It’s officially NHL Trade Deadline week, as the deadline is Friday, March 7, when teams can make their last attempts to tweak their rosters. There are 44 days left in the 2024-25 regular season before the start of the 2025 NHL Playoffs. Regarding the Carolina Hurricanes, they already went big trade hunting when they acquired Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall back on Jan. 24 after trading away Martin Necas and Jack Drury. Hurricanes general manager Eric Tulsky mentioned on The Sheet with Jeff Marek that he is not done making moves. There are two players, in particular, the team could acquire to round out the roster for the final push before the playoffs. The move featured here will be a simple two-for-two-player swap between the Hurricanes and the Boston Bruins. Who are the two players that could be coming from the Bruins in a trade with the Hurricanes?
Shipping Down From Boston
Morgan Geekie
The first player has already been mentioned in a piece back on Feb. 3, but it bears repeating for a reminder. The Hurricanes need a right-shot center after trading away Drury to the Colorado Avalanche back in January. One player who will fit in perfectly well with the Hurricanes is center Morgan Geekie. He has been in the team’s system before, so it will be an easy transition for him to rejoin Carolina. The Hurricanes drafted the Strathclair, Manitoba native 67th overall in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. He is in the last year of a very affordable two-year, $4 million deal (signed with the Bruins) before he becomes a restricted free agent (RFA) this offseason. He is 26 years old and is entering the prime of his career, and the Hurricanes would love to have him back in the organization. They lost him in the expansion draft when he was selected by the Seattle Kraken in 2021. In 57 games during the 2024-25 season for the Bruins, he has 19 goals and 32 points. Geekie’s 19 goals are third on the Bruins, and his 32 points are fourth.
Related: Hurricanes Should Target Morgan Geekie or Nick Schmaltz in a Trade
Geekie is averaging 16:21 of time on ice (TOI), which is a career high for him. Plus, his 16.8% shooting percentage (S%) is also a career-high when he has played a minimum of 60 games in a season. What makes him stand out as the right-handed center that the Hurricanes need is his faceoff percentage (FO%) at 46.4%, his best as a Bruin. Fitting that FO% with the Hurricanes’ center core of Sebastian Aho, Jordan Staal, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi could benefit the Hurricanes well. Furthermore, he has 23 blocks and 85 hits on the season. Geekie is the two-way, 200-foot player that Rod Brind’Amour would love to have again on the roster. He could fit in well as the top-nine center for the Hurricanes and be someone that can slot onto the second power-play unit as well for special teams. Geekie has three power-play goals and six power-play points this season, plus four game-winning goals.
Geekie checks a lot of boxes for the Hurricanes, and with the proper ice time to show what he can do, he could be a sneaky player to target with great scoring ability. His $2 million cap hit would be easy to fit into the current $88 million cap. Plus, with the cap going up next season to around $93 million, the Hurricanes could extend him this offseason since he will be an RFA. Adding Geekie back is a great short and long-term addition for the Hurricanes while reuniting with a former player they drafted.
Riley Tufte
The second player in the trade from the Bruins is winger Riley Tufte. He was originally a 25th overall pick in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft from the Dallas Stars. He only played 13 games for the Stars over two seasons before joining the Colorado Avalanche in 2023-24. In Colorado, he only played in five games, earning two points. During the 2024-25 season, he played five games for the Bruins but went pointless. However, for the team’s American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Providence Bruins, he’s been playing well in 42 games. Tufte has tallied 18 goals and 31 points for a .74 point-per-game clip. While it is AHL numbers, he has shown to have a sneaky great shot. He has a 17.3 S% for the P-Bruins this season, a career high in the AHL. He has 104 shots this season and is on pace to beat his previous season’s best of 192 shots. Furthermore, Tufte is one tough customer who is not afraid to throw the body and drop the gloves when needed.
Tufte is someone who could slot into the bottom six or the fourth line and be someone who can add some scoring depth and be a physical presence. Either on the penalty kill or just at even strength, he could be a solid addition as a depth winger with a reasonable cap hit. He is on a one-year, $775,000 deal and will become an unrestricted free agent (UFA) in the offseason. His cap hit could be a simple swap with who the Hurricanes could send back to the Bruins in the trade. Plus, he is only 26 years old, so if they wanted to, they could bring him back on a reasonable two-way deal or even a one-way deal for $1 million. While Tufte might not be the biggest part of the trade, he is someone who could be a nice upgrade on the main roster for the Hurricanes who deserves a proper shot in the NHL since he’s only played 23 games since 2021-22.
The Trade Scenario
Now, with all that being said, who are the players that the Hurricanes will send back to the Bruins for Geekie and Tufte? In the four-player trade, the Hurricanes would send Jack Roslovic and Tyson Jost to complete the trade. Roslovic is on a one-year, $2.8 million deal and will be a UFA in the offseason. He had a hot start to the season but has only scored two goals since the calendar turned to 2025. He has 19 goals and 29 points in 60 games for the Hurricanes. While the Bruins would swap a $2 million contract for a $2.8 million one, they are in the middle of getting rid of assets, and Roslovic could be someone they bring in for the rest of the season and re-sign for 2025-26. He is 28 years old and could be the winger/center the team needs to replace the players they have already lost in recent trades. Roslovic could be the guy they need to play on either wing, as the Bruins brought up Georgii Merkulov from the AHL after recent moves.
Related: 2025 NHL Trade Deadline Tracker
Also, if need be, the Bruins could slot him at the center position if they think he could be a help in that area. Plus, he has been playing on the power play units for the Hurricanes and could easily slot in there with the Bruins as well. The main parts of this two-for-two trade would be Roslovic for Geekie, with Tufte being the even swap with Jost.
Jost is on a one-year, $775,000 deal and will be a UFA this offseason like Roslovic. His cap hit would be an easy swap with Tufte’s since they make the same average annual value (AAV). Jost is 27 years old and has two points in 20 games for the Hurricanes this season. He missed some time due to a lower-body injury. He has played decently for the Hurricanes on the fourth line as their center, but swapping him for Tufte could open a center spot for Geekie in the process. Plus, Tufte coming in gives the Hurricanes a little extra grit and would be the winger replacement for Roslovic, who has been playing on the wing more this season for Brind’Amour. The trade between the Hurricanes and Bruins would mainly be a winger and center swap with Carolina gaining $800,000 in cap space between the Geekie and Roslovic contracts.
Also, it gives the Hurricanes an upgrade at the right-hand shot center position with someone who has already been in the system and has only gotten better since joining the Bruins. Adding a player like Geekie could be the needle move the team needed with really amazing depth scoring and two-way play. Furthermore, adding Tufte can add some physicality and grit that the team will need for the ramping up of tough play in the playoffs. Could there be draft picks involved? Possibly, but unnecessary if this is a simple two-for-two swap with contracts being within the same range of each other.
Trade Deadline Approaching Quickly
There are only two more days until the trade deadline on Friday, March 7. The Hurricanes have some options to consider with the playoffs being only 40-plus days away. There is still a lot of tweaking to be done if they want to go on a deep playoff run this season. While they did add some huge names like Rantanen and Hall, some minor moves could also help them climb the mountain. Adding players like Geekie and Tufte could be the move that helps them achieve their goal of winning their second-ever Stanley Cup in franchise history. Friday will be here before we know it. Do the Hurricanes have what it takes to make another move?
