NHL suspends Tampa Bay Lightning's Conor Geekie after fight

The Tampa Bay Lightning enter the 2024-2025 season with a number of changes to their roster. The team signed leading scorer Jake Guentzel to replace former captain Steven Stamkos and named long-time defenseman Victor Hedman as the new team captain. They also traded defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, which also included former first-round pick Conor Geekie.

At just 20 years old, Geekie is vying for a spot in the Lightning lineup. The team has given him plenty of opportunity in pre-season and he has impressed. During a recent preseason game against the Florida Panthers, he received an incitement penalty for forcing a Panthers forward to fight in retaliation for an earlier body check he had administered. The result of the incident was that the rookie received almost 20 penalty minutes and was ejected from the game.

To further the matter, the league convened a disciplinary hearing for the young striker. After reviewing the incident, the league announced that it would suspend Geekie for a preseason game for a violation of NHL Rule 70.2. The suspension will keep Geekie out of the Lightning's final preseason game of the year.

Geekie was originally drafted by the Arizona Coyotes in the 2022 NHL Draft. In recent seasons, he played junior hockey in the Western Hockey League (WHL), where he was an offensive force with the Wenatchee Wild and Swift Current Broncos. He scored 49 points in just 26 games for the Wild last season before moving to the Broncos, where he scored another 50 points in 29 games.

Now the 1.90 meter tall center is trying to secure a full-time job in the NHL. The Coyotes made a difficult decision to part ways with one of their top prospects in the Sergachev trade, but this is a great Geekie opportunity. He will probably see NHL action by the age of 20. And even if the team isn't thrilled about a player being suspended, they can at least expect to have Geekie available when they open their season against the Carolina Hurricanes.

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