Since being traded by the Tampa Bay Lightning, Cal Foote is still unsigned

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.

Tampa Bay Lightning: Still a free agent

Drafted in 2017 with the 14th overall pick, Foote was seen as a smooth-skating defenseman that could generate offense and provide another threat along the blue line.

He would go on to appear in 141 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning, including 50 this past season. There were times when it felt like Foote was finally putting it together, then there would be times when it seemed like he still wasn’t picking up the game at the NHL level.

And given that Foote is a fringe blue-line player, teams appear to be treading lightly with signing the 24-year-old given the allegations that are hanging over the entire 2018 Canadian World Junior Championship roster.

For those unaware, that 2018 team was loaded with players such as Cale Maker, Carter Hart, and Jordan Kyrou, but has been at the center of an investigation where a woman claims she was sexually assaulted by eight players from the team following a Hockey Canada Foundation Gala.

Foote has maintained innocence in the event, and his agent has stated that Foote was not involved in any way.

But as the investigation reopens, NHL teams seem leery of signing anyone from that team. Maxime Comtois and Jonah Gadjovich were also not extended a qualifying offer this past offseason and are also still free agents.

It is unclear how long the reopened investigation will take, but until there is a resolution, it is entirely possible that Foote doesn’t sign with an NHL team.