Which Bruins need to step up most this season?
After a couple years of bouncing around the Bruins’ bottom six and in and out of the lineup, Trent Frederic found a near-permanent home last season as the third-line right wing on arguably the best regular-season team in NHL history.
He put up career highs in goals (17), assists (14) and points (31), and got rewarded last week with a two-year extension worth $2.3 million per season, more than double his previous salary.
Frederic currently projects to be on the third line again this season, but make no mistake: With his new contract comes more responsibility.
Last season, Frederic’s most common linemates were Charlie Coyle and Taylor Hall. Not to take anything away from Frederic – he legitimately took a big step forward and was an asset on that line – but those two had more responsibility when it came to driving the line and dictating play.
Now Hall is gone and Coyle is likely moving up the depth chart to help fill the voids vacated by Patrice Bergeron and, we think, David Krejci. That leaves Frederic as the lone carryover from last year’s third line and, perhaps, its de facto leader.
On paper, Frederic and free-agent signing Morgan Geekie look like the two obvious choices to slot in on the third line, with the third spot up for grabs among a slew of mostly unproven candidates. Frederic and Geekie can both play center or wing, and one of them will almost certainly center the line.
Geekie has more NHL experience at center, including centering the fourth line on a deep Seattle Kraken team last year, but center was also Frederic’s natural position basically his entire career until he moved to wing at the NHL level.
Meeting with the media via Zoom on Thursday, Frederic said he would feel comfortable playing any forward position, especially since he’s already familiar with coach Jim Montgomery’s system.
“I’ve pretty much been a center my whole life until the last, like, three years when I've been kind of in and out of center, but mostly out playing wing,” he said. “I think I kind of understand the system at center, the way we play. It’s kind of a lot of times if you're the low forward, like when I was playing with Charlie, he always like when I chipped in and played down low. I think for me, the biggest thing will be faceoffs, and getting that first touch on the puck for our team will be a big factor, my success there. That's something I probably didn't do the best last year, but I think with repetition, it should be good.”
After playing 11:55 per game last season, a move to center would almost certainly mean more minutes for Frederic, too. Another area where he can pick up more ice time and take on more responsibility is on special teams, especially the penalty kill, where key minutes vacated by Bergeron and Tomas Nosek must be filled.
Frederic would welcome that challenge as well.
“Yeah, I would like to get involved in special teams in some way,” he said. “I guess that's all in my play. I'm sure with people moving on or going to different teams that there should be more openings for that, and there has been the past few years. … Yeah, I would like to play more special teams. It's hard just playing 5-on-5 at times because you can lose some flow in the game. Even a little bit of killing and stuff like that goes a long way. You're not just sitting there getting cold, so I think sometimes playing those other special teams gives you better opportunity 5-on-5. It would be awesome if I get the chance to do any of those.”
The Bruins don’t need Frederic to be a 1-for-1 replacement for any of the guys they lost, be it Bergeron, Krejci, Hall, Tyler Bertuzzi or anyone else. But they do need him to be a key part of the collective effort to overcome those losses, and that means taking another step forward and developing into a player who can not only be a part of a good third line, but who can drive that line.
“You can't really replace those guys,” Frederic acknowledged. “They're great humans, obviously great hockey players. But yeah, hopefully I can try to get more responsibility on this team. It's gonna be hard to replace them, but do the best I can.”
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