Fraser Minten’s start to the 2026-27 season is giving the Bruins plenty of reason to like the seven-year, $50.4-million extension they handed him in the offseason.
The 22-year-old forward has opened with five goals and five assists for 10 points in his first 12 games, and he added another two-point showing in Boston’s 6-4 win over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday. With the Bruins sitting at 9-2-1 for 19 points and owning the second-best record in the league, Minten’s production has been part of a fast start that looks awfully comfortable right now.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton, with WhatChaos host Pete Blackburn joining the discussion, dug into both Boston’s hot beginning and what Minten has already delivered.
Yaremchuk said the league’s current wave of early extensions is always going to create some hindsight questions later, but Minten’s case looks strong so far.
“This was the offseason where everyone is trying to get ahead of these extensions. Carter and I have talked about how it’s great in the moment to just look at a young player and think he’ll surely get better, so they’ll pay him like he’s going to be better. But there’s going to be a handful of these teams around the league and think, “Oh shit, we definitely shouldn’t have committed that early.”
But I think just looking at the numbers, the early returns on Minten … 10 games isn’t going to make or break a seven-year extension, but the early returns look really solid.”
Blackburn, meanwhile, said the deal doesn’t concern him at all, pointing to the things Minten was already doing well last season and the added finishing touch he appears to have found this year.
“I don’t worry about Fraser Minten and that deal at all. I know it’s early, but when you look at what he did last year, and how often he found himself in the right places by being a very, very smart, heady player, a 200-foot player with a high motor, he never takes a shift off.
His big problem last year was his inability to finish. His shot wasn’t good enough, and he didn’t on a whole lot of chances that he found himself in.
This year, I heard that over the summer, he was working on his shot a ton, and you’re starting to see the returns on that. For a player like him, the expectation of him only getting better is a true one.
I expect him to be a great player, his mind is already there, his motor is already there.
I think that the skills are going to be sharpened and he’s going to be a really, really important part of this team for years to come.”
The Bruins’ early returns have matched Minten’s. And if this is the version they’re getting now, the contract looks a lot better than it did on paper a few months ago.
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A wild, back-and-forth night against San Jose ended with Boston skating away with a 6-4 win, and it had the kind of late-game punch that has been missing at times this season. Jeremy Swayman did his part with 21 saves, while David Pastrnak kept the Bruins within striking distance by tying the game in the third period and adding another milestone to an already decorated run in Boston.
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Bruins Sweep Still Left One Frustrating Question Unanswered
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The bigger concern for Boston was how much it had to lean on a burst in the third period to flip the script. Fraser Minten, David Pastrnak, James Hagens and Will Borgen were among the players who helped drive the comeback finish, giving the Bruins a much-needed answer in the final stretch even if the underlying questions about how they started the night were left hanging. [Read more 🡒]