It’s been a solid, linear year of development for 21-year-old Fraser Minten with the Boston Bruins this season as he’s been a constant in the lineup as a rookie two-way center playing well beyond his years of experience.
But even so it’s been a gradual process for the Bruins coaching staff, giving the first-year skater greater responsibilities and more weight on his shoulders. Certainly, it’s been successful with Minten on pace for a decent 16 goals and 33 points as the third line pivot this season, but then again, that isn’t far off what a guy named Patrice Bergeron did (16 goals, 39 points) in his first full NHL campaign either.
But in Saturday’s first visit to his hometown of Vancouver, Minten took a massive leap forward while potting a pair of goals – including the overtime game-winner -- in Boston’s 3-2 OT win over the Canucks at Rogers Arena.
IN FRONT OF 50 - 100 FRIENDS AND FAMILY, FRASER MINTEN DELIVERS THE OT WINNER 🚨
— Spittin' Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) January 4, 2026
pic.twitter.com/d8VvhpdRIv
It showed how much he’s grown this season, but also perhaps what he’s capable of as he stretches his muscles at the NHL level.
“He deserves every bit of it,” said Jeremy Swayman, who was also pretty stellar while making 31 saves in the overtime victory. “He’s one of the hardest workers on the team. He plays the right way and he carries himself the right way like a pro. It’s awesome to see him get results and it’s expected now because he’s put himself in a position to be an elite player. It’s really fun to watch and be a part of. He’s in this league for a reason and he’s a Bruin through and through.
Minten logged a career-high (20:30) in terms of ice time, was the best player on the ice for either team through nearly 65 minutes of hockey and is even now pushing for power play time where he scored on Saturday from the bumper position to open up Boston’s scoring during the game. It’s been a process for the B’s coaching staff to provide him with more rope and greater opportunities as his experience and confidence levels have burgeoned over the season, and it all came to a sweet crescendo for the B’s in his hometown.
“You can’t describe a better script. He’s a young kid growing up here around the corner, begging for tickets just to see the Canucks play. What a game he had today,” said Marco Sturm. “Trust usually comes with time and he’s given me that. I’m just [the] idiot that’s going to put him on the ice. Give him a lot of credit. I’m glad he was able to get that one and he’s going to remember it for a long time.
“We were actually holding [in waiting] him for a long time to be on the power play because he’s still young and he’s still learning. But halfway through [the season] we thought it’s been the right thing to do and he’s been excellent on the PP too, and on the kill. He slowly has been becoming a man and there’s still some improvement left.”
The OT heroics in Vancouver were followed by a Hockey Night in Canada spot with Scott Oake that’s part of what every hockey-crazed Canadian kid dreams to be doing some day as his storybook Saturday night played out like some sort of puck fairy tale. Little surprise that Minten himself was just soaking it in and rushing to go enjoy the moment with his family as one of his life’s highlights to this point and wasn’t about to try and put everything in perspective during a postgame scrum in the middle of his hockey journey.
“Lots of happiness. Happiness to win and happiness to do it here. Good feelings,” said Minten. “It was really cool for me and my friends. We all dreamed of doing the same thing, so to get it do it here with a group effort was good for everyone.”
There will be highs and lows to come for a talented, young player like Minten that’s going to have a long run in Boston as one of the core guys on these teams moving forward, but it’s going to be tough to top a magical return to his Vancouver stomping grounds.
ONE TIMERS
• Talk about a hugely entertaining video put up by former Bruins social media guru/videographer Michael Penworthy to commemorate 1,000 NHL points for former B’s captain and current Florida Panthers winger Brad Marchand. Patrice Bergeron does a hilarious job playing No. 63 in the video to great parody-style and there’s even some funny nods to David Pastrnak as well as far-reaching cameos from guys like Marcus Johansson, PK Subban and Leo Komarov that factor into Marchand’s checkered past as a rabble-rouser and hockey rodent.
It's been enjoyable to watch Bergeron clearly enjoy and gravitate towards television work whether it’s on NESN, doing commercial work or this kind of fun parody stuff where he definitely has some acting and comedy chops that nobody ever knew about during his Hall of Fame playing career.
This is super-high entertainment if you haven’t seen it and is a really interesting bookend along with a formal tribute video from the Panthers that showed so many greats like Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, Sidney Crosby, Claude Julien, Bruce Cassidy and others saluting Marchand reaching the elite 1K mark for an NHL player. It’s also hilarious to see Bergeron also doing a star turn as David Pastrnak coming by for a visit during the proceedings as well.
• Congrats to all the Boston Bruins named to Olympic rosters this week, including no-brainers like Jeremy Swayman and Charlie McAvoy to Team USA, and Elias Lindholm to Team Sweden along with a currently injured Henri Jokiharju making the cut for Team Finland’s back end.
When Bill Guerin calls, you answer...eventually 📞
— USA Hockey (@usahockey) January 2, 2026
The 25 players selected to the 2026 U.S. Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Team rang in the New Year with the call of a lifetime! 🇺🇸 #MilanoCortina2026 pic.twitter.com/EXRI13it42
“I think it’s just a great opportunity to experience playing with the best of the best and representing our country – of course, something that is a lot bigger than us as individuals,” said Swayman. “That is something I can really get behind. That’s what I love most about this kind of event, is because you’re playing your heart out for your country and you’re representing more than yourself.”
Hampus Lindholm was a somewhat surprising omission for the Swedes, with the team going in another NHL direction on the back end for players like Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and it was a bit eye-opening that Morgan Geekie didn’t seem to generate much interest for Team Canada despite scoring close to 50 goals in NHL play over the last calendar year.
Certainly, he had plenty of boosters in the Bruins dressing room who thought he should be Italy-bound for the Winter Olympics, but they ultimately went for older, experienced winners like Marchand and younger, skilled skaters like 20-year-old Mack Celebrini who will be an even bigger part of Team Canada four years from now.
“I told Geeks that we’ll take him for Team Czech,” said a smiling Pastrnak, who was named to Team Czechia along with Pavel Zacha during the summer.
The truth is that Team Canada is always loaded and that is a tremendously difficult group to crack, and players like Brad Marchand making the Canadian team made it impossible for Geekie to be included this time around. For Marchand, it’s been a 20-year dream to play in an Olympics that he was never sure he was going to live out after past dreams were wiped out during COVID issues and other Olympic years where NHL participation just wasn’t feasible.
Brad Marchand reacts to making Team Canada. 🇨🇦 #milanocortina2026
— BarDown (@BarDown) January 2, 2026
(via: @nhl) pic.twitter.com/bSyFUGd6dN
Needless to say, the Nose Face Killah is pumped to play for Team Canada after starring in international play for Maple Leaf Nation during the 4 Nations Faceoff last season.
“It’s an incredible feeling. It’s the highest honor you can have in the game,” said Marchand. “There are some incredible tournaments that have been put together -- the World Cup and the 4 Nations -- but trying to replicate the Olympics, that will never happen because of the history and what that means to individuals in the country. You can tell the excitement that has been around it ever since they announced we are going to be able to go back. There is just such a tremendous amount of pride to be a part of that. It’s a pretty incredible feeling.”
