The Sunday Read: Inside Minten’s Vancouver Homecoming

VANCOUVER –– Fraser Minten had the perfect location in mind for his seventh birthday.

He spent most of his days under the Cambie Bridge on the Vancouver seawall playing street hockey with Rogers Arena as the backdrop. Some of Minten’s opponents, though, were flaky with their participation. And so, the youngster thought of a way to keep the game going as long as he wanted.

​“I told my parents I wanted to play road hockey for my birthday, so the kids had to play so I had competition,” Minten said. “We had an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. That was the go-to.”

Minten wore his red tank top, which read “Champions Never Rest,” to the festivities and battled for the win, while his counterparts tried to keep up.

​The Boston Bruins forward, now 21 years old, stood on the same concrete court five minutes from his childhood apartment on Friday ahead of his team’s matchup against the Vancouver Canucks the next day.​

“I would credit it all to right here,” Minten said. “There was no forcing me to play hockey, parents paying for skill development or anything. It was just stick, ball and fun every day. I think that’s why I still go to the rink every day. I want to have fun. I’ve got the best job on earth now.”​

Saturday’s 3-2 overtime win against the Canucks at Rogers Arena marked Minten’s first time skating at his hometown rink in his NHL career. He had between 50 and 100 friends and family members in the crowd for the milestone.

The dress code requested by Minten was Bruins and Kamloops Blazers (the WHL team Minten played for) jerseys; no Canucks colors, despite the ties.

“It is really a proud moment,” said Chantal Minten, Fraser’s mom.

Minten embraced the moment, scoring two goals – including the overtime game-winner – in front of an audience he used to be part of. Minten met up with his crew after the game, and gifted Chantal the night’s puck and his post-game Hockey Night in Canada towel.

“Lots of happiness,” Minten said. “Happy to win, happy to do it here. Just a good feeling.”

Chantal and her husband, Trevor, were never big hockey fans, but Fraser’s early love for the sport dragged them in. Vancouver hosted the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, and Sidney Crosby’s Golden Goal for Team Canada was scored just up the block from the Minten home. The Canucks followed it up with a trip to the Stanley Cup finals in 2011, falling to none other than the Bruins. Those two runs had Minten – and, in hand, his family – hooked.​

“They’d win a series, and we’d go walk down to Granville street, and we’d be on shoulders high-fiving everybody. I thought it was so cool. And we’d always go to the candy store, too, when they won,” Minten said. “The city, the energy from the city…The passion was around and contagious for everybody.”

Minten became a student of the game, doing everything he could to put himself in the same position as those he idolized.

“When he was little, he would want to watch [hockey], and we would say, ‘Hm, it’s kind of after bedtime.’ So we’d send him up to bed and say, ‘You can listen to it,’” Chantal said. “And then the next morning, he came down, and he was able to talk about a goal that happened on the radio. He was very little, so we kind of went, ‘Oh dear. How is he paying attention to that?’”

That passion led Minten to the WHL from 2020 to 2024, and soon, the pros. He was selected in the second round of the 2022 NHL Draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs and spent two years with the organization before getting traded to Boston in March. Minten made the Bruins’ NHL roster out of training camp in September and hasn’t looked back.

He has been centering the third line between Marat Khusnutdinov and David Pastrnak, and has 15 points (six goals, nine assists) through 42 games. While the youngest on the team, Minten has quickly earned trust and responsibility from the coaching staff. His self-belief is part of the reason why.

“On Draft day, I looked at him and said, ‘Oh my gosh, can you believe this?’ And he said, ‘Mom, I always did,’” Chantal said.“We supported him. We loved that he loved it so much.”

Minten’s access to ice was cut for a time leading up to his draft because of COVID-19. To keep his shot sharp, Minten went back to his street hockey roots. He got a free net on Craigslist and dragged it to the Rogers Arena parking lot.

“There were no people outside, so it wasn’t embarrassing,” Minten said.​

When Trevor calls his son now, it’s all hockey talk, Minten said – a change up from his childhood. Minten’s NHL journey, evidently, goes far beyond himself. For his parents, he’s still the same kid taking in hockey wherever he could find it.​

“When he was young, we’d have paper delivery to the door, and he would always run out in the morning to check the scores in the sports section. Look at the top and see the numbers. He couldn’t read yet, but he could see the symbols for the teams and the numbers, and caught up with what was happening,” Trevor said. “It’s exciting to see it all coming to fruition back in Vancouver again from the days when he was dreaming about it here to play in his hometown.”

Minten spent a night at home when the Bruins arrived in Vancouver. His bedroom is still decorated with relics from his hockey past, including the dressing-room name bars from all his previous teams. The walls hold bunches of medals and frames of his old hockey jerseys; Chantal took on the project herself.

Minten said the setup has not changed much since he last lived at home. Other than the fact, of course, that he is now a regular NHLer just in town for a brief visit.​

“I don’t know if I really think about it too much like that. I still picture myself on the inside as a kid who loves hockey,” Minten said. “Don’t really feel like I’m beyond all of this stuff yet, which is probably the way it should be. I’m still just a big fan of the game. Love the game. Cool to see the progress, though, and definitely proud of it.”