Bruins Prospect Fraser Minten, a solid debut and an advantage on 2025-26
BOSTON – Toronto Maple Leafs are the best team of the Atlantic division. They will be in the playoffs for the ninth consecutive season, the longest series of the NHL. If he stayed with his team of drafts, Fraser Minten would not have had a blow for an audition of Varsity, not with the foves hungry for the first place in the Atlantic.
Things have changed.
Minten, the choice of the second round of the Leafs in 2022, made his debut in Boston Bruins in the 5-1 victory on Saturday over the Carolina Hurricanes. Marat Khusnutdinov and Vinni Lettieri centered on line n. 3.
In 14:59 by Ice Time, Minten attempted two shots, won four out of 11 faces and kept the hurricanes outside the scoreboard during his shifts. Minten did not do anything flashy. But he played a professional game away from the disc, using the legs to close quickly and stretch the stick to stop games.
“You can see that there is a sense of hockey in his game,” said interim coach Joe Sacco. “Tonight he was on the right side of the album. I thought it was a good first game for him.”
A debut with the @Nhlbruins Tonight for Fraser Minten!
pic.twitter.com/utytftsj66
– NHL (@Nhl) April 5, 2025
The Bruins were officially eliminated by the playoffs on Saturday. With the points no longer a priority, the new minten club has had no problems throwing it deeply. Minten felt in the same way.
“He never skied on this first track,” Minten said before the game. “I’ve never been to the city before. They are all new things. So surely many new things.”
General Manager Don Sweeney performed Brandon Carlo’s trade with Leafs due to the opportunity to ask Minten. The 20 -year -old center could grow in the next version of Charlie Coyle’s Bruins, which Sweeney had exchanged with the Colorado avalanche before making its agreement with the Leafs.
If and when Minten becomes a full -time NHL center it remains to be seen.
“We go out and see what can probably do a little more than a defensive role sometimes tonight on the killing of penalty,” said Sacco before the game. “However, we want to see if he manages to do some comedies at this level, the rhythm with which he plays, the physicality, all the things we are looking for in some of the young people who are here at this moment.”
Of all the deficiencies of the franchise, the center could be the most significant weak point. Pavel Zacha (45 points) will not approach the career last year (59). Coyle had 22 points, falling from 60 in 2023-24, at the time Sweeney transferred him to the avalanche of Colorado. Matt PoiTras is not up to expectations this season.
The Sweeney connection pursued in the free agency by signing Elias Lindholm has another six years of which project is expensive performance. It is not known if Casey Mittelstadt, acquired in Coyle’s trade, is quite all round to be a high -level center.
In this way, the Bruins have a desperate need for minten that attack themselves as a center n. 3 Next year or 2026-27, even if the offense does not become his business card. Minten has three goals and four assists for Providence in 10 games. He will participate in the AHL playoffs once his NHL assignment is completed. Once back for the training field, Minten will compete with Poitras, among others, for the third line place.
“I think they came out and they took me because they thought it would be translated well. I think he did it well so far,” said Minten. “Just be a boy who plays well on both sides of the disc, closes the games, passes them and plays the reliable and coherent hockey that the Bruins want to play.”
In a sense, a fall without 10 -games victories was a hostile environment in which to place a perspective. The Bruins would have been wary of putting Poitras, for example, in this type of situation.
But in another way, hurricanes were an ideal opponent for Minten to show what it can do. Play with the rhythm. They take records in each dial. Sebastian Aho (70 points) and Seth Jarvis (61) are high -end threats. If close control gets Minten a permanent varsity point, hurricanes have given multiple opportunities to the center to chase the disc. He held his. The next step is to transform the defensive stops into offensive opportunities.
“I’m just going to these games in possibilities,” Minten said about his next progression. “Get a little faster, clinging to records and transforming those interruptions into opportunities.”
It was a first demanding professional season for Minten. Leafs remembered him from HL on November 19, 2024 Minten was preparing to play Providence on March 8 with the Marlies when the trade took place. Visa problems prevented him from changing uniform and playing that day.
“A little professional hockey taste in my first year, which is good to get the repetitions as a young man and understand how business works,” said Minten. “Go up, going down this season this season. Trying to understand what you can to stay, in the end get to the NHL and stay there. Many good experiences. I certainly was useful for my trajectory.”
Minten was solid. David Pastrnak has pumped three records plus Frederik Andersen to score 40 goals for the fourth consecutive season. Jeremy Swayman stopped 39 of 40 shots. The Bruins won for the first time since 11 March.
“A great weight was released by all our shoulders,” Swayman said to stop the slide. “It is a rewarding feeling to cross it, to finally get out of it and feel good with our game. It is so nice to see the garden again.
(Photo: Brian Fluhaarty / Getty Images)
