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Yanni Gourde out for 5-7 weeks after successful hernia surgery

The Kraken will be without their troublestarting alternate captain as he’s recovering from surgery.

We finally get a timetable for the Pepperpot’s return…and it’s on the other side of February.

The Kraken announced today that Alternate Captain Yanni Gourde underwent a successful surgery to treat a Sports Hernia, and that he will be out of the lineup for 5-to-7 weeks.

Gourde hasn’t played since the beginning of January, where he finished a 14:32 TOI game against the Canucks. He was retroactively placed on Injured Reserve on January 4th, and has not played a game since. On this timeline, the earliest he could return is the week of the Trade Deadline; with the first two games back being March 4th against the Wild, or March 6th against the Predators. Mercifully, Gourde was not expected at the 4 Nations Faceoff, so he’s free to sit back and relax and watch his country from Level 9.

This places him in a very awkward position, because that might be the last two games we see of him in a Kraken uniform.

Gourde is a currently pending UFA, and has been listed on a great many trade lists as a target for a number of teams since November, though Toronto has shown up as a potential suitor multiple times. With that very tight window of time, one can only imagine that Ron Francis will likely begin fielding calls for him again.

And given how the deadlines have been recently with trades coming well in advance of it…they may not even wait that long. His progress I imagine will have a great many followers in the coming month.

But until then, we can absolutely wish Yanni a full recovery!

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