Tampa Bay Lightning signs Yanni Gourde to a 6-year contract worth nearly $14M
Article content
Gourde was a big part of Tampa Bay winning back-to-back titles in 2020 and '21. Seattle took Gourde in the expansion draft that summer coming off the second Cup run, and he played three-plus seasons for the Kraken.
The Lightning reacquired the 33-year-old center ahead of the trade deadline in March. General manager Julien BriseBois at the time expressed confidence in getting Gourde signed after sending a couple of conditional first-round picks and more to Seattle for him and Oliver Bjorkstrand.
'I was hoping it would be a possibility, but you never know until the negotiation starts,' Gourde said. 'Obviously Tampa's always been at the top of my list when I was in Seattle if I were to get traded again or go somewhere else or sign as a free agent. When March came and I was traded here, I was so excited to come back.'
Gourde missed several weeks during this past regular season with a sports hernia and subsequent surgery. He also broke a finger in Tampa Bay's first-round loss to defending champion Florida, and despite that early exit believes the team's Stanley Cup window is wide open.
'Obviously a disappointing end of the season in the first round, but this group was really good and I really believe in this group,' Gourde said. 'The biggest aspect is just trying to find a way to win, find a way to perform, find a way to be proud to wear that Tampa Bay Lightning jersey. Obviously the ultimate goal is to win a championship.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
National Post
3 hours ago
- National Post
Oilers need to smarten up, fight back or kiss the Stanley Cup goodbye
The Edmonton Oilers need to draw their line in the Florida sand Thursday and refuse to take another backward step. Article content They either shake off their anemic 6-1 defeat in Game 3 and fight back or they can kiss the Stanley Cup goodbye. Article content Article content This is it. They win Game 4 or there is a 97 per cent chance Connor McDavid and company lose the series and spend another hot summer wondering where it all went wrong. Article content Article content 'We have to find a way to win a game, that's it,' said the Oilers captain. 'That's the only message. Game 4 is a really big game; you go back home 2-2 or down 3-1. It's a big swing game. Article content 'If you win Game 4, you're going home with a lot of momentum. Just like them, they found a way to win Game 2 and came home with a lot of momentum. It's a pivotal game, there's no doubt about it.' Article content Once again, the Oilers are backed to the edge of a cliff, a position from which they've recovered many times over the years. And all it's going to take to regain control of the series, is winning one game. Article content 'It's never a good feeling,' Evander Kane said of Monday's humiliation. 'But we've been here before, we've been down in a series before. We've had tough losses. It stings, but we'll flush it and get ready for Thursday.' Article content It's a big flush after the Panthers just spanked the Oilers in every conceivable way, winning the first period 2-0, the second period 2-1 and the third period 2-0. The discipline and composure that are hallmarks of Edmonton's playoff run went straight out the window as the Panthers turned them into an emotional punching bag. Article content Article content It's a good thing the Oilers have two days between games to recover because there is lots of recovering that needs to be done. Article content Article content 'They're up 2-1, that's all it is, it's one game,' said Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner. 'They could have beat us 12-0, it's still just 2-1. It might feel a little bit harder because we weren't in the game but it doesn't change how we're going to respond. Article content Edmonton will need a new game plan for Thursday because the angry, flustered mess they threw out there on Monday didn't work. It's up to them to prove it was just an off night and not the Panthers pulling away for good. Article content There is a mountain of evidence that suggests Edmonton is going to do exactly that. They are heading into the meat of the series, where they are always at their best.
CTV News
4 hours ago
- CTV News
Oilers confident they can bounce back from Stanley Cup Game 3 rout
Edmonton Oilers' Darnell Nurse (25) and Florida Panthers' Jonah Gadjovich (12) fight during the third period in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup final in Sunrise, Fla., on Monday, June 9, 2025. It was an uncharacteristic game for the Edmonton Oilers. They're the oldest team in the league with an average player age of 30 and 1,657 collective National Hockey League playoff games of experience – 15 per cent more than their Stanley Cup opponent the Florida Panthers, the defending Stanley Cup champion with an average age of 29 (eight oldest) who together have logged 1,412 of them – so you'd think they'd know better than to overreact and stray from the usual 'stay at even keel, not-too-high-not-too-low' ideal. And yet those were the wily Oilers veterans in the midst of a line brawl halfway through the third period of Game 3, the score at the time 5-1 in favour of the Panthers and three of the five players effectively getting tossed from the contest with misconduct penalties as a result. Oilers star Leon Draisaitl said Tuesday after practice he doesn't take much issue with his teammates getting into the rough stuff, especially at that point of the game when the eventual 6-1 result was all but final, but adds the team could 'be a little bit more disciplined and stay away from that, but there's also times where we've handled it.' 'Last night was the first night where it got out of hand a little bit,' Draisaitl told reporters. 'The game's over. It's 5-1. It's not a big deal. We have guys that are intense. They like getting in those situations just as much as they do.' But in all, the Oilers collected 85 minutes worth of penalties in the game and gave the host Panthers 11 power-play chances, in which they scored on three. That's a lot of punishment for an Oilers team that wasn't known for its physical play coming into the 2025 playoffs. And playing shorthanded for 15:25 of the game, so 25 per cent of it, dampens the Oilers' ability to do what they've been doing the best all playoffs: score at even strength. Stanley Cup Panthers Toy Rats Hockey Toy rats litter the ice as the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers scuffle at the end of the third period in Game 3 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals in Sunrise, Fla., Monday, June 9, 2025. (Nathan Denette/AP) 'We've got to strive for a tight-checking game, not a lot of power plays going their way,' Draisaitl said. 