Santini skated in 58 games with the Crunch this season, recording six goals and 17 points.
The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed defenseman Steven Santini to a two-year, two-way contract, vice president and general manager Julien BriseBois announced today.
Santini, 30, skated in 58 games with the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League this season, recording six goals and 17 points, ranking third among all Crunch defensemen for points and finishing tied for third for both goals and assists, while registering a plus-10 rating. He also appeared in three Calder Cup Playoff games with Syracuse, registering one assist and six shots on goal. In total, Santini has played in 361 career AHL games, logging 21 goals and 87 points with a plus-56 rating and 186 penalty minutes
A native of Bronxville, New York, Santini appeared in one game for the Bolts in 2024-25, logging 11:37 of time on ice with one hit and two blocked shots in an 8-3 win December 12 at Calgary. The 6-foot-3, 214-pound defenseman has skated in 124 career NHL games between the Lightning, New Jersey Devils, Nashville Predators and St. Louis Blues, collecting five goals and 23 points while averaging 17:10 of time on ice.
Santini was originally drafted by New Jersey, 42nd overall, in the second round of the 2013 NHL Draft.
Guess who’s back: Gourde signs six-year deal with Lightning
The 33-year-old Tampa Bay Lightning forward signed a six-year contract extension.
Yanni Gourde is here to stay.
The 33-year-old Tampa Bay Lightning forward on Monday signed a six-year contract extension, one that carries an average annual value (AAV) of $2.33 million.
Term was important to Gourde, who was slated to hit unrestricted free agency on July 1 if not re-signed by Tampa Bay, the organization that gave him his first NHL chance a decade ago.
“I love Tampa. I want to stay in Tampa for a long time. That was the biggest thing for me was getting some term and being able to stay and play in Tampa for the remaining years of my career,” Gourde said. “That was the biggest part, and I’m so excited that we could make this happen.”
Gourde first signed with the Lightning in 2014 as an undrafted free agent, made his NHL debut in December 2015 and went on to win consecutive Stanley Cups with the team in 2020 and 2021.
He was selected by the Seattle Kraken in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft and played parts of four seasons with the team before being re-acquired by Tampa Bay in a trade this March. Gourde had one goal and 13 assists in the final 21 regular season games for Tampa Bay and finished with 31 points in 57 games between the Kraken and Lightning in 2024-25.
Tampa Bay is where he wants to be.
“Tampa has always been at the top of my list when I was in Seattle if I were to get traded again or sign as a free agent,” Gourde said Monday. “And then when March came and I was traded here, I was so excited to come back to Tampa and be (with the) Lightning again. To be able to sign this contract right now is amazing, and I'm very, very happy with how everything went and I'm so excited for the future and what's coming.”
Fans in Tampa Bay know what to expect from Gourde—a gritty, physical yet honest game that features fighting for loose pucks, wreaking havoc on the forecheck and staying in the harder areas to play.
General Manager Julien BriseBois spoke to that when he traded for Gourde this spring.
"He's still a really good player. His main quality is his speed, his competitiveness, his relentlessness, his fearlessness,” BriseBois said of Gourde in March. "He still has all that.”
That effort won’t change.
"I'm the same guy that I was a few years ago,” Gourde said. "I just want to go out there and help my team win. This is how I play, and this is what I want to do is just try to use my ability to help my teammates and create space. Whoever I play with, find an identity line, whatever I want to do, I want to go out there and do it to the best of my ability, and I want to do it consistently.”
Entering the 2025-26 season, Gourde has scored 133 goals and 214 assists for 347 points in 602 career NHL regular season games. His 201 career points with the Lightning are two points shy of tying Teddy Purcell to enter the franchise’s top 20 all-time in career scoring. He holds the fifth-most points among the NHL's active undrafted players.
Gourde and the Lightning have already forged their share of history, and now the goal is to make even more.
"The hockey, the winning culture, it adds up. It makes you want to be here, makes you want to play for that logo. It makes you want to do everything you can to win games, and that's the expectation in the locker room,” Gourde said.
“We love Tampa. We love being in Florida. But the culture, the guys, the locker room, it’s all things that made me want to stay.”
