The Tampa Bay Lightning have committed to their core, signing center Yanni Gourde to a lofty six-year, $13.98MM contract extension. The deal will carry Gourde through his age-39 season and carries an annual average value (AAV) of $2.33MM.
Gourde will take a substantial pay cut for the benefit of term on his new deal. He concluded a six-year, $31MM contract – with an annual salary of $5.17MM – this season. The deal was originally signed with the Lightning in 2019, though he was claimed by the Seattle Kraken in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft. He wound up spending four years of his last deal in Seattle, before a trade at the 2025 Trade Deadline returned him to Tampa Bay alongside winger Oliver Bjorkstrand.
Now, Gourde will lock up his foreseeable future in Tampa Bay. He’s already won two Stanley Cups with the club; serving as a pivotal piece of the club’s back-to-back wins in 2020 and 2021. Gourde defined his dominant two-way style in playoff games with Tampa Bay, and added to it 14 points in 25 games of the 2020 run and seven points in 23 games of the 2021 run. All the while, he served a key role as the defensive backing to high-offense centers like Brayden Point and Steven Stamkos.
It’s that two-way, middle-six role that Gourde will continue in moving forward. He scored a modest seven goals and 31 points in 57 games this season, including 14 points in 21 games after returning to Tampa Bay. That scoring total put Gourde on pace for 45 points across the full season; a mark that would fall closely in-line with his typical scoring pace. He has routinely rivaled 40 points in his healthy seasons, and even managed back-to-back 48-point seasons with Seattle in 2021-22 and 2022-23.
Gourde’s career continues to stand as a testament to what a relentless mindset can earn. He was left undrafted through the 2010, 2011, and 2012 classes – and made his pro debut in 2012 on a minor-league contract. He earned a demotion to the ECHL for parts of the 2012-13 and 2013-14 season, but found unique ways to play through contact and make his 5-foot-9, 175-pound frame stick out. Gourde earned his way back into the AHL where he continued through the 2016-17 season.
Then, he broke out in a dazzling way. Even through Cup wins and a defined lineup role, Gourde’s first full season in the NHL in 2017-18 continues to stand as his career-year. He managed career-highs across the board, netting 25 goals, 39 assists, and 64 points while appearing in all 82 games of Tampa Bay’s season. The marks landed Gourde fourth on the team in total scoring at the end of the regular season, behind three players likely headed for the Hall of Fame in Nikita Kucherov, Stamkos, and Point.
Gourde caught lightning with his smooth-faced season in Tampa Bay – and has since found a way to turn it into 602 games and a decade-long career in the NHL. This new deal will carry him through the bulk of the next decade, and surely the entirety of his remaining career. No matter how Tampa Bay ebbs and flows over the next six years, Gourde’s growth from ECHL scorer to NHL lock will undoubtedly go down as a tremendous triumph against all odds.
Not that much AAV at all, but…
yeah but if he got 3.5 somewhere else over 3 he would have got less money overall.
I’m quite glad Yanni Gourde is staying in Tampa for sure. The $2.33M AAV is rather low surprisingly & won’t be a hindrance on Tampa in the long run with the cap rising for the foreseeable future. The 6 years is a curveball for sure. I sense GM Julien BriseBois gave Gourde term to keep the AAV low. But what is more surprising is the contract has a full-NTC for its entirety.
Will Gourde play out the whole contract? Hard to say, exactly. Can he be effective through the contract’s entirety? It’s quite possible. This contract feels like a retirement type-deal in allowing Gourde to retire as a Bolt whenever that time comes. I don’t find this to be a bad deal overall by any means.
lots of retired people like Tampa Bay
Welcome back to the first PP unit with these solid comments, Brother Thunder.
Crazy good contract
Meh. Doesn’t really move the needle. Any
Find a way to get Michael McCarron from Nashville and a solid right shot defensemen.
Good for you Yanni. We Kraken fans thank you for your time and effort here and wish you and your family well. Wishing you a successful run to the end of your career.
This is the same kind of offer Killorn, Palat and Stamkos received, lower salary with term.
Makes sense that it has a NTC being that he gave up likely $1m a year or more. All the more reason for the league to legislate a max of 3 full -NTC per club & limit partial NTC to 6 exclusions or less…
Yea it’s getting a tad out of hand when half the team has a no move.
“Oh, please, league governors, save us from ourselves?”
C’mon. Don’t want to saddle your team with NTCs? Don’t offer them in contract negotiations. The whole reason they came into vogue was to give players a benefit to compensate for paying them less money. I’d be happy myself to take stability over $$$, if I was a player with a family.
Now if players would be deterred from signing with a club because they didn’t offer NTCs, fair enough … how different is that from a player not wanting to sign with a club for any other reason? They didn’t like the area, they didn’t like the money offered, they didn’t like that the team was a loser, they didn’t like that they’d have to play down in the lineup …
NTC’s should be reserved for All Star caliber players. It’s just as asinine as 2nd year players getting 8×8 deals when they’ve barely done anything. Next thing you know the team will be flying their family to every away game.
Already half the AAV can be buried in the minors. By the time that needs to happen – under a new CBA – … it’s probably three-quarters. This is the kind of contract Tampa Bay isn’t afraid to sign, one that costs money out of pocket. It’s why they’ve won two Cups and Carolina never will.
Carolina won in 2006…much to my chagrin I might add.
“They” being the teams they are now… not two decades ago.
Canes literally just signed this type of deal with Carrier.
…except they didn’t because Carrier was 29 when he signed, will be in year two of a six year next season and will be 35 at the end of the contract… but you tell yourself whatever you want. Typical Canes fans. Keep pretending.
Ah, I see. Facts getting in the way of your narrative.
Carry on.
True. They’ve won the Stanley Cup more recently than the Leafs and Flyers.
Tampa Bay had to get 4C locked up long-term.
I’d say Gourde did damn well for himself, given that he’s 33 and has been in steady decline the last five seasons. This contract is going to age very badly.
Absolute steal.