Yanni Gourde signed a six-year, $13.98 million contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday. It has an average annual value of $2.33 million.
The 33-year-old forward could have been an unrestricted free agent July 1. He had 31 points (seven goals, 24 assists) in 57 regular-season games for the Lightning and Seattle Kraken last season, including 14 points (one goal, 13 assists) in 21 games after he was traded to the Lightning in a three-team deal with the Kraken and Detroit Red Wings on March 5. He had one assist in five Stanley Cup Playoff games for Tampa Bay (47-27-8), which lost to the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference First Round.
“Extremely happy, honestly,” Gourde said. “I’m so happy to continue with the Lightning. The term was a big factor. I am very excited for the future. It’s been an exciting past few days.
“The Lightning has always had a winning culture, and we just want to keep building that culture. That’s the biggest aspect — finding a way to win, being proud to wear that Tampa Bay Lightning jersey. And obviously, the ultimate goal is to win a championship.”
Signed by the Lightning as an undrafted free agent March 10, 2014, Gourde has 347 points (133 goals, 214 assists) in 602 regular-season games for Tampa Bay and Seattle and 43 points (20 goals, 23 assists) in 88 playoff games. He won the Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2020 and 2021.
“As soon as I got traded back here, you can see how much talent there is and how much dedication there is,” Gourde said. “The culture is still there from when we won, so those were the big things that made me want to stay. It’s a great locker room. It’s so fun to be a part of that. We want to win, and I think we’re right there again. Every single year we want to be right there. Obviously it was a disappointing end to the season in the first round, but this group was really good. I believe in this group.
“When you win two championships with a team — and there’s still a lot of guys from that group — it makes this place very special. This group, I got to know all the guys that I didn’t know before, and it’s an awesome group. Everybody welcomed me with open arms. It was very fun to come back here and that’s the reason why I want to stay. We love Tampa, we love being in Florida.”
NHL.com independent correspondent Corey Long contributed to this report
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