One of the Bruins' biggest pieces of free agency business has been wrapped up. According to multiple reports, Boston and forward Morgan Geekie have agreed to a six-year extension with an average annual value (AAV) of $5.5 million. Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic was first with the news.
UPDATE: The Bruins have now officially announced the deal.
Geekie, who turns 27 in July, was set to become a restricted free agent on Tuesday. While he still would have been under team control, unlike an unrestricted free agent, there could have been the possibility of him signing an offer sheet with another team, or of things dragging out long enough to end up in arbitration.
Now, neither side will have to worry about any of that, as Geekie joins Mason Lohrei, Marat Khusnutdinov and Mike Callahan as pending RFAs who have been locked up in the past week.
The Bruins originally signed Geekie to a two-year, $2 million AAV contract in 2023 after the Seattle Kraken elected not to issue him a qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free agent. Their loss has been Boston's gain, as Geekie has turned into one of general manager Don Sweeney's best free agent signings.
Geekie nearly doubled his career high in goals in his first season in Boston, jumping from nine to 17. Then he nearly doubled it again this past season, exploding for 33 goals and 57 points while playing on the Bruins' top line with David Pastrnak throughout the second half of the season.
Geekie's season actually could have been even better had he not started slow in the first two months, a stretch that saw him get healthy-scratched five times under former coach Jim Montgomery. From Dec. 1 on, the only players to score more goals than Geekie's 31 were Pastrnak, Leon Draisaitl and Tage Thompson.
While the rest of the offseason could certainly change things, Geekie figures to start the 2025-26 season on Pastrnak's line again. The question for Geekie, of course, will be whether he can replicate last year's performance and stick as a first-liner, or whether he regresses to more of a middle-six forward who is better suited elsewhere.
This extension is a clear sign from the Bruins that they are not only willing to reward Geekie for his performance last season, but also bet on him moving forward. And if Geekie even comes close to replicating last season's performance, then the $5.5 million AAV could be great value.
Sweeney had said on Wednesday that while he was in "constant communication" with Geekie's camp, he did not believe at that time that they were "on the doorstep" of a deal. He added that things could change with one phone call, though. It seems that phone call happened at some point in recent days.
With Geekie signed, the Bruins now have $16.64 million in cap space as they prepare for the start of free agency on Tuesday.