Bruins' Trent Frederic Blocking Out Draft Critics
By Matt Kalman, CBS Boston
WILMINGTON (CBS) -- Among his many talents, 18-year-old Bruins prospect Trent Frederic is a quick learner.
Frederic, who said he's not computer savvy, took a coding course last year at school. By the end, he was able to make apps for phones, including a prayer app.
"Every day you pull up the app and you get a new prayer. A new picture shows up," he said after one day of practice last week at Bruins development camp at Ristuccia Arena.
The Bruins are hoping Frederic's ability to improve on the ice mirrors the way he was able to expand his knowledge of computers. That's why they selected him 29th overall at the 2016 NHL Draft, ahead of his Central Scouting Service ranking of 32nd among North America skaters. When you factor in the European skaters and goaltenders from both sides of the Atlantic, Frederic seemed like a better bet to go in the mid-to-late second round.
Bruins director of amateur scouting Keith Gretzky even mentioned Frederic as a future third-line player when the draft was through. He didn't exactly set the bar high for Frederic or make the Bruins seem wise.
So far, Frederic hasn't let any of the criticism of the Bruins or the rhetoric about his game affect his excitement about getting drafted. Nor has the talk dampened his enthusiasm for someday making the Bruins look smart about the pick.
"I don't really know. I haven't really looked too much into it," the 6-foot-2, 203-pound center said. "I'm just kind of excited to be on the team. It doesn't really matter where you get picked, it's just what you do from there."
Frederic's stint as a Bruins prospect started strong during development camp. He showed some of the offensive skills that maybe didn't show up last season, when he had four goals and 10 assists in 23 regular season games for the U.S. National Team Development Program Under-18 team. Frederic had seven points in seven games during a run to the bronze medal at the IIHF Under-18 World Championship (playing through a broken hand). Bruins assistant coach Jay Pandolfo noted that Frederic was playing behind Clayton Keller and Kieffer Bellows, so the opportunity to be an offensive force might not have been as ever-present as it could be going forward.
At development camp, Frederic combined his size and smarts with solid set-up hands around the net, which could continue to blossom.
Bruins executive director of player personnel John Ferguson didn't want to pigeonhole Frederic into any future role.
"His athleticism is well-documented, he demonstrated that here as well," Ferguson said. "That size and strength in the middle projects well. We certainly think, we're not going to put a ceiling on anyone at this age, but he does demonstrate the ability to be a real solid two-way center with size. So aside from that, we're seeing what we expected to see and frankly we're seeing some of the hands that he demonstrated ... in that [USNTD] program. Scored a point a game in the Under-18s and was one of the bigger, stronger centermen that was available in the draft. So he's been impressive and he continues to be."
Frederic will try to grow his game this season at Wisconsin, where he'll continue to get NHL-caliber coaching. Throughout his career he was coached in the St. Louis area by former NHL players Jeff Brown and Keith Tkachuk. Now he'll be under the watchful eye of Tony Granato.
The race is on for Frederic to develop fast enough that he'll get to play with one of his idols, newly signed Bruins forward David Backes. Frederic said he even modeled his game after Backes, who signed a five-year contract, which could provide just enough time for the St. Louis native and the former St. Louis captain to cross paths.
"That would be pretty sweet if I could get a chance to play with him and learn what he's done throughout his career. That would be pretty sweet," Frederic said.
It will also be sweet for the Bruins if their reach at the 2016 draft turns out to be a stroke of genius.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.
