Unlocking Boston Bruins Center Depth: Fraser Minten’s Impact | Ep. 145

0:00 Speaker 1: On Thursday, May twenty eighth, the hockey community lost another one of the all time greats, Claude Lemieux, known for his fierce style of play. The twenty one season six team Veteran won four Stanley Cups and a con Smythe as the playoff MVP.

0:16 Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety five, he.

0:18 Speaker 1: Was one of only eleven players to win a Cup with at least three different teams, scoring eighty post season goals, putting him at ninth all time. He was a pivotal member of the Colorado Avalanche team that birthed the great rivalry with the Detroit Red Wings on March twenty sixth, nineteen ninety seven, most famously known as Fight Night at the Joe. What makes his passing that much more shocking is the fact that he was torchbearer for the Habs home playoff game just days before. We honor his memory and legacy as a player, and in particular as a member of the Montreal Canadians who were responsible for causing a great deal of angst and heartbreak for the Austin Bruins during an era where it seemed impossible to beat them.

1:05 Speaker 1: This is meant as nothing but praise and respect for a player who always left everything he had on the ice. He leaves behind a wife and four adult children. If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or experiencing a mental health crisis, you can call or text nine to eight eight or chat at nine eight eight Lifeline dot org for free and confidential crisis counseling.

1:30 Speaker 2: Can you start a podcast with me? Please? I need something to do.

1:42 Speaker 3: A drax send it out of Here's a chance, potra right on the goalie scars, Oh my one a.

1:53 Speaker 2: Mode by the Rookie two on.

1:54 Speaker 3: One plaster not moving in its time? Coil Dance podcast.

2:10 Speaker 1: What's that for? Most? Welcome in everyone to another episode of Bruin's Tape to Tape. I am your host today, Caroline with a K, and we are continuing our player review series as the summer rolls on, and we are continuing today with Fraser Mitten. But first, before we start talking about this little gem, I'm going to welcome in my fantastic co host, Maria from Watertown.

2:42 Speaker 2: Hey Maria, Hey Caroline, how are you. I'm well.

2:45 Speaker 1: I had a lot of fun looking into these players that we were talking about all season, because sometimes you forget about the individual contributions and achievements. And I have to say, the kids on this team, I'm actually pretty for as much as we talk about the direction that this team is going in, I was very pleasantly surprised at the things that Fraser Minton, but also his regular linematee Mara Husnadinov chief together, and then the handful of other guys who often slotted in with them. But let's talk about the baby of the team, at least from this past season.

3:24 Speaker 1: He's gonna get displaced as the baby of the team in the fall when James Hagen's most likely makes the full time team. But twenty one year old Fraser Minton, Yeah, he'll be twenty two July fifth.

3:38 Speaker 2: My kids are older than he is. For Ripe's sake, well.

3:43 Speaker 1: Why don't you give us the rundown on who he is, where he came from, because last year we didn't actually do a conversation about him. I forgot, honestly that he even had as many games as he did with the big team last season, because, let's face it, after that trade deadline, I was barely.

4:04 Speaker 2: Present when I watched those games. But give us the rundown on Minty. Well, this is such an easy rundown, and it's such an enjoyable rundown because say what we will about Don Sweeney, but one of the things that he does well, one of the few things I think he does well, is make hockey trades to the advantage of the Boston Bruins for the most part. And this is one of those deals where if I were the Toronto Maple Leafs probably would have fired their GM even sooner than they did because the Bruins were able to acquire Fraser Mitton in a trade when the Bruins basically cleaned out their core by dealing Brandon Carlow to the Maple Leafs for Fraser Mitton and a twenty twenty six first round pick and a twenty twenty five to fourth round pick a young talented player like Fraser Mitton for Brandon Carlow.

5:00 Speaker 2: I'll do that trade every day all day. I still don't understand why the Maples, I guess don't ask, right, But Jesus Christ, I don't know if they were so hell bent on kind of solidifying their back end because they knew they had not good solid goaltending going into another slayoff run but see that as it may. I know that the fans and the media in Toronto as this current season progressed in the manner that it did for both teams where Toronto was a lost season. They didn't even make the playoffs. The Bruins are in a proverbial hunt for the playoffs, and you see this young player developing and flourishing and you're languishing.

5:48 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd be a little pissed off myself if I was in Toronto. Yeah, it was very much so.

