Minten's success fueled by competitive nature with Bedard

BOSTON -- Steve Marr knew the season would be a crucial one for Connor Bedard, with the 14-year-old going for his special exemption for the Western Hockey League, with the spotlight and the pressure and the need to be his best.

So he sat down to create, as he put it, "a stimulating and challenging environment with Connor's skillset in mind," for his 2019-20 team at West Van Academy Prep in Vancouver, British Columbia.

It was called the "Practice Cauldron."

"I started doing these practice analytics out of practice every day, a system that I just felt was fairly innovative at the time," Marr said. "The player that really bought into it the quickest was Fraser."

That's Fraser Minten, Bedard's then-teammate and the Boston Bruins rookie acquired prior to the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline from the Toronto Maple Leafs in the deal that sent defenseman Brandon Carlo north of the border and netted Boston Minten and a first-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. He's a player who, through a combination of hockey smarts and reliability, has become a safety blanket of sorts for coach Marco Sturm, a 21-year-old both allergic to mistakes and eager to challenge himself to improve, netting him an occasional spot as first-line center with David Pastrnak.

His blossoming has coincided with that of the Bruins, who were not expected to reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season, but who sit in the second wild-card spot with three games remaining heading into their game against the Tampa Bay Lightning at TD Garden on Saturday (12:30 p.m. ET; ABC, SNW).  

The rookie center came in with a work ethic and a ethos that Marr saw as far back as that 2019-20 season, in which he designed a system meant to get the most out of Bedard, a player who would go No. 1 in the 2023 NHL Draft to the Chicago Blackhawks, that had the added benefit of building a foundation for his other potential NHL player.

Marr would spend hours upon hours – Minten estimated it could take six per practice – compiling all the statistics he could, noting them, tracking them, and posting the results.

"It was just a huge stat pack before practice," Minten said. "He would video every practice and then watch the whole thing back and track, like, everything. He tracked your shooting percentage in practice and your hit net percentage in practice, rebound goals you'd score in practice. We'd do faceoffs, he'd track your faceoff percentage in practice. Your missed passes, everything.

"Every single thing you did in practice, he tracked and then posted it every day, updated rankings. The whole team, one through 18."

It pushed Bedard. But it pushed Minten too, a way to gauge himself against his competition, a way to understand what he was and what he could be. As Bedard said, "It made him pretty competitive, so that was fun. … It made it really intense. It actually made us a lot better as a team."

It would not be the last time Marr was wowed by Minten, an under-the-radar player with subtle skills and a hockey mind that was advanced, even at 15.

"He saw it as an opportunity to have a tool that measured his progress every day in practice," Marr said. "He had probably the best player in the world for his age in that environment every day and then he looked to challenge himself head-to-head vs. Connor in practice with a lot of the statistical categories.

"It was incredible to watch his growth."

* * * * *

It has been a long time since Minten endured the practice cauldron, half a dozen years in which he has learned and advanced, been drafted, been traded, established himself as a full-time NHL player.

But he still feels the echoes.

"The biggest thing for me was trying to keep up to Connor in shooting," Minten said. "I don't think I was able to get past him ever, but it just made you focus so much on each rep, like never make a bad pass, never miss the net, just building habits over and over so that it becomes something that's just ingrained in you."

He thrived on the competition, on the fun, as he tested himself and – mostly – passed.

"I remember when I got to junior next year, we didn't do it, obviously, like nobody does that," Minten said. "But you're thinking about it. Like if you miss the net, it's like a guilty, 'Oh, that would have been bad for my percentage.' So it's just a habit creator, I think."

That he had even gotten that far, in some ways, was a surprise. Minten showed up at the tryouts at West Van Academy Prep as a relative unknown, a kid apart from the usual suspects and cliques in the hockey world.

No one knew what to expect.

But, Marr said, it was immediately apparent that he had potential.

"He had a lot of talent, but he had some areas of his game that you questioned, would it get to this level? And then when he got to that level, would it get to the next level?" Marr said. "He came in and just let his play and his intelligence and his work do the talking for him."

