Morgan Geekie is evolving into an elite goal scorer for Bruins

Despite submitting a 33-goal breakout campaign in an otherwise miserable 2024-25 campaign, there was a level of skepticism over whether or not Geekie — whose previous career-high in goals was 17 — was due for some sharp regression in his third year with Boston. 

But through 13 games, Geekie isn’t just on track to repeat those impressive goal totals. He’s on pace to smash them. 

The Bruins forward has now scored nine times through 13 games so far this year, putting him on pace for 57 tallies over an 82-game season. 

“As a forward — when you’re hot, you’re hot, right? So this kid — he just needs to shoot the puck and it’s gonna go in,” Marco Sturm said after Boston’s 4-3 overtime win over Buffalo. “So I’m happy with him. Again, he’s a really big threat for us on a power play.

A lot of the time, the focus will be on Pasta, especially on our power play. And it’s nice to have another weapon, especially like him. I’ve always said his release is impressive. Now I know why he scored so many goals last year. So he just has to use it.”

With his current six-game goal stretch, Geekie is also just the sixth Bruins player with multiple goal streaks of at least six games — joining Cam Neely (3x), Phil Esposito (3x), Barry Pederson (2x), Johnny Bucyk (2x) and Ken Hodge (2x).

Pretty good company to be in. 

But despite both Pastrnak’s praise and his impressive scoring stretch, Geekie isn’t trying to get too carried away with long-term projections at this stage of the NHL calendar. 

“We’re pretty early still. I mean, obviously any type of player of his caliber says something like that — you take it to heart and I appreciate it,” Geekie said of Pastrnak’s comments. “We’re good friends. But I mean, there’s still a long way to go. 

“I’s not really something that’s on my mind right now. My favorite projections are the one when somebody has three points in the first game — and they’re on pace for like, 200 points. So we’ll see how things go in a month or so.”

It’s to be expected for Geekie’s 50-goal pace to slow down as the season carries on, especially given his unsustainable 33.3 percent shooting percentage so far this year. 

Of course, Geekie also generated what was presumed to be an unsustainable 22.0 shooting percentage last season — a year where his 31 goals over the final 55 games of the 2024-25 campaign were tied for the third-most in the league behind only Leon Draisaitl and Pastrnak.

And this season, there might be even more avenues for Geekie to generate offense beyond just riding shotgun on a line with Pastrnak. 

An increased role on the power play has paid dividends for Geekie, who has already scored two power-play goals on the man advantage this season. Last year, just four of his 33 tallies came on the power play. 

With new assistant coach Steve Spott overseeing the the power play this year, Geekie has been utilized more of a shooting threat next to Pastrnak — be it in a flanking spot on the other side of the offensive zone or situated further up the ice where one of the two serves as more a decoy. 

The results have been encouraging for a power play that currently ranks 13th in the NHL with a 22.2 percent success rate on the power play. 

Geekie also hasn’t been as reliant on Pastrnak to generate his own offense so far this year. 

Last season, the Bruins generated an impressive 4.19 goals scored per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 action when Pastrnak and Geekie were both out on the ice together, per Natural Stat Trick. This year, that goal per 60 rate when the duo is skating together is just 1.9. 

For the Bruins, some optimism could be drawn from the fact that even with Pastrnak and Geekie not quite on the same page at 5-on-5 play quite yet, Boston is still averaging 3.31 goals per game — and both wingers are still on pace for over 40 goals. 

Geekie has a ways to go if he wants to validate himself as one of the league’s top goal scorers. But confidence can go a long way when it comes to beating goalies at hockey’s highest level. 

And confidence is not something that the Bruins forward is lacking so far this year. 

“I think it’s tough to create confidence when things don’t go in. … I didn’t come into the league being a guy that was going to score a bunch of goals,” Geekie acknowledged. “So it’s tough to become one of those people without having results. 

“So to be able to see them go in last year, especially towards the end of the year, is like — you know you can do it. And now, when you get those opportunities this year, even the opportunities that you might pass up on previously, you just try to take those chances. And obviously, right now, they seem to be going in.”

 

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.