There were plenty of raised eyebrows on July 8th when the Leafs announced their first pick of the draft as 18-year-old Fraser Minten at 38th overall, near the top of the second round. But when Kyle Dubas spoke about the pick, he revealed that the Leafs viewed Minten as a mid-first round talent and that he was ranked 15th on their list. Well, now we're beginning to see why.
After attending Leafs training camp this fall and impressing everyone around him, his coaches and even Leafs captain John Tavares with his work ethic and hockey IQ, Minten was eventually sent back down to Kamloops in the WHL for his 3rd year of Junior. He had missed some games to start the year with a wrist injury, but man oh man.. it hasn't seemed to slow him down one bit.
Heading into last night's game against Kelowna, Minten had 32 points in 23 games and was coming off of a huge game in which he had scored a hat-trick to complete a 4-point game. Well, ladies and gentlemen, he's done it again. Minten scored another hat trick last night, in his 2nd of back-to-back games.
Minten is now up to 35 points in 24 games on the year and it's pretty incredible to see him take what he learned during his limited time with the Leafs and apply it to his game in Junior. He's showing growth in the offensive side of his game and has actually excelled on the power play, scoring 13 of his 19 goals and a little over 65% of his points with the man advantage this season. Since special teams are so important at the NHL level, this bodes well for his future with the Leafs.
