The Tampa Bay Lightning and Bolts GM Julien BriseBois aren’t afraid of mortgaging their future and setting the tone in the Atlantic Division arms race.
Once again, BriseBois went all-in this season, acquiring former Lightning center Yanni Gourde and right winger Oliver Bjorkstrand from the Seattle Kraken in a three-team deal.
The price tag for Gourde and Bjorkstrand was about as high as it gets. Tampa dealt its first-round draft pick in 2026, its first-rounder in 2027, a second-rounder (originally belonging to Toronto) in 2025 and left winger Michael Eyssimont in exchange for the two Kraken veterans.
To get another 25 percent of Gourde’s $5.16-million salary retained on top of the 50 percent Seattle retained, BriseBois gave up a conditional fourth-round pick to the Detroit Red Wings.
So now – as a result of this trade, and as a result of the deal with Nashville for left winger Tanner Jeannot that didn’t pay off – the Lightning no longer have a first-rounder in the next three drafts.
You do remember that Jeannot trade, right? That deal, made in February 2023, sent Tampa’s 2025 first-rounder, a second-rounder in 2024 and a third-, fourth- and fifth-rounder in 2023. Jeannot wound up being a total bust for the Lightning, as they traded him to the Los Angeles Kings about 16 months later for a fourth-rounder in 2024 and a second-rounder in 2025.
That didn’t stop BriseBois from stepping up to the plate and taking a big swing for Gourde and Bjorkstrand.
Gourde is now entering his second stint with the Bolts after being on their Stanley Cup-winning teams in 2020 and 2021. He’s struggled with injuries this season that have limited him to 36 games – and his offensive totals of six goals and 17 points are hardly imposing. But the Lightning are betting that the 33-year-old will have life breathed into his game by returning to Tampa Bay.
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Gourde will be a UFA at season’s end, so this latest commitment may not last long. But the bigger part of Wednesday’s trade may be Bjorkstrand.
The 29-year-old Danish veteran has 16 goals and 37 points in 61 games this season, and Bjorkstrand has another season left on his contract at a salary cap hit of $5.4 million. He doesn’t have much in the way of playoff experience, with only 45 career post-season games. But BriseBois push in all his chips to address the Lightning’s forward depth, which was lacking in the third and fourth lines.
After this trade, the Lightning have $781,989 in cap space, so it seems like they’re done doing their shopping. But make no mistake – the Lightning are only focused on the present, not the future.
The rest of the Atlantic Division should be watching closely. The Florida Panthers already acquired Seth Jones, but they and the Toronto Maple Leafs may have big moves still to make for their Cup aspirations. The Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings could be active as well. But Tampa Bay was already one of the hottest teams in the league before this trade was completed. This makes an already-impressive Lightning team even better.
Two or three years from now, Lightning fans may regret this trade. But at the moment, the Bolts have gotten deeper, more talented and more accomplished. If Tampa Bay does go on a long playoff run this spring, many will say this swap was worth the price BriseBois paid.
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