SEATTLE — Seattle Kraken center Yanni Gourde was expected to be out five to seven weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a sports hernia.
General manager Ron Francis provided the medical update on Gourde on Friday, hours after the surgery took place in the morning.
That recovery timeframe risks the possibility that Gourde will not play before the NHL trade deadline on March 7. With the Kraken barely on the fringe of the playoff race in the Western Conference and given that Gourde is a pending free agent, he was expected to be one of the top trade options for contenders looking to add at the deadline.
Gourde, 33, has 83 games of playoff experience in the league, including back-to-back Stanley Cup runs with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and ’21 before Seattle chose him in the expansion draft. A dependable two-way player, Gourde is skating an average of more than 15 minutes over 35 games this season and has six goals and 10 assists.