The Tampa Bay Lightning swung big on March 5, 2025, and for a moment it looked like the kind of deadline move that could tilt a season. In a three-way deal with the Seattle Kraken and Detroit Red Wings, Tampa Bay landed forwards Oliver Bjorkstrand and Yanni Gourde, plus a 2026 fifth-round pick. Gourde was already a familiar face from the Lightning’s back-to-back Stanley Cup runs, which made the reunion feel like the headline grab.
The price was steep, as these things usually are when a contender goes hunting. Seattle came away with the Lightning’s 2026 and 2027 first-round picks, a 2025 second-round pick that originally belonged to the Toronto Maple Leafs, and forward Mickey Eyssimont. Tampa Bay was again dealing away premium draft capital for pieces meant to help right away.
Detroit’s role was mostly about salary retention, but it still mattered. The Red Wings, with former Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman running the show, received a 2025 fourth-round pick from Tampa Bay and sent defenseman Kyle Aucoin to Seattle, who then flipped him to the Lightning.
In the end, the move looks far less dramatic in the rearview mirror than it did on deadline day. Gourde is still in the picture, and he’s locked up for the long term after signing a six-year extension in June 2025. He’s under contract through the 2030-31 season at a cap hit of roughly $2.3 million, and if Tampa Bay ever decides to move on, that contract shouldn’t be hard to manage.
He also delivered a full season last year, appearing in all 82 games and putting up nine goals and 28 points. More than the scoring, though, he stood out on the defensive side. Gourde finished 10th in Selke Trophy voting, the first time he’d received votes since the 2022-23 season.
Bjorkstrand’s path was much rougher. Before the playoffs, he suffered a season-ending injury and had to be rushed to the hospital for surgery on a condition called compartment syndrome. Fortunately, he’s fine, or I would not have felt comfortable mentioning it, but he missed the playoffs that season.
The next year was supposed to be his chance to settle into the middle six and provide offense. Instead, it never really clicked.
Bjorkstrand finished with 12 goals and 32 points, a clear drop from the previous four seasons when he had posted at least 45 points and as many as 59. With a $5.4 million cap hit, Tampa Bay let him walk when the deal expired, and he signed a one-year, $4.5 million contract with the New York Rangers on July 1.
Aucoin is no longer part of the Lightning picture either. The 2020 sixth-round pick spent four years at Harvard, then went to Miami (OH) for the 2025-26 season before turning pro with the ECHL’s Indy Fuel late in that campaign. His current status is unclear, and his social media pages didn’t offer any clues.
The trade also ended up helping Tampa Bay’s rivals in a roundabout way. The Lightning’s 2026 first-round pick was sent to Seattle, but it didn’t stay there.
It was later moved to the Florida Panthers, who used it in a deal for Brady Tkachuk. So while the Lightning were trying to load up for a Cup run, one of their picks helped the Panthers land another star.
That wasn’t the only indirect ripple. Eyssimont signed with the Boston Bruins as a free agent in July 2025. The trade probably didn’t drive that move, but it still means another former Lightning player ended up with an archrival.
There’s still one piece of the deal waiting to be resolved. The 2027 first-round pick is top-10 protected, so if Tampa Bay somehow bottoms out this season, the Lightning would get that pick back and Seattle would instead receive an additional third-round pick in 2028. Otherwise, the Kraken should be the ones making that selection on draft night.
The 2026 first-round pick is already gone for good. The Senators used it, 25th overall, to take right-winger Jonas Lagerberg Hoen. It’ll be some time before anyone knows what that means for a division rival.
At the time, the deal looked like the kind of aggressive all-in move that contenders make when they believe the window is open. In hindsight, it’s been more mixed than magical.
Bjorkstrand got hurt, then underwhelmed. The Lightning let him leave.
And in practical terms, Tampa Bay paid a premium to bring Gourde back early.
That’s the danger with pushing chips in at the deadline: sometimes the payoff is real, and sometimes it’s just expensive. For a while, that approach worked for the Lightning, producing players like Blake Coleman, Barclay Goodrow and Brandon Hagel.
Lately, it hasn’t landed the same way. Eventually, Tampa Bay will have to think about the future again, because even a team that has done plenty without first-round picks will need to draft from the top tier eventually.
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Why Lightning Fans Still Bristle Over The Kucherov Cup Debate
Nikita Kucherovs return from hip surgery was one of the defining storylines of Tampa Bays run through the 2021 playoffs, and it only added to the frustration for fans around the league who were already looking for reasons to question the Lightning. He missed the entire regular season, then came back in time for the postseason and immediately looked like the player Tampa Bay had built around, driving the offense as the club chased another Stanley Cup.
Kucherov finished the postseason with 32 points, led the playoffs in scoring for the second straight year, and became just the fifth player in NHL history to reach 30 points in multiple postseasons. Teammates made clear how much his presence meant, but for Lightning fans, the debate around his return never fully went away, because the timing of it became part of the larger argument about how that championship team was assembled. [Read more 🡒]