5:55 Speaker 1: Giving the Andrew Raycroft for Tookarask trade from back in the day, right, and all respect to Andrew Raycroft, but at that point in his career, and then to bring in someone like to Grass.

6:11 Speaker 2: You had that deal that backfired and blew up in your face, and then you make another one with the same organization. Like, how dumb a franchise are the Maple Leafs. They're the dumbest. I can't believe they did that. He's ours now. He I think he's here to stay, or I would like to think that he's here to stay. We all heard Don Sweeney and Cam Neely in their postgame pressors. I think that they have high, high hopes for Fraser Minton to develop into a viable center in the league, and especially for Ruins, to fill a serious need that they have.

6:48 Speaker 2: And I'm not saying he's going to be a number one center, Folks, don't put words in my mouth, no, but there is a lot to be excited about when it comes to Fraser Minton.

6:59 Speaker 1: Oh, one hundred percent. He's highly intelligent, two way middle sixth center. He's got great matchup utility, a lot of coaching trusts.

7:10 Speaker 2: Part of why they brought Marco here correcting me I from wrong? Isn't that to help kind of h and I don't want to say develop, but he knows where to put these young players in the best possible place to succeed when they're up with the big club.

7:26 Speaker 1: Yeah, he's very reliable, very mature decision making, I mean, because we've seen some really bad decision making from some of our young players. And what I really love right now is the fact that he's really lucky in terms of the peers that he has in his age group across the league, because he's playing in Worlds for Canada with arguably some of the best young Canadian talent that exists in the NHL. When you think about Porter Martone and Maclin Celebrini and then playing with someone like Sydney Crosby.

8:00 Speaker 1: I hope that what Minton gets out of that experience is what someone like Celebrini got last year.

8:09 Speaker 2: His abilities just skyrocketed.

8:11 Speaker 1: And if Minton is already at a high level, who knows what we're gonna see come from him?

8:17 Speaker 2: And his cap hit is chump change, absolute chump change. Tell us about his contract. His current year cap hit is only seven seven sixty two three forty four. That's chump change.

8:31 Speaker 1: Yeah, he's making no money and he is going into the last year of his contract that was signed way back in the day by Kyle dubis So at this point, three leaf GM is a co track.

8:46 Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't even know. It's like a revolving door.

8:49 Speaker 1: I know.

8:50 Speaker 2: I think we're gonna have issues with our two guys over on Causeway Street. They look like Rhodes scholars compared to Toronto Times.

9:01 Speaker 1: I could do an emergency Ted talk on why everything is wrong in Toronto, But we're a Bruins podcast, not exclusively a Leaf's hate podcast.

9:12 Speaker 2: But you're absolutely right.

9:14 Speaker 1: His aav over the length of the entire contract was eight thirty seven to five, as in eight hundred and thirty seven, five hundred dollars.

9:22 Speaker 2: They're basically stealing from this young man. But now, the Bruins did retain a little bit of Carlo's salary in the deal, like six hundred and fifteen thousand dollars, but again in the minimum of NHL roster that is chunk change. Yeah, very minimal. And things have not worked out well for Brandon Carlo in Toronto either.

9:42 Speaker 1: So no, but like I said, come July first, he's going to be eligible for an extension. He's still, like I said, a baby, so he's going to be restricted for a while. But I think it's going to be safe to say that he will be getting some kind of promotion, to say the least, because his ability to perform, especially with line mate Marot Husnadinov. I mean, that was a pretty fantastic pairing. You know, last year we did a player profile on Marat Husnadinov.

10:15 Speaker 2: He came to Boston also via a trade.

10:18 Speaker 1: He played a little bit, not a ton, but this year seeing him and Minton kind of mesh, that goes even further because it's helping with both of their development because they've got that connection, they.

10:32 Speaker 2: Have that trust, they can play together really well.

10:35 Speaker 1: And going to one of our new favorite stats to look at how much does this player actually contribute to the team. Fraser Minton's goals above replacement, seven wins above replacement one point one, standings points two point two, so effectively really still making a difference in this team's ability to score the goals and win the games, especially in a division as tight and highly competitive and skilled as the Atlantic Division. And coupled with Marat Husnadinov, who has nine points, six goals above replacement and three points for the standings, put them together and they are going to be a very exciting future middle line.

