In 2023, Trent Frederic’s development as a hockey player has been observed. The 2016 first-round draft selection struggled to make the team after completing his Wisconsin undergraduate career.
He played for the American Hockey League (AHL) Providence Bruins for two seasons, getting called up to play in Boston on occasion. After making it onto the team full-time, he struggled to score points consistently and had a reputation for his violent play, which verged on reckless.
In the second part of the 2022–2023 season, Frederic underwent a transformation. He was still playing in an aggressive manner, but he wasn’t drawing as many harsh penalties to go with it. Most significantly, he began to accumulate points.
He’s proven thus far in 2023–24 that the season wasn’t a fluke, answering questions about whether it was a fluke or a true indication of his growth as a player. It’s the ideal moment to reflect on how much he’s changed over the last year and set goals for the remainder of the season as the calendar turns to 2024.
Everything is starting to come together.
Over the years, the Bruins have shown that they are dedicated to finding a solution with Frederic. He’s one of the few prospects who hasn’t quite been able to break through to the Bruins team in recent seasons. The organization made the decision to protect him in the Seattle Kraken expansion draft, indicating their unwavering commitment to seeing him develop into a more complete offensive player.
In his early seasons, the issue then surfaced: what sort of NHL player would he be? He was obviously a physical player, and soon after that, people started to expect him to develop into a Tom Wilson-type player—someone who could play physically but also consistently contribute offensively. That wasn’t the case, though, until last season, and his poor penalties were also starting to wear thin people’s patience.
Jim Montgomery’s hiring as head coach last season was a big help to Jake DeBrusk, as has been well discussed, but Frederic was also able to show significant progress with the new coach and system. In 2022–23, he recorded 17 goals and 31 points in 79 games, following seasons of four goals and five points in 2020–21 and eight goals and 18 points in 60 games in 2021–22. After the calendar turned to 2023, ten of those goals were scored in the second half of the season.
In 2022–2023 Frederic matched his career goal total in a single season and maintained the physical component of his game that made him famous early in his career. Last season, he finished fourth in penalty minutes and fifth in hits for the club. Naturally, he was still playing in that rough manner and occasionally taking terrible penalties, but he was at least able to make a bigger offensive contribution.
Playing Under New Contract and With New Goals in Mind
In a contract year, Frederic made a complete recovery. This past summer, he and Jeremy Swayman were both restricted free agents. Luckily, the Bruins were able to avoid arbitration and gave him a two-year agreement worth an average of $2.3 million per year. Both parties benefited from the agreement. Since his offensive advances are still fresh, it wouldn’t have been beneficial for either party to keep him locked in for an additional two years. What if Frederic raised his overall goal score once again, or what if he made a significant regression? For the 25-year-old, his current deal is an excellent opportunity to “show me” that he can perform on par with or better than he did in the previous campaign.
Expectations going into this season were that Frederic would at least match the player he was in 2022–2023—if not step up alongside a number of other players on the roster to make up for the absence of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci—given his new contract and 17 goals from the previous season. He has accomplished that thus far.
With seven goals and thirteen points thus far in 2023–24, Frederic is now ranked seventh on the squad, ahead of DeBrusk, Matthew Poitras, and Morgan Geekie. He and Charlie Coyle had a fantastic rapport while playing on the third line the previous season, and they have since had more time together and their success has persisted. However, despite recent setbacks, Frederic has also performed well when playing without him. This is because the coaching staff is changing things up. He scored his sixth goal of the year on a line alongside Poitras and James van Riemsdyk in their Dec. 16 game against the New York Rangers.
He still plays with a physical manner, despite his increased offensive contribution. This season, he has been involved in several fights that have significantly changed the team’s momentum. He also leads the team in hits with 51. Notably, he doesn’t play a much on special teams, which explains how all seven of his goals have come at even strength.
The Frederic Year
For Frederic, 2023 has been a fantastic year. His strong play in the second half of 2022–23 helped him land a solid contract extension, and even without Coyle at his center, he has been able to play at the same level through the first half of 2023–24. He went from being a physical, erratic player to a reliable contributor in this past year. Never say never, he’ll likely be the team’s leading scorer, but for now, he’s providing when needed.
It is hoped that Frederic stays healthy and keeps doing what he is doing as the new year and the second half of the 2023–24 season approach. He’s on track to score 19 goals and 36 points this season, which will beat his previous best.
Excellent play throughout the lineup in the previous season was a big factor in the Bruins’ unprecedented success. This is still a very talented team with contributions from all around the lineup, even though they are not as good as the 2022–23 squad. Frederic is a prime illustration of this.
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