BOSTON — He’s young. He’s fresh.
He’s Minty.
That would be 21-year-old Fraser Minten, who had himself a nice little month of January for the Boston Bruins.
For the 55th time in 55 games this season, Minten was in the lineup Thursday night during the Bruins’ 6-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers at TD Garden. He’s one of only three Black-and-Gold players who can stake that claim, the others being fourth line veterans Sean Kuraly and Mark Kastelic.
With Elias Lindholm out of the lineup Thursday, Minten was moved up from his usual spot centering the third line to the second unit alongside wingers Casey Mittelstadt and Viktor Arvidsson. The trio immediately clicked, finishing the night with three goals and eight points total.
Ten minutes into the first period, Minten won a neutral zone draw and assisted on Arvidsson’s ensuing goal for a 1-0 lead.
Minten then ripped the twine himself early in the second period, taking a clean pass from Mittlestadt as he broke into the offensive zone down the left wing, skated in on Flyers goalie Samuel Ersson and beat him cleanly with a wrister. He added a second helper on a Middlestadt tally later in the period, good for a three-point evening.
“He’s a heck of a player,” said Mittlestadt. “Very impressive for such a young kid to play like that. He fit right in (on the second line).”
The left-shot pivot now has 14 goals and 15 assists for 29 points, tied for fifth in the league among rookie scorers (and in tied for 3rd in goals). He leads all first-year players in plus-minus rating at +20 (second on the Bruins behind defenseman Jonathan Aspirot’s +21) as well as shooting percentage (18.84 percent).
“I’m very happy with the way (Minten’s) been playing all year long,” said head coach Marco Sturm after his squad’s ninth straight home win. “I’ve put him in different situations, from fourth line to pretty much first line, and you can see he can do it all.
“There’s always areas to improve,” he added, “and sometimes it just takes time, and when I say time he just has to grow. He’s not a man yet; still a kid. You can see it in his face.”
The soft-spoken Minten spoke after the game about wanting to do whatever it takes to help Boston win. Chief among those was being responsible at all times he’s on the ice.
“It’s a hard league to succeed in,” admitted Minten. “I’m still figuring out the little things. I want to help the team in every area.”
The only Bruin in team history to wear No. 93, Minten had scored seven goals in 11 January contests prior to last night’s tilt. That includes a pair of goals in his hometown, Vancouver, including the OT winner in a 3-2 Boston win. Another highlight for the youngster was the two goals and one assist he collected to go with a plus-4 rating in a 10-2 home rout of the Rangers.
While games like that — not to mention Thursday night’s showing — are certainly helpful and fatten his resume, it’s more the fact that former Maple Leafs’ second round pick from 2022 has been so remarkably consistent and reliable that have earned him raves from Sturm and the coaching staff, not to mention the team’s higher-ups.
At 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, he possesses the strength necessary to survive the NHL’s nightly wars against older and more experienced players. While not generally acknowledged as a spectacular skater, NHL Edge stats list Minten in the 78th percentile in skater speed (22.71 MPH), the 75th percentile in skating distance (129.47), and in the 72nd percentile in speed bursts over 20 MPH (71).
Savvy for a player so young, it’s evident Minten’s hockey IQ is well above average. He’s seemingly always where he needs to be positionally, be it around the net when the Bruins have a scoring chance or winning 50/50 pucks in the neutral zone.
His knack for finding space to make plays in tight areas of the offensive zone and locating the soft spots in a team’s defensive coverage is proof positive of that.
While not on par with the Bruins’ all-time fleecing of the Maple Leafs when they got Tuukka Rask in return for fellow goalie Andrew Raycroft nearly two decades ago, getting Minten (and a 2026 first rounder) for 29-year old defenseman Brandon Carlo at last year’s trade deadline can already be viewed as larceny.
How on earth did Toronto, who only used Minten for 19 games over two seasons in the bigs, ever let this guy get away?
“The thing you can’t teach, he has it,” Sturm said. “The other things, we just have to be patient and work with him. And he has to grow.”
Bruins fans who referred to him as ‘Baby Bergy’ after his overtime goal beat Chicago in the team’s home opener back in October have (rightfully) backed off such proclamations.
But Boston doesn’t Minten to be another Patrice Bergeron. Being a young center just scratching the surface of his potential who’s been a sponge in terms of absorbing information and applying it to his on-ice game has suited him just fine so far.
When asked if he thought of himself as a future Top 6 fixture among the Bruins’ forwards, Minten remained steadfast in his team-first approach.
“I just want to play in the NHL. I’ll play wherever,” he said.
Contact Phil Stacey
@PhilStacey_SN