{"id":15054,"date":"2025-10-22T03:07:37","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T03:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/15054\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T03:07:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T03:07:37","slug":"tampa-bay-lightning-reassign-conor-geekie-recall-charle-edouard-dastous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/15054\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Lightning Reassign Conor Geekie, Recall Charle-Edouard D\u2019Astous"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tampa Bay Lightning announced<\/a> today that forward Conor Geekie<\/a> has been reassigned to the team\u2019s AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch. In a corresponding move, the club recalled defenseman Charle-Edouard D\u2019Astous.<\/p>\n

Geekie lined up on Tampa\u2019s second line for their most recent game, but has just one assist through six NHL games this season. It\u2019s possible the club could view a stint in the AHL, where he has thus far been successful (20 points in 24 career games) as a way to help him regain some confidence. It\u2019s also entirely possible Geekie is recalled before the club\u2019s next game, which is on Thursday.<\/p>\n

This recall of D\u2019Astous comes as the Lightning manage an injury suffered by Maxwell Crozier<\/a>, the player the Lightning entered the season with slotted in as their seventh defenseman. It was announced<\/a> last week that Crozier would land on IR with an undisclosed injury, and no further update on his status has been provided. During Crozier\u2019s absence, veteran Steven Santini<\/a> had served as the club\u2019s spare blueliner, but Santini was reassigned to Syracuse<\/a> yesterday.<\/p>\n

Since the Lightning don\u2019t play until Thursday, meaning there\u2019s still a decent runway for Crozier to return from IR in time for the club\u2019s next game. But if he does not, this recall positions D\u2019Astous as the team\u2019s spare blueliner, giving him a chance to make his NHL debut.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old has been on quite the hockey journey to reach this point. He finished his junior career as a star in the QMJHL for the Rimouski Oceanic, serving as the top-scoring blueliner and captain for a team that featured 2020 No. 1 pick Alexis Lafreniere<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite winning QMJHL Defenseman of the Year honors in his final year of junior hockey (and CHL Humanitarian of the Year<\/a> for his work with local charities in Rimouski), D\u2019Astous didn\u2019t receive NHL interest. He signed a two-year AHL contract<\/a> with the Grand Rapids Griffins, and failed to make their AHL squad out of training camp. He spent almost his entire first season as a pro in the ECHL, scoring 22 points in 46 games.<\/p>\n

His encouraging progress in the ECHL earned him a late-season three-game cameo with Grand Rapids (where he would score his first AHL goal<\/a>), but his progress slowed to a halt in 2020-21, as the COVID-19 pandemic greatly limited the number of games able to be played in the minor leagues.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Astous became a free agent at the end of his contract, and signed a one-year, two-way AHL\/ECHL deal<\/a> with the Colorado Eagles. While he only played in the AHL for one month of the season, D\u2019Astous was stellar in the ECHL. He had a breakout season, scoring 57 points in 52 regular-season games and a whopping 30 points in 18 playoff games, winning ECHL Defender of the Year honors.<\/p>\n

For many skaters, success in the ECHL isn\u2019t a realistic path right to the NHL. But for the league\u2019s best players, success in the ECHL presents a very realistic path to getting an opportunity to sign a contract in a high-level European league. Those opportunities often offer higher pay and a more comfortable playing experience than a player might find in the ECHL. The European path is the one D\u2019Astous took, cashing in on his stellar ECHL season to sign a contract with KooKoo in the Finnish Liiga.<\/p>\n

Just like his experience in the ECHL, it took D\u2019Astous a year to adjust to the European pro game. But by 2023-24, he had found his groove. He scored 17 goals and 46 points in just 54 Liiga games for KooKoo in his second season there, leading the entire Liiga in time-on-ice per game and winning the league\u2019s Defenseman of the Year<\/a> honors.<\/p>\n

His success in Finland earned him a two-year deal<\/a> with SHL\u2019s Brynas IF, and there, no adjustment period was needed. D\u2019Astous was once again excellent, scoring 39 points in 49 games and winning the SHL\u2019s Defenseman of the Year<\/a> honors.<\/p>\n

In a period of just four seasons, D\u2019Astous had captured the Defenseman of the Year honors in three separate professional leagues. That undeniable track record of success finally earned D\u2019Astous the NHL contract he\u2019d been seeking, as the Lightning signed<\/a> him to a one-year deal carrying a $775K NHL salary, $150K AHL salary, and $200K guarantee.<\/p>\n

Now back in North America, D\u2019Astous has picked up where he left off. He\u2019s currently playing in a number-one defenseman role for the Crunch, playing a heavy workload in all situations through four games and leading his team in scoring by a blueliner with a goal and two assists.<\/p>\n

Even if he doesn\u2019t end up getting to play in the NHL on this current recall, the transaction is nonetheless a tangible reward for a player who has worked tirelessly to climb up the ladder of pro hockey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Lightning announced today that forward Conor Geekie has been reassigned to the team\u2019s AHL affiliate,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[13029,13030,135,862,137,136],"class_list":["post-15054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-charle-edouard-dastous","tag-conor-geekie","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}