Bruins Notebook: Trent Frederic is learning on fly - and paying dividends in B's lineup; Hall signs ELC

Be it injuries or ineffectiveness, the Bruins' bottom-six forward group has often been put in a blender for most of the 2021 season.

While the initial plan was for a Ritchie-Coyle-Smith / Bjork-Kuraly-Wagner grouping to round out Boston's forward corps out of training camp, that fell to the wayside before the puck even dropped on the season opener, with an injury to Smith prompting Boston to insert Trent Frederic into the lineup.

And yet, through all of the lineup shuffling, benchings and tweaks since then, Frederic hasn't warranted a night off from game action — appearing in all 19 games that the B's have taken part in so far this year.

As expected, there's been some hiccups along the way as the 23-year-old forward adjusts to faster play and more daunting competition up in the NHL ranks — headlined by a sequence during Thursday's loss to the Islanders in which Anthony Beauvillier picked Frederic's pocket in the low slot and buried a goal against the B's.

https://twitter.com/NHL/status/1365124973610872835

But rather than opt for a harsher sentence for the rookie miscue, Bruce Cassidy and the Bruins instead kept Frederic in the lineup moving forward — a fate not afforded to a few others in Boston's bottom six, with both Chris Wagner and Anders Bjork benched for Sunday's rematch against the Rangers.

As costly as his gaffe was on Long Island, Boston knows that developmental bumps in the road come with the territory for players getting their feet wet in the top league in the world — and fostering the potential that Frederic brings as a physical presence, forechecking asset and overall pest far outweighs burying him on the depth chart for one error.

Boston was rewarded for their patience on Sunday, as Frederic put together one of the best games of his young career in New York — with the former first-round pick continue to build a case for himself as a bottom-six fixture on this team moving forward.

As much as Frederic's proficiency with dropping the gloves and driving the opposition crazy have been well-documented, the rest of his game is also falling into place — most importantly, his comfort level in the offensive zone. Even though his speed and increased strength have been evident on the forecheck and is one of the reasons why his shot-possession metrics to open the year were so strong, most of those extended offensive-zone possessions didn't lead to much on the scoreboard, with Frederic limited to just one helper through his first 15 games this season.

But since then, Frederic has lit the lamp twice in four games, including a tip-in of a Connor Clifton shot during Sunday's win over the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1366081917616029696

With Boston's 5v5 offense stuck in neutral for most of the team's recent skid, Frederic did the simple things necessary to get some Grade-A chances generated, namely driving to the net and creating traffic in front of Igor Shesterkin. It was far from a flash in the pan, however, as a revamped third line of Frederic, Jack Studnicka and Jake DeBrusk were a threat throughout the matinee matchup — with the Bruins holding a 4-0 edge in high-danger scoring chances when that trio was deployed in 11:00 of 5v5 ice time.

"Studnicka-Frederic-DeBrusk played a hard game with the puck in the o-zone," Cassidy said. "They're young guys and sometimes young guys get light, they want to make fancy plays. So I thought they did a real good job of generating offense, not just off the rush, but protecting pucks, supporting one another — so that was definitely encouraging."

Of course, Frederic also didn't stray away from what he does best, which is pester the bejesus out of opponents after every whistle. Even though he didn't dispatch any Blueshirts with a spirited scrap, Cassidy was quick to acknowledge that Frederic's irksome style of play can certainly weigh against teams — especially during a season like this with multiple rematches on the docket.

"He's starting to annoy people. He's a big body that can back it up," Cassidy said of Frederic. "We're seeing growth in his game. He's getting some points, he's around the puck a lot more. He's shooting more, so it's a good thing for our team. It's as advertised with what we know when he was drafted  —he was going to be a big body that could play inside and obviously needed some developing and now you're seeing a bit of the edge to his game.

"You never know who's gonna sort of be a guy that's vocal on the ice and who's quiet. He's certainly vocal now  —getting people's attention and willing to back it up. You need players like that. It's a long year, you need energy in different ways. And if that's what makes him a better player, than we're all for it, as long as he doesn't cross the line or when he does, we reel him in. So so far, I think it's been done with a great amount of discipline and he's gotten better in every stretch of sort of 10 games and that's what you hope for, right? As the year goes on, you get yourself a better player in April, let's say, then you did when you started in January."

Frederic's continued development into a bottom-six stalwart would be a huge coup for the Bruins when it comes to shoring up their lineup, but even if he starts piling on points more consistently, don't expect Frederic to put his scrapper past in the rearview.

Even after Sunday's convincing win and his contributions on the stat sheet, Frederic still wishes he had another entry etched into the box score — a five-minute scrap with Rangers forward Brendan Lemieux.

While Lemieux dropped the gloves with Nick Ritchie as time expired on Sunday, Frederic will be looking for another rematch in the weeks ahead — as he's longed for another bout with the Rangers forward after they first fought back on Feb. 12.

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1366116625087365128

"Yeah, a little bit," Frederic said Sunday when asked if he was jealous of Ritchie getting to fight Lemieux. "It was pretty cool. It's fun to watch. Hopefully I get another shot at No. 48."

B's sign Curtis Hall to ELC 

One of the B's more promising prospects is "officially" in the fold, as former Yale product Curtis Hall signed his three-year, entry-level contract on Monday, which will begin with the 2021-22 season. The deal carries an annual NHL cap hit of $925,000.

Hall, selected by the B's in the fourth round of the 2018 Draft, signed an AHL deal with Providence back in January — but has only played one game with the Baby B's so far this year due to a lower-body injury. That run-in with the injury bug has been the latest setback in what has been a trying year for Hall, who was in the midst of a very promising sophomore campaign with the Bulldogs last spring (17 goals in 28 games) before COVID-19 halted his season.

Even though Hall was expected to take another big step in 2020-21 as a featured cog in Yale's lineup as a junior, he eventually found himself as a man without a team, as all Ivy League schools opted to cancel their winter seasons back in November due to COVID. After some time spent in limbo, Hall ultimately opted to go the pro route.

It remains to be seen when Hall will return to Providence's lineup this season, but the talented power forward is due for a fresh start in 2021-22, to say the least.

https://twitter.com/SpokedZ/status/1366505928686776320

He's a big body (6-foot-3, 210 pounds), but Hall can also get moving in a hurry — and has the potential to develop into an effective forechecking force in a bottom-six corps, with his stock potentially rising if he continues to pot goals at the rate he did in the NCAA ranks.

"He is a big boy,” Bruins player development coordinator Jamie Langenbrunner said of Hall last summer. "He always looked better in a game for me than practice. He is just one of those guys that it's his effort and his competing. It is not necessarily the prettiest thing ever, but he is an effective hockey player and we saw it again today. Excellent motor, big body."