It appears that the Bruins are getting close to getting their top pending restricted free agent under contract. Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that Boston is finalizing a contract with forward Morgan Geekie. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports (Twitter link) that it will be a six-year, $33MM deal, carrying a $5.5MM AAV.
The 26-year-old was eligible for salary arbitration this summer in his final season of RFA eligibility. That would have been a much different outcome than the last time he was a pending restricted free agent as he was two years ago. At that time, Seattle didn’t want to give Geekie the right to a hearing so they ultimately non-tendered him, sending him to the open market where he quickly signed a two-year, $4MM contract with the Bruins.
It’s fair to say that the contract worked out well for both sides. In 2023-24, Geekie set new career highs across the board, notching 17 goals and 22 assists in 76 games while getting to play regularly in the top six for the first time in his career, primarily down the middle. That alone was good value on the deal.
But this season, Geekie found a new gear entirely. Moved to the wing for the bulk of the season, he found some chemistry with David Pastrnak and as a result, he had 33 goals and 24 assists, finishing second to Pastrnak in both goals and points despite only having nine points with the man advantage. With numbers like that, he wound up being one of the better bargains in the NHL this season. His playing time also jumped to just under 17 minutes a night.
With Geekie only having one RFA year remaining, Boston is gaining five years of club control with the agreement. AFP Analytics projected a four-year pact worth just under $6.6MM per season but it will ultimately check in below that.
With the move, they now have around $16.6MM in cap space at their disposal, per PuckPedia, with John Beecher being the only other RFA to deal with after it was reported earlier today that Boston will non-tender winger Jakub Lauko on Monday with the deadline for qualifying offers being at 4 PM CT. With Beecher’s deal likely to be a short-term bridge pact, GM Don Sweeney will still have considerable cap space at his disposal to try to fill several roster spots in the hope of getting his team back to the playoffs next season after missing the postseason for the first time since 2015-16.
Photo courtesy of Eric Canha-Imagn Images.
Anyone else starting to think Seattle is poorly run?
In Seattle he was behind Beniers, Wennberg and Yanni Gourde. The reality was he wanted more playing time than Seattle could offer… and they couldn’t put him on a line with Pasternak.
They didn’t want to drag a player who wanted more opportunity through arbitration so they let him walk. Part of building a organization and a culture is about how you treat people.
This explanation doesn’t really help, though, given that they’ve cut ties with Wennberg and Gourde, and Beniers has struggled. Geekie is simply a better player than all the guys he was behind, and Seattle is paying for not recognizing that.
There’s not a GM in the league who would take Geekie over Beniers.
At the time – two years ago – that simply wasn’t the case and when you actually look at the numbers you’d understand that.
If he had been the better option do you honestly think his agent would have had him sign for 2×2 in Boston… or was that guy just an idiot who doesn’t have the smarts of hindsight ashlandateam?
Seattle’s problems are not that the don’t have Morgan Geekie. What’s more likely is Morgan Geekie is a sign of the problems Boston has.
It’s the job of any franchise to identify and develop talent, and so far Seattle has done neither well. What the numbers were two years ago isn’t the point – they chose worse players and let a better one go because they made the wrong choice. Good franchises – ones that win – are able to project and make these choices well all the time, without the benefit of hindsight. Seattle just isn’t one of those.
And no. Of course Morgan Geekie isn’t the issue. But he’s a symptom of the bigger issue – they have gone backwards in every way since the ’23 playoffs. This franchise went from being one on the upswing, and they are currently a giant mess. And letting talent go for nothing because they’re behind worse players on the depth chart (players they didn’t even keep!) is a massive part of that. They’re just not very good at identifying or developing talent, and it plays out in all sorts of ways.
And yeah, I’m sure Matty would be chosen by everyone in the league. He was a high draft pick with a huge reputation and an unlimited ceiling. Also, he objectively hasn’t been good in about a year and a half. Hopefully he takes some steps forward soon – he’s a likable guy and the Kraken need a face of the franchise.
And while we’re here: giving Seattle a pass and saying this is only hindsight is pretty funny given how Florida built their team. The two time defending champs are full of guys other, worse, franchises gave up on.
That’s the job – everyone can read a stat sheet. Good franchises are able to project that out and make good decisions moving forward. And that’s why they win.
Even with his offensive regression – which took a significant turnaround after the trade for Kakko – Beniers has continued to be one of the best defensive centers in the league. Given the three seasons that they’ve had to “develop players” it seems a bit early to conclude they’re not very good at developing talent. On the contrary, Beniers and Wright are both being brought along with a focus on their defensive responsibilities, something most young centers (Zegras) struggle with. Yani Nyman, Ryker Evans, Tye Kartye… all drafted and developed, none of them drafted in the first round.
And those guys they kept over Geekie… they turned into first and second round picks. Morgan signed for $2m. The plan for building their team is down the middle with players like Beniers, Wright, Catton and now O’Brien. The oldest of those players is just 22.
I think it’s a bit early to make a judgement on their ability to develop and build a team, and losing Geekie was, I believe, not a setback.
Season after next, when their young core is coming into their performance years and a large chunk of the veteran players will have been turned over, then it’ll be time, I think, to lean into the “Florida plan”, but I do worry Botterill will become impatient – like fans and the media – and do something stupid.
I get the narrative, I just see it differently.
@ashlandateam – your criticisms would be more valid if Seattle wasn’t an expansion team. The AHL team has been plenty good. They developed Daccord, Wright, and fixed up Tolvanen. I think Francis can be more fairly criticized for several bad & over spendy free agent signings plus the coaching carousel.
The offseason when Geekie and Donato left was probably a case of needing cap space to go after a free agent boost thinking that would get them over the top. (which I think was Burakovsky?) I suspect it amade good business sense in pumping up fan enthusiasm in going for it rather than sit back and patiently build that probably would have made sense if this was already an established team.
Actually, Burakovsky was already on the team. I think it had more to do with those guys playing themselves out of a fourth line role but not fitting in a higher one.
The coaching – which is on the GM- and Grubauer – also on the GM – seem to me to be the two biggest problems. The idea that the organization is “broken” or doesn’t know how to develop players just seems simplistic to me and as you mentioned, doesn’t recognize that they are building from expansion. Vegas has done an excellent job capitalizing on their situation, but even though the rules were the same, the circumstances turned out to be different.
It feels like Boston got lucky with Geekie’s initial contract, but instead of acknowledging their good fortune and moving on they’ve decided to double down. Geekie couldn’t even crack double digit goal totals in Seattle. I sense a regression to the mean.
May just be a late bloomer.
He scored 17 goals the year before playing primarily with Coyle and Frederick. That’s the kind of production I would expect if he’s not on the top line.
Four at 4 is closer to reality.