Tampa Bay Lightning forward Conor Geekie was suspended for one preseason game Thursday over his role in a fight during a preseason game with the Florida Panthers.
According to NHL Player Safety, the 2022 first-round pick (11th overall) violated Rule 70.2 on Wednesday when he left the bench on a legal line change "for the purpose of starting an altercation." The league made its decision following a hearing with Geekie earlier in the day.
The suspension makes Geekie ineligible for Tampa Bay's next preseason game at the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night.
The incident happened in the second period of the Panthers' 2-1 overtime win after Florida prospect Josh Davies struck Lightning captain Victor Hedman with an open-ice hit. Tampa Bay star Nikita Kucherov retaliated against Davies and received a two-minute roughing penalty.
After the next line change, Geekie went after Davies and dragged him into a fight. Geekie, 20, racked up 19 penalty minutes on the play: two for cross-checking, two for instigating, five for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct.
"It is important to note that Geekie's sole objective on this play is to confront Davies," a Department of Player Safety official said in an explanation video. "Rather than making any move at all toward the play or in the direction of the puck, Geekie instead comes directly off the bench for the purposes of instigating this altercation, then pursues Davies for an extended amount of time while forcing Davies into said altercation."
Geekie, who has yet to make his NHL regular-season debut, told the Tampa Bay Times that he was sticking up for his teammates.
"It's one of those things, it doesn't matter if it's Heddy or whoever it is," Geekie said. "I think anyone gets hit like that, someone's got to step up. And I figured that I could be that guy. It worked out, but anyone could do it. I'm sure a lot of guys were thinking the same thing as me."
The Lightning acquired Geekie from the Utah Hockey Club in the June 29 trade that sent defenseman Mikhail Sergachev to Salt Lake City.
Geekie posted 99 points (43 goals, 56 assists) in 55 games split between the WHL's Swift Current Broncos and Wenatchee Wild in 2023-24.
--Field Level Media
