Most Tampa Bay Lightning fans will forever associate the trade for Tanner Jeannot with the departure of five draft picks, including their 2025 first-round pick. It has often been less discussed that Tampa also traded away its former first-round pick Cal Foote to Nashville.
As a restricted free agent, Nashville could have easily resigned the young defenseman, but the Predators did not extend a qualifying offer to Foote at the end of the season, making him an unrestricted free agent.
Yet here we are in late July, and Foote still doesn’t have a team to call home for the 2023-24 season, and there seems to be a very specific reason for it that doesn’t involve on-ice play.