Days before the NHL draft this summer, Fraser Minten was in Europe preparing for another season with the Western Hockey League’s Kamloops Blazers.
His longtime friend, Connor Bedard, was getting ready to be selected No. 1 overall in the NHL draft.
At the time, Minten was asked about when he first started playing with Bedard on the 2018-19 West Van bantam hockey team in West Vancouver — he didn’t mind it, it wasn’t the first time he’s been asked about Bedard.
“First time meeting Connor (around spring 2017) I was 13 and I remember he came out to a skate with my spring hockey team,” Minten told the Tribune in a text conversation. “Everyone was young at that age and didn’t really pay attention to who’s who or what’s really happening. Just go out on the ice and have a blast with your friends.
“So Connor was just another body. But I distinctly remember, right away we were doing this 1-on-1 battle drill out of the corner, and Connor went up against our best player, first rep, and the way he was able to stick-handle around him and then finish it off was insane.
“He made our best player look silly.”
Since that time Bedard has been anointed as the heir apparent to the Sidney Crosbys and Connor McDavids of hockey’s elite.
By comparison, Minten’s rise as a prospect was far less heralded, despite being a 2022 second-round pick by the Toronto Maple Leafs.
In fact, Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe admitted the 6-foot-2 center was ”not on their radar” at the start of training camp this summer, according to the Toronto Observer.
But Minten became a camp darling and won him over.
Unsurprisingly, Bedard made the Blackhawks’ opening roster at the end of this year’s camp. Meanwhile, Minten made the Leafs’ opening roster, which came as a surprise to many.
So on Monday, two NHL rookies who are old friends — Minten from Vancouver, and Bedard from North Vancouver — are set to face each other as opponents when the Leafs host the Hawks at Scotiabank Arena.
“It’s exciting,” Minten told reporters after morning skate Monday. “Got to treat it like any other game, (and) hopefully we can come away with three wins here on this start to the season. Very excited to play against Connor as well.
“I remember he was unreal, better than everybody and could score at will.”
Bedard said after practice Sunday, “Of course you dream about it once I got picked and he was here.
“We actually lived together a little bit this summer in Toronto, so we talked about it a bit there,” he said. “I don’t know if you guys (in the media) expected him to make the team. In his mind, he expected to make the team, and I never expected anything less from him.
“The way he earned that spot, he showed everyone,” Bedard said. “Right when it was announced he made the team, we were fired up, talking about how it feels like yesterday (when) we were playing on a line in bantam.
“It’s crazy how time flies. It’s really special.”
Not to take anything away from Bedard, but what Minten has done, “it’s not an easy thing to do,” Keefe said.
“Bedard, he’s such a unique and special talent that’s somewhat expected from an early age. But for a guy like Fraser, he in his own way has had his own path and committed to his game, to learning the game and having passion for the game.
“It’s a different path and somewhat of an unexpected one at this stage.”
“With the Leafs being like a top team right now, (I was) a little surprised that I was able to get the opportunity at (age) 19,” Minton said. “But also very excited about it and lots of hours went into it.”
Minten has shown “maturity beyond his years,” Keefe said, but he’s watched the young player take “a big step” after his most recent game and practice.
“And his intelligence is off the charts,” he said.
Sounds very familiar: Hawks coach Luke Richardson has said similar things about Bedard.
Minten said Monday the first time he realized Bedard was becoming a “big deal,” they were skating at a rink with NHL players like Mathew Barzal and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, “and he was shooting the puck just as good if not better than those guys.
“That was probably when I realized it was pretty world-class, that release.”
That first time seeing Bedard in 2017, Minten studied how Bedard shot and stick-handled for the rest of practice.
“The creative plays he was making just didn’t happen at that age,” Minten said in a text. “I would try and shoot as quick as him in my rep and the puck would barely get off the ice.”
But what he saw Bedard do later resonated just as much.
“I ended up on the ice with him a lot over the next spring/summer as I started going to the North Shore winter club … and every day (my friends and I) would go there, Connor would be on the ice. It seemed that he was always there before we arrived and was still on the ice as we were leaving,” Minten said.
“Whether it be specifically practicing one-timers, doing shootouts for hours or just gliding around flicking pucks around, talking about different scenarios, he just simply loved being on the ice and playing around and the joy he got from it seemed inexhaustible.”
Minten added, “By the time I got to play with him for the first time the following year at West Van, I was not surprised at all at the level he was playing at. I’d seen him make goalies years older than him look like sieves, scoring crazy releases that kids that age didn’t even think about.
“He knew how to get defenders to put their stick exactly where he needed them and then slip it under, go around them and the puck was through the goalie’s five-hole before they had even set for the shot.”
As teammates, he got to know Bedard personally and a friendship developed.
“Something I found really cool about him right from the start, too, was that he was extremely humble, never arrogant like many others who are at a higher level than their peers at that age,” Minten said. “It was never about him or his points. Those were just bonuses.
“He never treated you like he was way better than you, even though he was, and wouldn’t get frustrated with you when you would make mistakes. This made it really easy to learn from him and made playing with him so much fun.”
As much as they’ve shared, Minten said the subject of playing each other in the NHL didn’t come up during their youth hockey days.
“I don’t think we ever talked about that. Obviously we both kind of wanted that to happen, probably him more than me at that point,” Minten said Monday, acknowledging the long odds he faced.
“He probably thought it was more of a realistic possibility (than I did).”