'Defending well, low event – that's what we're looking to do. That's what we've done throughout most of the playoffs. That's our first step.' Oilers defenceman Mattias Ekholm said a plus for his team is all that experience because they've learned by now – whether with Edmonton or elsewhere – that they shouldn't think too far ahead or dwell on what's already happened. 'Having all that experience on our side is also huge in situations like this, where you've got to go game by game (and) go day by day, and make sure you don't let that flow into each other too much,' he said. 'We knew before the series was going it's going to be hard.' Oilers practice Edmonton Oilers forward Corey Perry take part in a drill during practice at the NHL Stanley Cup final in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (Nathan Denette/THE CANADIAN PRESS) The Oilers have been showing that kind of post-season resolve the last four seasons, stretching back to 2022 when they advanced to the Western Conference final for the first time in recent years. Right at the beginning of this season's playoffs, the Oilers had to bounce back from two high-event losses to the Los Angeles Kings and did so. Echoing Draisaitl and his head coach Kris Knoblauch, who also said Tuesday the Oilers need to get back to playing a game 'that's with the puck, good defensive hockey,' Ekholm said being familiar with the playoff Panthers should be helpful. 'We've won four games against them in these finals the last two years,' he said. 'You look at those games, we're a very focused group. We play our game. We don't let that even creep in a little bit. 'Maybe we lost that a little bit last night, but we know what to do.'
Winnipeg Free Press
4 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
‘A UFC fight': Tensions rise in Stanley Cup Final as the Panthers get the upper hand on the Oilers
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Things got chippy in the Stanley Cup Final late in Game 3 when the Florida Panthers were well on their way to blowing out the Edmonton Oilers. Brawls ensued, Darnell Nurse and Jonah Gadjovich dropped the gloves, and eight guys got sent to the showers early with misconduct penalties. 'When we get into garbage time, those things happen, and I don't mind when those things happen,' Oilers captain Connor McDavid said. 'It's what good teams do: fight your way out of the rink. I don't mind that in garbage time.' Long before garbage time, Florida took it to Edmonton, with the defending champions dictating their style of play and knocking their opponents off kilter to take a 2-1 series lead with a 6-1 laugher. If more of that continues in Game 4 on Thursday night, it's advantage Panthers because they thrive on making other teams feel uncomfortable. 'We played our game, our style, stuck up for each other when we needed to,' Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk said. 'If you have to take a punch, take a punch. If you have to take a cross-check, take a cross-check — a spear, a slash, whatever the case is, you've got to take it.' It should not be surprising that tensions boiled over given the lopsided score in the 10th game in the Cup final between these two teams over the past year. The Oilers and Panthers have grown a healthy distaste for each other with all that familiarity. With that comes plenty of hits, shoves and jabs that lead to slashes, punches and gear strewn all over the ice. The 140 combined penalty minutes in Game 3 were the most in a final since Game 4 between Montreal and Calgary in 1986. 'The game's over with 11 minutes left,' Oilers star Leon Draisaitl said Tuesday after practice. 'Then all hell breaks loose. It's a UFC fight.' The penalties that mattered to the result came early. The Oilers were not shy about criticizing the officiating and the Panthers for allegedly influencing it. Goaltender Stuart Skinner said, 'Some guys are flaking and going down trying to cause penalties,' and Evander Kane questioned some of the calls. 'There seems to be a little bit more attention on our group,' said Kane, who took two minor penalties in the first period alone. 'They seem to get away with it more than we do. It's tough to find the line.' Toeing that line is what the Panthers do best, and it is a recipe that has them in the final for a third consecutive year under coach Paul Maurice, who credited Tkachuk for having 'a little bit more impact on the tenacity of the team than the guy who wears a suit behind the bench and never takes a shift.' Florida's roster is full of truculence with talent to match. Sam Bennett delivered a big, open-ice hit that led to his breakaway and playoff-leading 14th goal, and finishing checks on John Klingberg has hampered the veteran defenseman's play in the series compared to the first three rounds. 'That's part of their DNA, that's what they do,' Draisaitl said. 'It's an emotional time. It's two teams that want to win, two teams of doing it their own way, but I don't think anybody is going crazy here. They're good at what they do.' Maurice did not buy into the idea that Game 3 was the Panthers showing what they can do at their best. The opener went to overtime and Florida needed double OT to win Game 2. Thursdays Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter. 'I think the first two games are indicative of what Game 4 is going to look like,' Maurice said. 'We're not going to look at (Game 3) and say, 'That's the way it should look if we play our game.'' The Oilers certainly look at it as the opposite, discombobulated and nothing resembling the group that had gone 12-2 since a couple of losses to open the first round. They've dropped two in a row for the first time since. 'We just got to play our game,' Nurse said. 'We got guys that can do all that kind of stuff. But is that our game? So I think we just got to stick to play the way that we play. We're such a good hockey team when we just play hockey, and we just got to do that.' ___ AP NHL playoffs: and
