The Lightning are heading into the season with two forwards sidelined, and the absences hit both experience and depth.
Julien BriseBois said center Yanni Gourde will be out until December as he continues to recover from offseason hip surgery. The Tampa Bay general manager also said center Dominic James will miss the first few weeks after breaking his hand during training.
Gourde, 34, played in all 82 regular-season games last year and finished with nine goals and 19 assists for 28 points. In Tampa Bay’s first-round playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens, which the Lightning lost in seven games, he went scoreless except for one assist.
The Saint-Narcisse, Quebec native is in his second stint with Tampa Bay. He spent the first four-plus years of his career with the Lightning before the Seattle Kraken selected him in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft. Tampa Bay brought him back at the 2025 trade deadlne, and he is now entering the second season of a six-year, $14 million contract.
James, 24, is coming off his first NHL season. He put up seven goals and eight assists for 15 points in 43 games, then added two goals and an assists for three points in the seven-game playoff loss to Montreal. He also missed about two months last season with a lower-body injury before returing for the playoffs.
A Plymouth, Michigan native, James was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks in the sixth round of the 2022 NHL Entry Draft. He never signed with Chicago, though, and later joined Tampa Bay on a two-year, entry-level deal after finishing a four-year college career at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.
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Lightning Already Face A Forward Depth Problem Before Camp Opens
The Lightning were already headed into camp with a thin margin for error up front, and Julien BriseBois update only sharpened that concern. Yanni Gourde is not expected back until December after offseason hip surgery, a significant hit to the kind of energy and reliability Tampa Bay has long counted on from its lower lines.
Dominic James added to the short-term squeeze when he broke his hand during offseason training and will miss several weeks. For a team trying to sort out its bottom six before the season begins, the timing is less than ideal, leaving Tampa Bay to navigate the early months without two forwards who were supposed to help stabilize the depth chart. [Read more 🡒]
Nikita Kucherov's Biggest Lightning Question Still Has No Clear Answer
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Kucherov is heading into the final year of his deal, and for now the Lightning are leaving the hockey side to take care of itself while the front office keeps the dialogue open. BriseBois has stayed in touch with Kucherovs agent, and both sides would have preferred to have something done already, but the lack of a clear answer is exactly what keeps this one in view as the season moves along. [Read more 🡒]