Hurricanes re-sign Morgan Geekie

The Hurricanes took care of business with one of their pending restricted free agents Friday, signing forward Morgan Geekie to a one-year, two-way contract. The deal will pay Geekie $750,000 at the NHL level or $75,000 at the AHL level (but he would need waivers to be assigned to Chicago).

After bursting onto the scene with four points in two games at the end of the shortened 2020 regular season, Geekie bounced back and forth between the Hurricanes and taxi squad last year and posted three goals and nine points in 36 games. He will likely compete for a spot in the team’s bottom six next year.

Geekie could also, however, be claimed in the expansion draft if unprotected. Getting him signed now gives the Canes some added flexibility ahead of having to submit their protected list to Seattle tomorrow.

Each NHL team must expose two forwards who are under contract for 2021-22 who played in at least 27 games last season or at least 54 games the last two seasons. Before he was signed, Geekie did not fit that requirement, but now he obviously does.

Without Geekie signed, assuming all of Jordan Staal, Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravaien, Andrei Svechnikov, Vincent Trocheck and Nino Niederreiter will be protected, the Canes would have to expose both Steven Lorentz and Jesper Fast to satisfy the requirement. Now they can choose to protect any one of those three.

The team’s official release on the Geekie signing follows:

‘CANES RE-SIGN GEEKIE TO ONE-YEAR DEAL

Forward tallied nine points in 36 NHL games last season

RALEIGH, NC – Don Waddell, President and General Manager of the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes, today announced that the team has re-signed forward Morgan Geekie to a one-year, two-way contract. The deal will pay Geekie $750,000 at the NHL level and $75,000 at the American Hockey League (AHL) level with a $125,000 guarantee.

“Morgan played well in his first full NHL season this year,” said Waddell. “We’re excited for him to take the next steps in his development.”

Geekie, 23, registered nine points (3g, 6a) in 36 NHL games during the regular season and skated in three playoff games with the Hurricanes in 2020-21. The 6’2”, 192-pound forward also played two games with the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League (AHL), posting five points (4g, 1a) and earning AHL Player of the Week honors. Geekie has registered 13 points (6g, 7a) in 38 career NHL/Hurricanes games since making his NHL debut with Carolina on March 8, 2020. He has also recorded 93 points (45g, 48a) in 130 AHL games with Chicago and Charlotte, adding 18 points (8g, 10a) in 19 playoff games as the Checkers captured their first Calder Cup in 2019. The Strathclair, Man., native was drafted by the Hurricanes in the third round, 67th overall, of the 2017 NHL Draft.