He took on Bedard. He took on the challenge of challenging himself against someone for whom so much was expected. 

"That's a pretty courageous thing to do for a kid whose parents barely thought he was ready for that level," Marr said. "It was fun to watch him push and challenge and chirp a little bit at Connor every day in practice, but he knew the more he antagonized Connor that Connor would raise his level and he knew that would benefit himself because then he was going to have to raise his level to match it and it was just kind of a seesaw of competition."

It was a brilliant strategy.

"You started to recognize, 'Wow, between the ears this kid's got something special that a lot of kids that might be more talented don't have," Marr said.

* * * * *

When Minten left West Van Academy, his next stop was in Kamloops, with the Kamloops Blazers of the Western Hockey League. It was there he encountered Shaun Clouston, a coach with years of experience in the WHL.

Minten, once again, was not cowed. When he saw something, a different approach, a new play to try, an opening, he didn't stay quiet. It was something Marr had seen at West Van Academy, and something he heard tell of once he joined the Kamloops staff this season.

"'Minty' was the guy that behind the scenes would be talking with me, the head coach, and recommending things that we do, like as a 15-year-old talking to an adult, giving me ideas about the team that I didn't think of, or how to deal with this player," Marr said. "That's one thing our current head coach here with the Blazers (Clouston) always praised was, the three years he had Fraser – and he's in the top six all time in wins in the Western Hockey League – and here's an 18-year-old coming from a shift suggesting an adjustment to make systemically."

It could have come off wrong, a kid getting out over his skis. 

It didn't because, as Marr said, Minten "puts the ego aside" in those moments, his suggestions inevitably about what's best for the team as a whole. 

"It was just normal to me," Minten said. "The coaches I've had before were super collaborative, open to you being a leader, reading out, working together, like it only helps if you're collaborating in a group setting, trying to work towards something together."

He figured, if he had something to add, why wouldn't he?

* * * * *

Minten's personality is not loud. Neither is his game. 

It is defensively sound. It is reliable. It is unlikely to get him or his team in trouble. 

But there remains potential for more. In 79 games in his rookie season, Minten has 34 points (17 goals, 17 assists), and is averaging 15:33 on ice per game, though that number has ticked up as his role has increased and as the Bruins have come to depend on him more. Since the start of March, Minten is averaging 17:29 per game, with that number ticking above 20 twice.

There is a question about whether he may still have more upside offensively, more to give, more to score. As his good friend, former teammate, and tenant in the place he bought in Toronto while still with the Maple Leafs, Easton Cowan, said, "He has very good offensive instincts I feel like he doesn't get credited for enough."

But whether or not that materializes, he is doing exactly what the Bruins need.

"That's the thing with Fraser: Does he have first-line skillsets and talents? Maybe not," Marr said. "But he's a player that you can literally plot him on the fourth line one night, plot him on the first line the next night and you know what you're going to get from him in either situation. He's so reliable."

Sturm has recognized that potential in Minten, the responsibility, the understanding.

"There's a lot of things you can't teach and that's what he has, and that's why he's ahead of some other guys," Sturm said. "That's just the way it is. Because he already had it, and also a lot of things are easy for him. Even the teaching part, he gets it right away. Other guys don't. ... He's lucky enough to be born with it."

Minten continues to exceed expectations. Because while many believed he would make the NHL, starting with Marr, few believed that he would make the direct jump from junior to being a regular at the pro level to being the sometimes center on a line with a superstar like Pastrnak. As Bedard said, "Even talking to him in the summer, he expected to make it but he didn't know for sure what was going to happen. He just kind of took the opportunity and ran with it."

Not that pushing himself is anything new. Not for Minten.

Not for a player who took one look at the best in the world and challenged himself to stick with him, step for step, drill by drill, practice cauldron by practice cauldron.

"We were well aware that he was as good as he was then," Minten said, of Bedard. "So if you're getting the opportunity to be around the best and then try to keep up with the best, it only makes you become one of the best too."

NHL.com staff writer Tracey Myers contributed to this report