What a difference a year can make for a guy. The start of the 2024-25 season was not particularly great for anyone on the Boston Bruins, but it was especially bad for Morgan Geekie. The Canadian forward even ended up being a healthy scratch in five of the first 20 games and his first goal of the season did not come until Nov. 12, 2024.
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Thankfully, Geekie did turn it around and reached the 30-goal mark for the first time in his career after a stellar second half of the season that helped him earn his six-year contract extension this summer. The deal carries an average annual value (AAV) of $5.5 million.
If there were any concerns about Geekie having another slow start to a season, he has completely put those to bed. With the first month of the season done, he currently sits at nine goals and 11 points in 14 games, putting him on pace for 50 goals this season. In only a few seasons, he has completely shown himself to be an essential piece of this lineup and arguably GM Don Sweeney’s best free agent signing of his career.
Blazing Start to 2025-26
Scoring has been an issue for the Bruins, particularly when it comes to depth guys for several seasons now. When Brad Marchand was traded at the deadline last season, there were many valid concerns about who would be able to consistently step up to take some of the pressure off of David Pastrnak. By that point last season, Geekie had successfully turned things around from his slow start, but there were still some worries, especially since he didn’t have a contract extension yet and he didn’t have a long track record as a proficient scorer at the NHL level yet.
With his hot start to 2025-26 though, Geekie has begun to cement himself as a solid, consistent goal-scorer. As mentioned, he’s currently on pace for 50 goals this season. Even if he falls off the pace, there’s still a solid chance he reaches the 40-goal mark, which seems a bit more realistic and is still quite the achievement in the NHL.
Geekie has earned himself a spot on the top line, playing with David Pastrnak and Elias Lindholm before he was sidelined by an injury that will have him out for at least a few weeks. The three of them have had great chemistry to start the season and have been a bright spot in an overall up and down start to the 2025-26 season.
Beyond just the team-leading nine goals (yes, more than Pastrnak), Geekie has been one of the most impressive looking players on the ice and has further stats to back it up. He’s leading the team in shooting percentage (32.1%) and has the third most points on the team. He has the most even strength goals (7) of anyone on the team and only has four penalty minutes, a positive when looking at how bad penalties have been an issue plaguing this team in the early days of the season.
NHL Evolution
Since arriving in Boston in 2023-24, less than three seasons ago, Geekie has become essential to the Bruins and evolved into a top tier NHL player. It really wasn’t that long ago that there were question marks on whether or not he would ever be a fulltime NHL player. While with the Carolina Hurricanes, who drafted him in the third round of the 2017 NHL Draft, he was never quite able to earn a full time spot and was often playing in a bottom six role when he did get a shot. In 2020-21, he played 36 games for the Hurricanes and averaged less than 10 minutes of ice time a night, registering only three goals in that span.
After being left exposed in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft, Geekie was selected by the Seattle Kraken, which is where his NHL evolution really began to take place. With more opportunities and playing time, he was able to score seven goals and 22 points in 73 games. The following season, he took another step forward with nine goals and 19 assists for 28 points in 69 games.
The upward trend continued when he arrived in Boston on a two-year contract after the Kraken did not extend him a qualifying offer in 2023. The contract had an AAV of $2 million and quickly became one of the best value contracts on the roster as he put up 17 goals and 39 points in 76 games in 2023-24 and then, even with a slow start, had 33 goals and 57 points in 77 games in 2024-25.
So to list it out, in five seasons since 2020-21, Geekie’s goal totals have increased from three to seven to nine to 17 to 33, and now, he is on pace to set another career year in goals for the sixth season in a row. It’s been incredible and very impressive to watch. His current contract with its $5.5 million AAV may look like an absolute steal in a few seasons from now, especially if he does end up turning into a consistent 40+ goal scorer.
The 27-year-old’s evolution is truly a great reminder that not every player is going to come into the NHL and be an instant contributor. Sometimes, guys need more time and the right opportunities to reach their true potential.
Will Geekie Reach 50 Goals?
The 2025-26 season is only a month old, so it’s too soon to tell if Geekie will be able to keep up his current goal-scoring pace. Currently, he’s on pace to hit 52 goals barring any injury that could prevent him from playing in all 82 games this season. While the season is still young, it is not out of the realm of possibility that he’s able to keep this pace up.
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In the 55 games in the 2025 portion of the 2024-25 season, Geekie had 31 goals, good for third in the league behind Pastrnak and Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers. So for this calendar year so far, he’s sitting at 40 goals in 69 games. Again, him reaching 50 goals in 82 games isn’t looking completely out of the realm of possibility.
For all the thoughts of a regression having to come at some point given his continual upward trend since arriving in Boston, Geekie doesn’t currently show any sign of stopping. He’s made himself an essential part of the Bruins lineup, and has been one of the team’s most impressive players of the 2025-26 season so far. Since the 2023-24 season, the question has been poised at how far and how high he can climb, and the answer remains, who knows?
