Kraken trade Yanni Gourde, Oliver Bjorkstrand to Lightning - ESPN

The Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday acquired forwards Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand from the Seattle Kraken in an aggressive move ahead of Friday's NHL trade deadline.

The Lightning sent two first-round picks (2026 and 2027), a 2025 second-round pick belonging to Toronto (previously acquired from Utah) and forward Michael Eyssimont to the Kraken for Gourde, Bjorkstrand and a 2026 fifth-round pick.

Both of the first-round picks sent to Seattle are top-10 protected. If the 2026 or 2027 pick becomes a 2028 pick due to being in the top 10, Seattle receives an additional third-round pick in 2028. If both picks slide to 2028 and 2029, respectively, Seattle receives a third-round pick in 2028 and a third-round pick in 2029.

To facilitate the trade, both the Kraken and the Detroit Red Wings retained part of Gourde's salary. The Kraken retained 50% of Gourde's $5,166,666 salary cap hit. The Red Wings retained 25% of his salary, meaning the Lightning will have 25% of Gourde's salary count against their cap.

Detroit will receive the earlier selection between Tampa Bay's 2025 fourth-round pick or Edmonton's 2025 fourth-round pick, which the Lightning acquired last May. To complete the trade, the Red Wings sent defenseman Kyle Aucoin — who was selected No. 156 overall in the 2020 NHL draft but is currently at Harvard University — to Seattle, who then moved him to the Lightning.

The trade reunites the 33-year-old Gourde with the Lightning, where he played six seasons and was an integral part of back-to-back Stanley Cup championship teams in 2020 and 2021 as the center of a dominant checking line featuring Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow. He had 187 points in 310 games for Tampa Bay from 2015-16 through 2020-21 before he was