Insider Says NHL Did Lightning Forward a 'Favor'

Tampa Bay Lightning forward Conor Geekie got off easy after an altercation against the Florida Panthers.

Jul 7, 2022; Montreal, Quebec, CANADA; Conor Geekie shakes hands with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman after being selected as the number eleven overall pick to the Arizona Coyotes in the first round of the 2022 NHL Draft at Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images / Eric Bolte-Imagn Images

Tampa Bay Lightning forward Conor Geekie will miss one preseason game due to a suspension, but all things considered, he's lucky it's not more.

The suspension comes from an altercation with Florida Panthers forward Josh Davies, who previously laid a big hit on Lightning captain Victor Hedman. After a line change, Geekie went after Davies and initiated a fight. The 20-year-old forward received 19 penalty minutes on the play, two for cross-checking, two for instigating, five for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct.

The Department of Player Safety ruled that Geekie violated NHL Rule 70.2 by leaving the bench on a legal line change for the purpse of starting an altercation.

Still, Geekie might've been lucky to avoid a longer suspension. In fact, Sportsnet NHL insider Elliotte Friedman believes the league did Geekie a "favor" with the light punishment.

"I thought the NHL, or the Department of Player Safety, did Geekie a little bit of a favor, and the reason is, as you said, he's a 20-year-old, he's in his first training camp. If they give him more than a game suspension ... it really hurts his chances to make the team," Friedman said on the 32 Thoughts podcast. "And so, the league did him, or the Department of Player Safety did him a favor. Now, I say good on them in this case. If they felt that, aside from breaking an obvious rule, Geekie wasn't guilty of anything bad, I have no problem with that."

Tampa Bay has two preseason games remaining, against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday and the Nashville Predators on Monday (rescheduled from Sept. 27 due to Hurricane Helene). As such, Geekie has one more chance to boost his roster chances, whereas a longer suspension would've held him out until the start of the regular season, if not longer.

The Lightning acquired Geekie, the No. 11 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, from the Utah Hockey Club in the trade that sent defenseman Mikhail Sergachev to the NHL's newest team this offseason. He has yet to make his regular season NHL debut.

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