BUFFALO – During their chats leading up to the NHL Draft, Hamburg native Patrick Geary told the Sabres that in the past, he had often played a raw, undisciplined game.
“He used the term that a couple of coaches used with him, he was a little bit of a cowboy on the ice at times,” assistant general manager Jerry Forton said June 29 after the Sabres selected Geary in the sixth round, 174th overall, at the NHL Draft in Las Vegas.
Of course, the Sabres, having followed him for years, knew Geary, 20, needed to be tamed. Forton, who’s in charge of amateur scouting, said the defenseman played “like a wild horse.”
The 6-foot-1, 191-pound Geary relied too much on his terrific athleticism – Forton said his off-ice testing results would’ve ranked among the top Sabres – and competitiveness.
“He can fly past guys,” said Matt Smaby, Geary’s coach for two seasons with the junior United States Hockey League’s Waterloo Black Hawks. “He can knock guys over.”
But to develop into an NHL prospect and earn playing time on a stacked blue line at Michigan State featuring Artyom Levshunov, the second overall pick June 28, and Sabres prospect Max Strbak, Geary had to reign in his aggressiveness and adapt to structure.
When Geary joined Waterloo for the 2021-22 season, Smaby said he was transitioning to defense after spending time at forward.
“You could see the athletic ability,” said Smaby, a former defenseman who spent parts of four seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning. “You could see his skating ability. You could see those tools that he had. But he had to learn how to be a little bit of a hockey player and harness his ability and play a more thoughtful game.”
Naturally, that took time. Geary moved in and out of the lineup as Smaby and his staff worked with him to develop a more mature style. Around mid-season, some injuries created an opportunity to play regularly, and Geary seized his chance.
“He played really, really well for us,” Smaby said. “It just kind of took off from there.”
A similar scenario played out last season at Michigan State.
“It didn’t go well the first month,” Geary said July 1 in KeyBank Center following a session of development camp. “I was out of the lineup.”
Geary needed time to adjust to the rigors of NCAA hockey. He put his trust in the Spartans’ coaches – “They carved out a plan, I stuck with it,” he said – and after sitting out six early-season games, he played 32 times.
“I kind of just stuck with it and ran with it,” said Geary, who played in the Jr. Sabres organization prior to joining Waterloo.
Michigan State refused to make coach Adam Nightingale available to speak to the Times Herald.
When Sabres development coach Zach Redmond visited Strbak last season in East Lansing, Geary always caught his eye. Redmond, a former NHL defenseman and Rochester Americans star, watched him morph from a healthy scratch into a trusted defender whose grittiness gave Michigan State a unique element.
“Every game he played he kind of brought what they wanted,” he said. “He proved that he can play reliably. He brought a physicality element that’s not just probably rare for Michigan State but rare in general.
“So he was just a kid by the end of the year you had to have him in. It’s really that simple. He earned his ice over some draft picks even.”
He added: “He was playing 18, 19, 20 minutes by the end of the season against the big dogs.”
Against the perhaps biggest dog of them all, Michigan, Geary scored goal of his life, the overtime winner to clinch the Big Ten championship.
“I look back and I don’t kind of believe that I did it,” said Geary, who scored five times all season.
Redmond wasn’t surprised Geary scored such a critical goal.
“He’s got that kind of special quality, that gamer quality to him,” he said. “Like, he’s not necessarily known for his offense, but he scores big goals. You’re watching a game and there’s a tussle in front of the net, he’s usually at the center of it. He’s got a good, tall frame. Like, he’s a little bit wiry, but he can hit.”
The #Bills roster was cut to 53 on Tuesday. @BillHoppeNHL and I discuss the roster makeup, Joe Andreessen’s path to making the team, the return game and and a murky QB2 situation.https://t.co/yRhp8NtkYP
— Nick Sabato (@NickSabatoGNN) August 29, 2024