11:19 Speaker 1: And when we see the day that the majority of the current second line retires departs, if that pairing at least ends up on that second line, I think, as a Boston Bruins fan, I'm not mad.

11:31 Speaker 2: I'm not mad either. I enjoyed watching them. It's refreshing to have some young talent in the pipeline that you're excited about watching and seeing what they can do. Again, I will point out that this young talent made its way to the Bruins as a result of hockey trades and not the Bruins' staff identifying, yes, young talent, baya a draft However, we'll take it where we can get it. Yeah.

12:00 Speaker 1: What I love about him also is the fact that not just did the coaching staff have that trust in him, but he also had the trust of his teammates. He wasn't a purely sheltered player. Offensively, he handled legitimate NHL minutes as a very young center, and that matters a lot because then again, as the coaches give him more trust and responsibility, it will continue his development to become a very, very threatening two way center, which is something that we talk all the time, have for years about how Boston does not have a number one center.

12:43 Speaker 1: I'm not saying that he is that number one center, but you need to have good two way centers, two way two hundred foot centers, right.

12:53 Speaker 2: And even Neely alluded to that in remarks that he made at the end of the season, and they have post game pressers and I think he also stayed I'm not saying he's a number one set, but they clearly have a need there. And again we have talked about this ad naugem needs that they knew they would have because it was inevitable that David Craigie and Patrice Bergeron would move on, and they're trying to find ways now. To some degree, they were scrambling a little bit to bridge that gap because they never addressed them through good drafting.

13:27 Speaker 2: Yeah, right, and that alluded to this before. To me, that was some organizational malfeasance as far as I'm concerned. But at least they're trying to find ways now to remedy that gap.

13:40 Speaker 1: Yeah, And I wonder if if he is that next future iteration of David Cragie or filling a similar role while still being a very different archetype.

13:52 Speaker 2: You know that they are similar.

13:55 Speaker 1: Atas in which they are similar are their hockey IQ, the hate control, and the subtlety of their play. Now beyond that, very different player obviously prechie elite playmaking, possession center.

14:09 Speaker 2: But sometimes he would disappear, Let's be honest. Sometimes in the regular season create would disappear. He might not have been as defensively responsible as we've wanted him right to be at times, right, but he'd show up for the playoffs.

14:24 Speaker 1: Sure, Minton's value comes from he's supporting his teammates as a center, being a playmaker and supporting them structurally in that regard, because again he's not just centering the wings. People who don't know a ton of hockey or are new to hockey may not realize that the center is also centering the two defencemen as well. Of the best centers. That's what we mean by the two way, two hundred foot player is he's supporting both of those positions on the ice in the forward and defensive capacity, and so he has really he's really reliable in that regard, and that I think is where a lot of his value comes from.

15:03 Speaker 1: And his puck retrieval, backchecking, those are things that are going to take him very far and I think ultimately end up putting him in a position like Crachie in that.

15:18 Speaker 2: This is your number two center. Very reliable.

15:20 Speaker 1: He plays very mature hockey and very detail oriented, and at the end of the day, his scoring is also fairly reliable. He had fifteen expected goals, he scored seventeen. He had eighteen assists, so he had a lot of line involvement, had a lot of balanced offensive contribution.

15:39 Speaker 2: You know, he wasn't just lucky he was scoring.

15:42 Speaker 1: It's going to be a long time before you've got center replacements for Patrice Bergeron and David Crachie, but I think he could be the next to fill that kind of role.

15:52 Speaker 2: You made a good point during our off air conversation that I want to Marco Stern himself exhibited instance is of having trust in the kid Lie and I think you specifically brought up an instance where I think he might have started them in an overtime. He did. And I also think that Fraser Minton was out during a shootout, yes at one point as well. He's a very valuable player to the future of this franchise and he's he should only get better, right as he has this experience at the Worlds, which I think will be immeasurable for him, because I will say that I think that younger group of players, mister Dinov, Mitton, b Simott, they had brought in Richel on occasion.

16:39 Speaker 2: They I think the stage of the playoffs might have been a little bit overwhelming for them in that first round against Buffalo.

