TORONTO -- Fraser Minten is hoping to bring his championship pedigree to the Toronto Maple Leafs this season.
A North Shore Inline Hockey League Division I championship, that is.
The 20-year-old center, who was selected by the Maple Leafs in the second round (No. 38) of the 2022 NHL Draft and played four games for them last season, helped lead his in-line team, the White Foxes, to a championship in August. It left Minten, who played at defenseman on the team, with a summer full of great memories with friends in North Vancouver, British Columbia, and even a mini Stanley Cup.
“It’s hockey without defense and without stops and starts,” Minten said. “It’s fun to just have the puck a lot, but it’s just beer league pretty much.”
If he is going to make the Maple Leafs out of training camp for the second straight season, Minten knows he will need to play an entirely different style of game than what he played this summer with the White Foxes.
“You have got to have a detailed game and limit as many holes as possible, so trying to work on that makes sense,” Minten said. “Not necessarily [looking at Toronto’s depth chart] specifically, but you are aware they have super high-end offense up front and you are probably not breaking in in that role, so it’s probably going to be in one of those lower roles in the lineup. So you’re going to have to play physical, show that you can make safe and smart plays consistently and do that sort of thing.”
Minten could earn a role as a third- or fourth-line center if he performs well enough in training camp later this month. Before that, he’ll be among the most intriguing players for Toronto at the 2024 Prospect Showdown this weekend at Bell Centre in Montreal, where the Maple Leafs will face the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday and Sunday.
At Toronto’s first practice for the event Wednesday, Minten centered a line with left wing Easton Cowan, his roommate in training camp last season, and right wing Nikita Grebenkin.
“Just a really good player,” Cowan said of Minten, “always supports the puck well and plays well on both sides of the puck, a good 200-foot player and [I’m] rooming with him again this year, which is always good. Just helps out a lot on the ice that we have good chemistry off the ice, and that should translate on the ice.”
Minten made his NHL debut last season, playing in Toronto’s first four games before returning to the Western Hockey League for the remainder of the season. He had 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in seven games with Kamloops before being traded to Saskatoon, where he had 38 points (19 goals, 19 assists) in 36 games.
Forward Brandon Lisowsky, who also played for Saskatoon last season and is participating with Toronto at the Prospect Showdown as an unsigned free agent, said he noticed a pro style to Minten’s play as soon as the center arrived in Saskatoon.
“When he got back from [the 2024 World Junior Championship as the captain of Canada], his game rose to another level, and then playoffs hit and it jumped another level,” said Lisowsky, who was selected by the Maple Leafs in the seventh round (No. 218) of the 2022 draft. “His little details -- he’s so good on face-offs, getting pucks out on the wall, blocks shots, he’s a good penalty-killer, he finishes checks on the forecheck. Little things that go unnoticed but make a big difference in pro hockey.”
Despite his youth, Minten carries himself as a seasoned veteran.
“He’s definitely a pro,” said Cowan, a first-round pick (No. 28) by Toronto in the 2023 NHL Draft. “He reads, he watches highlights, he stretches. I’ll get out of the shower and all of a sudden he’s on the foam roller that is vibrating the whole time and I’m like, ‘What’s the noise?’ But he’s just a pro, and it’s very impressive at [20 years old].”
Though Minten said his brief taste of the NHL left him with increased confidence and a belief he can play at that level, he doesn’t feel he has earned the right to be a full-time player in the League.
An avid reader, as Cowan pointed out, Minten is currently revisiting “Ego Is The Enemy” by Ryan Holiday, an annual tradition for him as hockey season approaches, in an attempt to find the fine line between ego and self-confidence.
“It’s inner confidence [that I try to play with],” Minten said. “I wouldn’t call it ego. It’s through work and effort that you feel confident in yourself and your abilities. You want to play with swag, but you don’t have to try to be the coolest guy ever all the time.”
