Bruins offer latest on Morgan Geekie situation

Bruins forward Morgan Geekie has set himself up for a nice payday.

On the board with 33 goals in 2024-25, Geekie not only established a career-high for himself, but also became the first Bruins free-agent signing to score 30 goals for the Bruins since Jarome Iginla in 2013-14. His 33 goals were also the most by any Bruin not named David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, or Patrice Bergeron since Phil Kessel found the back of the net 36 times in 2008-09.

In addition to the goals, Geekie's 57 points were also a career-high, and an 18-point uptick from the previous high of 39 set in his first season with Boston.

The Bruins have already said that Geekie will be on next year's team, but didn't have much in terms of a timeline when asked about the ongoing negotiations between the parties with the 2025 NHL Draft and free agency coming.

“There's been constant communication," Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said in a pre-draft media availability at Warrior Ice Arena. "Are we on the doorstep? I don't think so. But that can change within one phone call.

"Again, you get in around this time frame, and sometimes you're tracking on a deal, and you get it done right away, and other times you get sort of pushed to the back burner as to do what everybody else is maybe focused on. Doesn't mean that my attention isn't on Morgan and being able to close out a deal. We have time in that, in that regard, so I'm not concerned about it.” 

Given that Geekie is a restricted free agent and not an unrestricted free agent, the Bruins do have time on their side with these negotiations.

And assuming Geekie is extended a qualifying offer to retain his rights (which he will be), opposing teams will need to approach his camp with an offer sheet and Geekie would need to sign that offer sheet and the Bruins would need to decide not to match for Geekie to leave the Bruins. It could happen, but it's not something that the Black and Gold are sweating just yet.

“I have no concerns," Sweeney said of a potential offer sheet. "We treated it the exact same way with Jeremy last year, we value the asset, we know what the market value is. We're just trying to find a deal, but there's no exposure there. I wouldn't put the team and the organization a situation where we felt there was exposure. So again, takes a unique situation. I agree with you that everybody does want to improve their hockey club. So generally, that narrows the supply.”

So, what's the delay?

By now, it's not secret that the Bruins fancy themselves negotiation grinders. We all saw how things played out with Jeremy Swayman last summer, and the Geekie situation is similar in the sense that this is a player coming off the best season of his career and in a strong position for a long-term deal. Even beyond their last experience in this kind of direct comparable situation, the Bruins were unable to bridge gaps with Brad Marchand (traded at the 2025 deadline) and Jake DeBrusk (walked for nothing as a free agent) and the contract talks were frequently described as taxing and frustrating. In other words, the Bruins are not afraid of digging their heels in in pursuit of the best deal, even if it frustrates every single person involved in the process.

Geekie is also entering the market for a new contract at perhaps the perfect time, with the NHL salary cap set to explode over the next few seasons and beyond, and with those aforementioned career-highs in his favor.

But the question within that comes as to whether or not Geekie truly is the player the B's saw last year, or if his success was a product of playing with B's superstar David Pastrnak? It's no secret that Geekie's 2024-25 season got off the ground and took flight once he was moved to Pastrnak's opposite wing, and the results reflect that, with Pastrnak assisting on 21 of Geekie's 33 goals (63.6 percent). Geekie, meanwhile, assisted on 16 of Pastrnak's goals, meaning 37 of Geekie's 57 points featured Pastrnak's involvement (64.9 percent).

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Geekie thriving with Pastrnak, and it's one of those things that I find tough to hold against a player because not everybody can play with that level of talent. But it almost goes without saying that there's also a limit to the lengths a team should be willing to go if they have doubts about the legitimacy or sustainability of that success.

The flip side to that is that the Bruins have always believed in Geekie having this kind of potential impact, and that ice-time and opportunity was all he needed. In Boston, Geekie has certainly gotten the chances he did not get in Seattle or Carolina, and has made good on them (and then some).

So the question may simply be what level of belief the Bruins invest in Geekie?

That's something that remains in question, of course, but his standing with the Bruins does not, as confirmed by Sweeney.

"At the end of the day, we're going to find a deal [with Geekie], as I said before, whether it's one [year] or much, much longer," Sweeney said. "We have zero issues in the fact that we're going to find a deal some point in time.”