SEATTLE — In one fell swoop, the Kraken said goodbye to an alternate captain and an All-Star, sending center Yanni Gourde and winger Oliver Bjorkstrand to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday, two days before the NHL trade deadline.

The Kraken received a bundle of high draft picks — first-rounders in 2026 and 2027 and a second-rounder this summer that once belonged to Toronto. The Lightning didn’t have a first-rounder to offer them this June.

The Kraken also received Lightning forward Michael Eyssimont. A former fifth-round pick, Eyssimont, 28, chipped in 10 points (five goals) and 44 penalty minutes in 57 regular-season games with Tampa Bay this season. Like Gourde, he’s a pending unrestricted free agent.

This was a three-team trade that included the Detroit Red Wings. Seattle will retain 50% of Gourde’s salary, and Detroit will retain 25%. For their troubles, the Red Wings received a draft pick in the arrangement.

In addition to Bjorkstrand and Gourde, the Lightning picked up Seattle’s 2026 fifth-round pick.

“It frees up a lot of cap space for us. It gives us a lot of draft capital,” Kraken general manager Ron Francis said. “And now we’re sitting with five first-round picks and four second-round picks in the next three drafts.”

The Kraken (26-32-4) are officially sellers at the deadline, which is Friday at noon PT. They’re bound for a second consecutive spring without a playoff run. Tampa Bay is seated in the third playoff spot in the Eastern Conference’s Atlantic Division.

Gourde, 33, is heading home, having won back-to-back Stanley Cups with Tampa Bay in 2020 and 2021. The Lightning originally signed the undrafted, 5-foot-9, 175-pounder in 2014, and that was the only NHL team he’d played for when Seattle took him in the expansion draft in 2021.

Through four seasons of Kraken play, he has 52 goals. In 14 playoff games in 2023, he scored four times, including a memorable overtime winner during Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals in Dallas.

Gourde has been Seattle’s fourth-line center for much of this season when healthy. Before Wednesday night’s loss to the Minnesota Wild, Gourde last played Jan. 2. He had surgery for a sports hernia but returned in time for one last game at Climate Pledge Arena in home colors. Gourde was the last Kraken player to leave the ice.

His cap hit this season was $5,166,667. He was set to hit the free-agent market this summer alongside linemate Brandon Tanev.

“Looking at Yanni being a UFA at the end of the year, we potentially could have lost [him] for nothing,” Francis said. “And then Oliver having one year left on this deal, and where that may or may not go next season …

“I’m hoping we can parlay some of those picks into players to move us forward.”

There were conversations about extending Gourde’s contract at a lower amount, Francis said. But the deal came before an offer was made.

“I [told him this morning] I had a price in mind. That I thought if we could get that price, then I thought it made sense to do the deal,” Francis added. “If I couldn’t get the price that we were looking for, then I would have turned and tried to get him signed.

“I know he liked it here. There probably would have been a good chance to get that done. But based on where we’re at and the opportunity to get the assets to help move us forward in the offseason, we thought this was the way we needed to go.”

There were numerous calls on Gourde and Bjorkstrand, Francis said. He “wasn’t in a hurry to put Oliver into any deal” at the deadline, he said, suspecting that might make for a better player-for-player, offseason deal. But ultimately the value was too good to turn down.

Middle-six forward Bjorkstrand, 29, arrived via trade from the Columbus Blue Jackets on July 22, 2022, for third- and fourth-round picks. He was selected to represent Seattle at the 2024 NHL All-Star Game, the first All-Star nod of his career.

In 224 career regular-season games with Seattle, Bjorkstrand totaled 141 points (56 goals). He had his own playoff star turn, scoring both goals in Game 7 against the Colorado Avalanche, a 2-1 victory. He has one more season on his contact with a cap hit of $5.4 million, per Puckpedia.com.

As far as the fine print: Both first-round picks are top-10 protected and owned by Tampa Bay. If either moves back and 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 2029.

This double deal could be the biggest trade Francis makes this week. He indicated he’s more interested in player-for-player deals as opposed to acquiring picks. Playoff contenders tend to want to hold on to their major players right now.

The GM said he’s “not necessarily looking” to move a lot of players with contract years remaining — Tanev and defenseman Josh Mahura don’t qualify — for picks.

“I don’t think that does us any good here,” he said.

There were widespread rumors that franchise goals and points leader Jared McCann, who is having a down year offensively, was being shopped.

“We’re not looking to move Mr. McCann at this point,” Francis said.

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