Los Angeles Kings winger Tanner Jeannot will take longer than expected to recover from an undisclosed injury that’s held him out of the team’s last six games, per NHL.com’s Zach Dooley. Jeannot was designated as out day-to-day ahead of Los Angeles’ road loss to the Colorado Avalanche on March 27th.
Jeannot sustained the injury in March 25th’s win over the New York Rangers, though it’s not clear when he was hurt. His last shift came with 16 minutes left in the third period, and it appears he could have hurt his ankle on a no-contact injury while setting up to block a shot. But without any confirmation from the team, Kings fans will be forced to trust that the ailment isn’t too severe.
Jeannot was red-hot in the games leading up to his injury, with four points in his last three appearances. That represented nearly a quarter of Jeannot’s scoring all year long, bringing him up to seven goals and 13 points in 67 games this season. He’s fallen to the role of fourth-line bruiser and leads the Kings in hits with 211 – 80 more than anyone else on the roster. But Jeannot has struggled to find the shooting luck that led him to a 24-goal, 41-point season with the Nashville Predators in 2021-22. That scoring upside was certainly what Los Angeles was hoping for when they traded a second-round and fourth-round pick to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Jeannot this summer.
Without the shooting luck, Jeannot’s role has become fairly easy to replace. His bruising role has been split between young center Samuel Helenius – who ranks second on the team with 131 hits – and depth winger Jeff Malott. Malott has torched the AHL this year, scoring at a career-high pace to achieve 23 goals and 51 points in 61 games. He’s added to that 80 penalty minutes and plenty of hits; though he’s yet to record an NHL point through six games this season or one game in 2021-22. Helenius hasn’t been productive at the top level either, with just five points in 44 NHL games this summer. The duo will stand as upside scorers in minimal roles as the Kings coast through their final six games of the season.