Conor Geekie, one of Canada’s star players at the World Youth Championships, wraps up to 80 rounds of tape in the sleeve of his racket.
Canada’s Conor Geekie scored one hit as Canada defeated Finland 5–2 in the Under-20 World Cup. In Canada’s 10-0 shutout of Latvia, Geekie accounted for two hits.
The Arizona Coyotes booked Geekie in the first round of the NHL draft in the summer of 2022. He was the 11th pick in the draft, and the fourth highest Canadian pick.
In recent seasons, Geekie has been playing in the WHL, i.e. one of Canada’s major junior leagues. This season, he has produced a whopping 20+29=49 power points in 26 games for the Wenatchee Wild.
In social media and in Swedish newspapers, the cover of Geekie’s racket has now become a topic of conversation. The World Junior Championships will be played in Gothenburg.
Geekie’s racket has been admired, for example, in clips from the Canadian channel TSN. TikTok videowith which the Canadian talent shows off his racket, has been viewed more than a million times.
Geekie says that he uses up to 80 rounds of tape to make his confusingly large club cap. It takes ten minutes to tape the racket, he explains. Other Canadian players say they would never copy Geekie’s style.
Unfortunately, it was not clear from the videos why Geekie tapes his racket in a similar style.
Sweden and Canada, who started their tournament with two wins, are currently meeting in the A group match, on Friday evening.
The Swedish players were amazed by Geekie’s racket before the match In an interview with Expressen.
– I saw a video of it and it looked very strange. I really don’t think I could play with a stick like that, defender Elias Pettersson wondered.
Swedish striker David Edstrom couldn’t understand Geekie’s racket. He estimates that the racket is heavy and difficult to control, for example when passing the puck.
Center Filip Bystedt continued the same line.
– I really don’t understand how he can play like that. I’ve never seen anything like it. I usually put a little over ten rounds of tape on my club sheath, and I think that’s quite a lot.
The Swedish players joked that even goalkeepers don’t have similar tunings in their sticks, but admitted that it certainly seems to have worked for Geekie.
Suomen Nuoret Leijonat will face Sweden in the final game of the first group on the last day of the year at 15:30.
Urheilu closely follows the under-20 hockey world championships in the application and on its website. Moods are also conveyed on Urheilurutu and Urheiluradio. The match program can be found here.