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BOSTON – Two years ago, to the day, Morgan Geekie was in limbo.

The Manitoba native had just set career highs in goals (nine) and points (28) during the 2022-23 campaign, but the Seattle Kraken opted not to extend a qualifying offer to the restricted free agent, leaving him to the open market.

Enter the Boston Bruins.

A day later, on July 1 – the opening day of free agency – the Black & Gold inked Geekie to a two-year contract with a $2 million annual cap hit.

And what a two years it’s proven to be for the now 26-year-old forward.

Geekie tallied 17 goals and 39 points across 76 games in 2023-24, before exploding for another career campaign in 2024-25 with 33 goals and 57 points in 77 games.

Last season’s stellar showing earned him Seventh Player Award honors – and, ultimately, a new six-year contract extension with a cap hit of $5.5 million that was announced by the Bruins late Sunday night.

“It’s crazy. When I came into the league as a rookie, I remember talking to all my friends that you just want to play as long as you can,” said Geekie. “It was a tough time a couple years ago, kind of stuck in limbo, not being qualified. I think things kind of just played out as they were meant to play out and that’s what brought me to Boston. I wouldn’t change anything else.

“It’s definitely tough to comprehend and hard to believe, but I’m super grateful to be in Boston for six years. I love the group of guys that we have so that was one of the big things for me was the guys and the culture here.

“The organization doesn’t get enough credit for just how important that is to bringing guys back and wanting to be a part of this group.”

Geekie developed immense chemistry with David Pastrnak over the second half of last season, tallying 31 of his 33 goals after Dec. 1. Only Pastrnak (35), Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl (35), and Buffalo’s Tage Thompson (33) produced more tallies than Geekie in that time frame.

“Me and Dave get along really well off the ice, which helps a lot,” said Geekie, who added that the addition of Elias Lindholm to their line down the stretch helped them to focus more on offensive production.

“Whenever you play with someone for a sustained period of time, obviously your chemistry builds naturally. But we played a little bit together the previous year in the playoffs, under a little bit different circumstances. It’s good. I don’t think it’s one of those things that needs to continue to grow. I think naturally, with a friendship, that’s what happens and you start to pick up on each other’s tendencies and we did that pretty well.

“But I think our whole line of [Elias Lindholm] and [Pavel Zacha, I thought we clicked pretty well with the two of us. Just try to keep building on what I had accomplished at the end of the year and roll it into the fall.”

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      Morgan Geekie speaks to the media about his new contract with the Boston Bruins.

      Despite his success, the 6-foot-3, 208-pound forward is hardly satisfied and is making sure to use the extended offseason to his favor.

      “Every year you try to take one or two things into the summer,” said Geekie. “It’s tough to reinvent yourself over three or four months or whatever it may be. I grew a lot as a player this year, offensively obviously. But grew a lot in different areas. I don’t really have one thing specifically going into it.

      “I think both my years in Boston I kind of got off to a slow start and that kind of impacted how things went personally. Just come out of the gates the same way I finished. I had a lot of confidence at the end of the year. It was a tough situation, but I felt good about my game where I was at.

      “I’ve had some good training so far. It’s a little longer summer than we want but I’ve been on the ice for a while and working on a few things. Just try to keep it rolling into the fall.

      With Geekie set to enter his third season donning the Spoked-B, he knows that taking on some added leadership responsibilities will come with the territory, especially with several young players being integrated into the Boston lineup.

      “For sure, anytime you’re kind of penciled in for a little bit longer term, you kind of take on responsibilities like that,” said Geekie. “We have a really good group of leadership with [Nikita Zadorov] and Lindy and other Lindy [Hampus Lindholm] and CMac [Charlie McAvoy] and Dave. [Jeremy Swayman] and those guys, all the guys that have been around before I got here and things changed a little bit.

      “Taking on responsibility like that is good, it comes with the territory of growing your game and being someone to be relied upon. I’m trying to grow into that. I’m a little more reserved and not super outgoing.”

      And while last season did not go the way anyone would have liked, Geekie remained focused on being a Bruin for years to come.

      “I wanted to be a Bruin for sure, I think that was a big part of it. I knew that and [Bruins GM Don Sweeney] knew that, that there was mutual interest, obviously. I enjoyed every second of my time here,” said Geekie. “The year we had didn’t go to plan, anybody’s plan, but to be able to build off that, I think it’s somewhere I wanted to be and I see our team taking big step next year.

      “In terms of growth, we’re gonna have some young guys come in and I’m sure there will be some additions [on July 1], whatever they may be. Last year, we got dealt a tough hand with a couple guys going down and just the way the year played out.

      “I’m excited with the year we had and excited to see what we can do next year and the years to come.”

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