His 6-foot-2 frame and power-forward style of play might say otherwise, but Trent Frederic was candid when asked about his willingness to get into a scrap out on the ice.
"It’s not what I’m trying to be, just a drop-the-gloves guy,” Frederic said Monday — a day ahead of his NHL debut against the Jets.
The Bruins didn’t draft Frederic in the first round of the 2016 Draft to be a bottom-six goon or grinder, that’s for sure. But still, the 20-year-old pivot didn’t discount himself if called upon to drop the gloves.
“Yeah I’m willing to do it,” Frederic said of throwing some punches. "It’s fun, too. It’s a good time."
Count Brandon Tanev as the lone dissenting opinion in that matter — well, at least after taking 14 right hooks to the face on Tuesday night.
At first glance, Frederic’s stat line from Tuesday’s shootout loss to Winnipeg might appear rather pedestrian: 8:29 TOI, two shots on goal, two hits and a 57.1 percent success rate at the faceoff dot. But the rookie’s heavyweight bout with Tanev — just minutes into his first outing in the NHL ranks — ensured that Frederic more than made his mark at the next level, while drawing a standing ovation from the TD Garden crowd.
Trent Frederic yesterday:
"It’s not what I’m trying to be, just a drop-the-gloves guy. But yeah I’m willing to do it.
"It’s fun, too. It’s a good time."
Good god, man. #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/RsIAZOyar4
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) January 30, 2019
Frederic certainly didn’t look out of place during his brouhaha in the Jets’ slot, keeping the 6-foot Tanev at bay while delivering a punishing salvo of shots up high. Frederic waded through a number of high-fives and fist bumps as he headed down the tunnel to serve his fighting major — while his parents, Bob and Gaye, cheered on from the stands.
“I was just riding the bike and (Bruins content specialist)
Travis (Basciotta)
just showed me,” Frederic said of his folks’ missed high-five. “Yeah, that’s tough, we’ll have them work on that. But one of these days.
Trent Frederic's parents are PUMPED. #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/zGZPupulcl
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) January 30, 2019
Frederic operates with a certain level of nasty in his game, especially in the corners and on the forecheck, but don’t expect the two-way pivot to be cracking skulls whenever he gets the opportunity. Tuesday’s beatdown might have drawn applause and stick taps from Boston’s bench, but for linemate
David Backes
— the fracas was far more than just a display of brute strength.
“That’s like the old days when you got into the lineup and you wanted to make your mark and show that you’ll do anything to stay there,” Backes said. “I don’t know if that’s a regular thing for him, but he did a heck of a job, and I’m proud of him, and he got his feet wet tonight. … That’s part of the game that’s not always there these days, and to see it back, I loved it. Again, kid holds his own, and he’s a big, tough kid.”
At this point, Boston really isn’t in the market for enforcers or goons when it comes to shoring up this roster. These aren’t the “Big Bad Bruins” of yesteryear, but this club can still drop the gloves with the best of them — ranking second in the NHL with 16 fighting majors on the season.
Still, for as much as players like
Kevan Miller
are willing to toss some punches,
Bruce Cassidy
believes that a certain level of “nasty” needs to be tapped into a bit more at times for his younger core of players.
Frederic’s physical style is a bit of a far cry from some of the recent players that have made the jump up from Boston’s prospect pipeline — including
Danton Heinen, Ryan Donato, Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson
and
Matt Grzelcyk.
Still, Frederic’s willingness to stand up for himself — and set a tone for the rest of his team — is a facet of the game that Cassidy hopes will start to take root among the rest of Boston’s younger crop of skaters.
Boston’s bench boss isn’t asking
Brandon Carlo
to suddenly become
Scott Stevens
out there, but opposing clubs should also have to think twice about making a pass at a 6-foot-5 blueliner. If anything, it makes the optics a bit better when Boston isn’t sending out a 41-year-old
Zdeno Chara
to drop the gloves with a player nearly half of his age.
“We need some of that,” Cassidy said of Frederic’s scrap. “There’s a lot of younger players in the league now, so it can’t be Zee and Backes policing 20-year-olds every night. They’ll take care of the veteran guys ... but you need a little bit of the younger guys to stiffen up. And Freddy brought that tonight.
“Hopefully it rubs off. Starting to see a little more of it out of Carlo later on. So, we have plenty of size and grit in there. You saw it last year with
(Jake) DeBrusk
, (
David Pastrnak
). They all got in altercations ...
Charlie (McAvoy
). So, you need a little more of that in our younger group to take care of the younger guys. And I thought we were able to do that tonight, and Freddy was a big part of that.”
Even beyond the fight, Frederic did the little things to earn some additional reps going forward on the third line. While Boston has searched in vain to find the right personnel for that trio for most of the season, Frederic’s willingness to throw his weight around on the forecheck seemed to allow Backes to simplify his game as well — with the duo controlling possession for a majority of their shifts by simply outmuscling the opposition off the puck.
In 8:13 of 5v5 TOI together, that line of Heinen-Frederic-Backes generated a Corsi For Percentage of 76.92 while holding a plus-5 shot differential and generating a high-danger scoring chance against Jets netminder
Connor Hellebuyck.
The next step for Frederic and his line is to cash in on those opportunities in the offensive zone. But for now, Cassidy was more than satisfied with what his young center showed out on the ice Tuesday.
“Listen, he said it, ‘I came out of school to play in the National Hockey League,’” Cassidy said. “And I think he means it. He’s a big body. He’s got some of that in him where he’s willing to do that, so if those are your strengths, or the intangibles I guess, that you bring, then you need to bring them. And he did. So, I think he knows that there’s a window here to show what he can do, and that’s part of it. And get after it.
“I don’t expect him to do that every night, but a guy came at him and he was willing to stand up for himself, and good for him. I think he did a lot of other things well, too. He’s trying to be physical on that line, against a physical line. I think he’ll endear himself to the fans if he plays that way and to his teammates and to the coaching staff."
