Video Analysis of Fraser Minten at the World Juniors for Team Canada

Analyzing Minten for Team Canada

Fraser Minten - Totals - 5GP 1G 2A 3P 17:31 aTOI 23 SOG +1

Minten, Canada's Captain, was one of 2 first line forward regulars, alongside Columbus Blue Jackets Winger Jordan Dumais. Arizona Coyotes Prospect Conor Geekie played 3 games on the first line, with projected 2024 1st Overall Pick Macklin Celebrini at Center for the last 2.

Offensively, it was obvious much was expected of Minten as Canada's captain, being the leader of Canada's first World Juniors since Connor Bedard stole the show, breaking tournament records at home.

No one in this draft is Connor Bedard, but every year it's expected that Canada is meant to contend each year, and someone had to step up. Minten, both a Toronto Maple Leaf and team Captain, was poised to be placed on a mantle on top of the podium of expectations alongside Macklin Celebrini.

I'll start here by noting the easiest portion, the results. Minten had 3 Points in 5 Games for Canada, including a 2 point effort against Latvia. On his goal here, Minten (#12, White) does a good job setting up Ty Nelson, finding an open area down the middle to shoot off the return from Nelson. It shows that Minten can create in opposing defensive zones in tight areas.

Other examples show that Minten showed some ability to self-create and gain good chances while removing space from defenders, but what is lacking, and what Mitch Brown's data shows, is a lack of play in transition.

In terms of passing, what stood out is that Minten was more than able to execute stretch passes, but also passes from close range in the opposing team's end.

A lot of his plays show Minten harnesses good vision and awareness as a playmaker, but couldn't create many chances as you'you'd like. Minten is tracked with 91 Complete Passes vs 26 incomplete passes via accessed data tracking. in comparison, Easton Cowan had a completion rate of 83/24. Minten's teammate Jordan Dumais fared much better with a rate of 139/22. Macklin Celebrini had 111/25.

Turnovers appear to be a slight issue for Minten, who had a few pass attempts that led to turnovers, misreading his shot to a teammate.

Dumais also struggled with turnovers as well, although the two continued to stay as teammates throughout the tournament. The big difficulty for Minten was executing accurate passes, misplaying chances, leading to losing posession to defenders. Turnovers happen, but it was clearly a notable concern at times.

CONCLUSION

Unfortunately, sharing hours of footage is impossible, and summarizing the good and bad is not an easy task, obviously there's a lot more the video could and should say, but also, it doesn't tell you what went on in the locker room behind the scenes.

It's a cliche to say that, but it does hold some truth that Minten was the Captain for a reason. There was clearly a sense of trust in him not just as a player on the ice, but as a person to lead.

His interview after the World Juniors showed someone passionate to compete and win, and heartbroken he couldn't come through. Even at 18 or 19, these players have spent the entirety of their lives understanding the difficulties of losing, the pain of worrying of not being good enough, the concern that a bad game lowers your potential, that the dream of being a professional can be questioned by only a few poor losses.

In the scouting world, it's rare to watch every game. But what you do get is somewhat of an idea of what a player can do, but unless you're in that locker room or connected to the team, it's difficult to determine hustle. You may be able to catch attitude from a few games, but heart isn't always measured by metrics, another cliché.

It's only fair to end this off not on words of encouragement but on a honest assessment of Minten's game. It was clearly not perfect. Did Minten do good or bad? I would have to say the results are mixed.

What I do know is that the Minten seen at the World Juniors isn't the Minten i've seen in the Western Hockey League or temporarily in the NHL. Negatively, turnover concerns were an obvious question mark. Minten needs to be able to accurately place the puck at his teammate's stick. He didn't look chaotic taking those attempts, so I would have to assume it was an issue over accuracy.

His transition game was also clearly a question mark. Even in his draft year scouts seemed mixed over the consistency of his ability to create zone entries. I don't think we saw much creativity in general more that Minten played it more safe than flashy, although with a lack of offense, could he have afforded to, especially being on the first line?

Positively, what I liked about Minten at the World Juniors, on top of his maturity, was his playmaking ability and shot taking. Besides the turnovers, I did see some decent pass attempts by Minten, and I felt he began to open himself up more as the tournament went on, although he generated more offense early on.

I think it's tough to argue for Minten on the first line in retrospect. Even a "glue guy" like Minten would've serviced well in the middle-six. If Canada wanted to generate offense on that first line, Cowan or Rehkopf would have made a lot of sense in that position as the first line winger.

There will be a lot of questions more over the players Canada didn't bring to the World Juniors, namely WHL stars Riley Heidt and Andrew Cristall, both dominant offensive talents that would've serviced the team well, despite being smaller, less physical picks.

Every other team brought an All-Star team, while Canada brought a cup contender. They built a team that is structured to win championships, but could bringing their best have done much better vs building teams that hoist trophies in the pros?

Fraser Minten was thrown into a loveless position having the eyes on him as a Leafs prospect and the team Captain following up on a generational victory. It shouldn't diminish what he's capable of, but there's many things you can point to that make clear what Minten needs to fix in his game, especially for a player that seems almost ready to be an everyday pro.