The following season, while still playing in Bedard’s shadow, Minten still finished just fourth on West Van Academy’s prep team in scoring. The Blazers didn’t pick him until the fourth round. As often happens with the linemates of star players, Minten was perceived to be riding shotgun - to be less than his points. Though Minten registered 15 goals and 65 points in just 29 games in his WHL bantam draft year, Bedard scored 64 goals and 88 points in those games. Maybe more importantly is that none of this was ever promised.Ĭoming up, when Minten played at the West Van Academy, one teammate in particular got all the attention: Connor Bedard. He’s a big part of our power play and he’s one of our top penalty killers most nights. And he’s really important in lots of ways. “He’s always engaged in whatever we’re doing. “He’s a guy that sort of has a real good sense of the pulse of the team,” Clouston explains. Minten is also the team’s fifth-youngest player, Standing in the bowels of the Sandman Centre on a day off between games at the Memorial Cup, Shaun Clouston, Kamloops’ head coach and general manager, is talking about why, on a team with nine drafted NHL players all of whom are older than Minten, it’s Minten who wears one of its letters. He’s the kid who didn’t make any of Canada’s three teams for the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge (“I don’t know how,” Sandland said) and wasn’t invited to Canada’s under-18 camp in Calgary.īut he’s also the kid who told Sandland in the aftermath of both those omissions that while he was really disappointed, he’d prove them wrong, and eventually did, securing an invite back to Calgary for Canada’s under-20 camp last summer, where staff said he was one of the better forwards.įraser Minten, left, and Blazers teammate Emmitt Finnie. Minten, they’ll all say - as will he - was never a top prospect … until he was. Those who know Minten, and his journey to being selected with the 38th pick in last year’s draft, say those little stories are revealing as to how he got to where he is. ![]() ![]() “They all look up to him but here’s this kid who got drafted in the second round by Toronto,” Sandland said, quietly laughing to himself. On a visit down to the team’s bench during one of the Blazers’ practices shortly after that return run-in at the team’s rink, the Sandman Centre, it was Minten, the hotshot top selection of the Leafs in the draft just months earlier, who he found giving nicknames to camp invitees, high-fiving the rookies, and enthusiastically yelling “Good shift, great shift!” whenever someone arrived at the bench. “You have to pry things out of him,” Sandland said. Months later, when Sandland was on a phone call talking about his team’s alternate captain, he’s recalling that story in explaining how if there’s one thing he’d like people to know about Minten, it’s just how humble he is. When the conversation eventually shifted to his living arrangements, Sandland could tell that Minten didn’t want to talk about it.Īfter some poking and prodding, Minten eventually said he lived with Jason Spezza and Morgan Rielly. “Oh, you know, it was great,” Minten answered.
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