Leafs sign Fraser Minten to ELC
The 2022 second round pick is heading back to Kamloops with a new contract.
Hours before the Toronto Maple Leafs 2022 home opener, they give us a bit of news as they announced that 2022 second round pick Fraser Minten has signed an entry-level contract with the team.
We’ve signed forward Fraser Minten to a three-year, entry-level contract.
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) October 13, 2022
Selected 38th overall at the most recent draft, the 6'1" Minten is heading back to the WHL Kamloops Blazers, ready and able to treat his teammates to a nice dinner when he's back and ready to play.
Brigstew wrote the above piece after the draft, to let us all know what we need to know.
"In terms of confidence and skill in handling the puck, I would say that Minten typically plays more simple but overall above average in terms of effectiveness. He is similar to Knies in that regard. Even at his best, I would not call Minten dynamic with the puck. He could pull off the occasional toe drag, but the times he could dangle around a defender was rare. He was more about getting around them with speed, or using a simple give and go to create more space and dangerous chances."
Minten also made his debut on the Top 25 Under 25 this year at number nine.
PPP community member dhammm had this to say about him:
"This is a situation where I defer to prospect cohort success models like Byron Bader’s and Patrick Bacon’s, both of which really like Fraser Minten, giving him a higher probability of becoming an impact NHLer and even a star than a lot of the Leafs’ prospect pool. I suspect that this is because of his close to a point-per-game D-1 year and his sustained production over a longer scale; ramping production in his draft year would’ve caused these models to go ballistic. But looking at these models, which see a centreman prospect with a modicum of star potential, he gives the Leafs’ pool a prospect with a much higher ceiling than the depth roles more easily forecast for the players listed below him. I am willing to bet he will have a D+1 hype campaign season like Robertson or Knies had."
Minten is currently rehabbing a wrist injury suffered in camp, and will return to Kamloops when he's ready. The Kamloops Blazers are hosting the 2023 Memorial Cup and will need all the help they can get to reach the summit of Canadian major junior hockey.