16:47 Speaker 1: For sure, Remember he's all of twenty one. I believe marat Us Nadinov is twenty three. It's a completely different game and it can be very terrified for them to be out there you know Richel, he's twenty three. Isamont was the elder statesman, but his years of experience didn't translate into postseason play because hasn't played as long with Husnadinov and Mitten as the two of them played together. When we're talking about bigger picture, is Boston going to invest in a longer term veteran presence to help with those situations because there was no captain this season, and you need to spread the wealth in terms of helping guys get through those experiences, especially ones who have never done it before, and many guys the team who'd never done it before.

17:42 Speaker 1: Castle Lick and you wouldn't necessarily consider him a baby on the team.

17:47 Speaker 2: Even though he is also quite young. So in our previous episode, when we talked about Victor Ardwardson and giving a grade to the trade, you did it bit broader than I did. You combined the deal and the player all in one where I just said, Okay, I'm going to give the player this grade and I'm going to give the trade this grade. But in this instance, I think it's an a plus all the way around because there's so much more potential just because of how young his player is and it's been a while since we've had a young player coming into the Bruins organization that we're like, I'm excited to see how this player develops.

18:32 Speaker 2: And in conjunction with James Haiggins.

18:36 Speaker 1: Yeah, don't forget that, even though Fraser Minton came in via the trade and he had some playing time in those final six weeks of the season, he was not guaranteed any kind of a spot on the big boy roster. Because he still went well, he earned it, Yeah, and he earned his spot there. So that makes me him even more because look, let's be honest, I'm not saying that James Hagens isn't going to earn his spot, that he's not going to be a hard worker. But there's no way that he's not going to be reporting to Boston the last week of September.

19:16 Speaker 1: You can't tell me that that's not going to happen. So his is a little bit more of a given, whereas players like Husindinov and Minton, you know, there was no guarantee and they really made sure to stand out.

19:30 Speaker 2: They made it hard for the coaching staff to take them out of the lineup, which is what a young player should strive to do. Don't make it easy for them to take a look at you and say it's not cutting it. I gotta send them back down. Gott to send him down Providence. Yeah, and he actually played all I just was going to bring that up. He played in every single game this season. He didn't even give Marco and the coaching staff any reason to have to consider making him a healthy scratch, unlike other players on the roster.

20:03 Speaker 2: Yes, Yes, so love that.

20:05 Speaker 1: I can't wait to see what kind of role and position he takes on as he gets older over the next five years.

20:13 Speaker 2: It's gonna be really exciting to see. And I don't think we've.

20:16 Speaker 1: Had a group of young players on this Boston Bruins team that is this exciting in.

20:23 Speaker 2: Quite a while. And I hate to even put this out in the stratosphere, but not only do you have a player that has a lot of upside, you also have a valuable asset now, because if he continues to progress in a manner and a trend that we expect him to keep going upwards, you could potentially get a haul for him at some point in time. If that's a road that you want to go down, for sure, it's always a reality. It's still a business, right, Everyone is always on the table. Everyone has a price, well everyone on this roster, yes, for the most part, other than a small group of people, but right.

21:04 Speaker 1: I mean, you'd be an idiot to put David Pasternack on the table, but he has a price.

21:09 Speaker 2: Yeah.

21:11 Speaker 1: Any final thoughts on Fraser Minton. I enjoyed watching the kid.

21:16 Speaker 2: I don't know the last time I said, boy, we have a young player that there's a lot of potential. Were there a hiccup with you along the way?

21:25 Speaker 1: Yeah?

21:25 Speaker 2: But you expect out with the twenty one year old this as a player, I think I think the plan is to keep him in a Brulin's uniform or a good decent amount of time. Yeah.

21:38 Speaker 1: I think he's certainly one of a couple of players that I can imagine the next core.

21:46 Speaker 2: Right now, we've got that.

21:47 Speaker 1: Quote unquote new core of Pasta and Chucky and Swayman. They were the ones who are kind of transitioning in and eventually they're going to be the ones transitioning out. And I think I wouldn't be surprised if Minton is part of that future core that whoever's in the front office is going to be building around.

22:05 Speaker 2: Right whoever's in the front office, Yeah tbd. Make sure you like and subscribe for more content, and be sure to leave a rating and review to help other Bruins fans find us. You can support the podcast by joining our Patreon.

22:17 Speaker 1: Or following us on our socials at Tape to Tape MK and on substack at Tape to Tape MK dot substack dot com.

22:25 Speaker 2: Final thoughts just our usual sign off, Go Bruins, Goobey's