a huge fan of yours i can remember beginning of the year talking to him and he's in that got that gravelly raspy voice this you know kid is awesome like he he loves i don't know if this is gonna be a question as if tanner's gonna leave the nhl for like the no no no no no nobody's but he's got the physique for

it too like you like matches off this guy. And so Eric just loves you. And I would, I don't know if you've met Eric before. Uh, he goes to Prez game. I think he's a season ticket holder being in Nashville and knowing how popular you are. You have a style of game that attracts people.

Like, who are some of the people that you go like, wow, I would never would have met this person if I was, you know, in, you know, playing with the Everblades person if i was you know in you know playing with the everblades or if i was still playing with the admirals like who are some of those people you know like last year with covid and then half this year too it's it's been a little bit

different i think just people haven't been allowed in the dressing room and things like that so honestly not too many you know i've got to meet a few uh country artists like at the stadium series game there i got to meet dirks bentley chase rice was there so just few different country artists but really it hasn't been too much yet just with covid going on so hopefully hopefully more of that gets to come. Okay, fitness testing. Everywhere you go, you're number one. On Nashville, who's number two? Trenny's up there for sure. He's got to be up there.

Sizzy would be up there too. Probably our lines, probably some of the best up there. Here's a better question. Who's out of shape? Like who on your team you're like who's a total disaster in the 100 meter dash who's finishing last that's the better question well i'm not i'm not too much of a sprinter i'm more of a long distance guy so i i don't i don't want to throw anyone under the bus there okay let me let me let me ask you this one so uh elliot and i work with anthony stewart and anthony played in the nhl as well and used to train with matt nickel and like still to this day he holds the

record at matt nickel's gym in uh for trap bar no one's lifted more than him when it comes to trap bar he is the king of trap bar what are you the king of what's the one thing that no one is touching you at? On our team, probably bench press. I could probably outbench most guys. I got a pretty good vertical. So I'd say those two things. What do you bench? The ultimate guy question.

What do you bench? Yeah. Well, I haven't been doing too much in this during the season here but uh i think my most ever was it was probably a couple summers ago i probably went like 320 jeez man holy cow yeah i've never really done my max just at one rep except for that a couple years ago so yeah i couldn't really tell you my one rep max but i i know i did that once a couple years ago is there one thing that you love doing in the gym that everyone says don't do that hockey players shouldn't do that like curls for example you know like what are you doing curls for like but is there something you love doing at the gym that everyone says, like, don't

do that, you know, do that when you're retired. Don't do that now. It's not something that hockey players should do. What I like to do is a lot of days before I do my workout, I like to do like the step master for like five minutes at the max level. I don't know. It's a really good cardio workout and it gets me going for the workout. So I don't know if that's what you were looking for

or not. A lot of like, not too many guys do that, but I like just doing that right before my workout, it gets you into it and it's good cardio too. We were in the, in Hamilton the other day before the outdoor game, BX and I were in the, uh, gym before. And, you know, obviously we're not doing the same kinds of things, but BX says that he has this thing where you have to go to the top level and the top incline. You have to walk a mile. And when you're done your mile, you're done. Yeah. And I'm going to try this.

I know that it might be the end of my existence, but I'm going to try this. Is that the kind of thing you're talking about here? Yeah. Like at the end of the five minutes, you're like, oh my God, is this going to be done yet or what? But yeah, you're definitely tired at the end of it. That's for sure. My father is from small town saskatchewan he was born in uh melfort and my dad's family they were in they were in melville they were in wilkie they were in

north battleford and you know you're from oxbow yep and for you to make it that's a big deal tanner it's and you know what's it like to back there? I've seen you've done a lot of interviews with the local paper there. It's pretty obvious that you haven't lost touch with your roots. And what does it mean? Yeah, it's definitely special to go back there, try to make it back there a few times every summer, at least. Sometimes it's hard with training, but yeah, I tried to make it back there most of the time my parents still live back there so I like to go home and just kind of relax there a little bit but yeah I still have a lot of friends that are there and I've been getting so much support

from back there this year it's been really cool the community did a lot for me when I was growing up so it's it's nice to be able to put it on the map a little bit, I guess. And I try to give back in ways. There's some fundraisers that I've donated some things for. So I try to give back to them as much as they've given to me. And I loved growing up in a small town, growing up with the same people and making some really good friendships and just being sheltered a little bit from the big world out there. So it made me into the person I am today and pretty proud of who I am today. So, and I'm proud to be from where I'm from. So it's definitely special to be going back there and getting all the support that I've been seeing from them.

How bad was your rookie dinner? Well, we haven't had it yet. Oh, no. Look out. Uh-oh. Yeah, so I guess we'll see. Oh, I guess because COVID and everything, you really haven't had the opportunity to do it, right?

Yeah, that's right. And how many rookies are there? Three official ones. That's not so bad. At least you get yeah some help there who do you think stings you the most you know what uh phil tomasino eats a lot he eats a lot of food but yeah he can sure put it down so probably him so far awesome uh he's a great kid by the way with a wonderful family i got i got all day for phil thomas you know we got all day for you tanner

thanks so much for for stopping by today it's been a wonderful season for you and the preds keep it going uh it's been a lot of fun to watch take care of yourself and we'll catch up soon awesome thanks guys Awesome. Thanks, guys. Taking us out is a seven-piece indie band from Regina, Saskatchewan, that formed in 2008. Saskatchewan. See the theme here? Anyway.

Library Voices recorded their debut EP by assembling several orchestra instruments, and soon after, the album was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2009 Western Canadian Music Awards. The band would go on to release four full-length records, with their latest being in 2015. From their sophomore album, Summer of Lust, here's Library Voices with Regina, I Don't Wanna Fight, and 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Bye. Regina, I don't wanna fight Regina, I don't wanna fight

Wandering these streets like Some seem in strife As if words could kill Thank you. Bye. Bye.