BRIGHTON – It remains to be seen how active the Boston Bruins are going to be once free agency opens on July 1, but it might be a little less than initially expected after tying up some of their own loose ends ahead of the frenzy.
The B’s executed a flurry of signings on Monday while taking care of their biggest in-house situation by re-signing Morgan Geekie to a six-year deal ($5.5 million AV) as the 26-year-old was coming off 33 goals and 57 points in a breakout campaign. They also locked up Henri Jokiharju to a three-year, $9 million contract that cinches their right side defensively as they were looking at a gaping hole there headed into free agency if they didn’t retain a player that looked very solid in a pairing with Nikita Zadorov after coming over in a trade from the Buffalo Sabres.
Additionally, the Bruins re-signed Johnny Beecher to a one-year contract for $900,000 as he’ll get another shot as a fourth line contributor to the Black and Gold, and signed depth pieces Georgii Merkulov (one-year, $775K AAV) and Michael DiPietro (two-year, $812,500 K AAV) to deals that will likely see them in Providence most of next season.
On the other side of the ledger, the B’s didn’t extend qualifying offers to players like Jakub Lauko, Ian Mitchell and Oliver Wahlstrom that logged NHL time with the Black and Gold last season.
The Bruins will obviously still need a couple of top-6 types that can put the puck in the net over the course of the summer, but tying up Geekie at a reasonable number sets the B’s up to have a really successful free agent frenzy period. It certainly makes a lot more sense than tying up Brad Marchand until he's 43 years old, though nobody knows how many more Cups Florida will win before No. 63 becomes a salary cap burden at the end of the deal.
Morgan Geekie, extended 6x$5.5M by BOS, is a scoring centre who had a pretty serious glow-up from bottom-six energy guy to chance-creating 33-goal guy at 26. Don't expect him to finish top-five in 5v5 goals again, but he should be a solid middle-six net-crasher. #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/5Pl0OvCqDi
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) June 30, 2025
“Ever since I got here, I’ve really enjoyed my time in Boston and I think I’ve really grown as a player on the ice” said Geekie, who will have no-trade protect in the deal that kicks in the 2026-27 season and moves to limited no-trade for most of the rest of the contract. “To be able to continue to be a Bruin, take the next step as a player and continue to grow my game is huge. Negotiations, we kind of talked for a while from when the season ended and then things went from there. So it took a little bit, but it’s good.
“I love to be in Boston and it’s an exciting time for me and my family. I can’t wait to get started for next season. I knew that [I wanted to stay with the Bruins] and Don [Sweeney] knew that, so there was mutual interest obviously. I have enjoyed every second here. Obviously the [season] didn’t go to plan, to anybody’s plan, but to build off that this is somewhere that I wanted to be with our team taking a big step next year. Obviously, there will be some young guys coming in and some additions whatever may they be. Our team last year got dealt a tough hand with a couple of guys going down [with injuries] and just the way the year played out. But I’m excited with the group that we have, and excited to see what we can do next year and for the years to come.”
It feels like Geekie will start the season locked into a top line situation with Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak after that trio ended the season on fire, but some of it will obviously depend on what comes into Boston via free agency. One thing that feels like a certainty is Geekie and Pastrnak playing quite together quite a bit after they found excellent chemistry with Pastrnak using Geekie as a dangerous second shooting option when defenses keyed too much on No. 88.
Geekie said he’ll play anywhere, and he’s shown in the past that he’s able and willing to play the center position as well, but it feels like he found a home playing on his off-side as a shoot-first player on a Bruins team that can sometimes be a little too passive.
“Me and David get along really well of the ice too, which helps a lot,” said Geekie, of Pastrnak. “Whenever you play with somebody for a sustained period of time then your chemistry builds naturally. I also played with him a little bit the previous year in the playoffs and stuff under obviously different circumstances.
“It’s good. I don’t think it’s something that needs to continue to grow as with a friendship it’s something that kind of naturally happens. You start to pick up on each other’s tendencies and I think we did that pretty well. I think our whole line with [Elias Lindholm] and with Pavel Zacha when he was there, the four of us…we clicked pretty well when we were together. You just trying to build on what you accomplished toward the end of the year and try to roll it into the fall. To have a little security to know I’ve had success with those guys is big, but I’ve always prided myself on being able to be pretty versatile and play anywhere up and down a lineup. I think I can make an impact with a lot of guys, but we obviously had a lot of success at the end of the year. It was a tough situation as far as the season goes, but I thought we were one of the better lines in the league toward the end of the year.”
The Bruins currently have eight forward signed to NHL contracts after locking up Geekie, Marat Khusnutdinov and Beecher in the last few days, and will very likely get at least a couple of young guys locking up spots in training camp with Matt Poitras and Fraser Minten holding the inside track after strong performances down the stretch in the AHL.
More importantly, the Bruins also have $12.7 million in cap space to play with ahead of the free agency period, which should be more than enough to lock up two pretty good forwards or really stretch out for a needle-moving player at the head of this free agent class like Mitch Marner or Nikolaj Ehlers. More likely the Bruins will be chasing after second tier scoring wingers like Brock Boeser if they really get involved in the free agent spending, or there will be trades forthcoming to bring in younger, more affordable winger alternatives with Bruins management being ready, willing and able to continue their boldness while recreating the NHL roster.
Either way, the Bruins aren’t in a desperate state when it comes to lining up free agents after Don Sweeney got pretty much all of his work done after not being able to do that a year ago in a situation that really adversely affected the Black and Gold last season.