He's got a good set of hands too- skills are there.
The blessing and curse of Trent Frederic has always been that he was unexpectedly taken in the 1st round and then immediately downplayed by the Bruins as being a guy they saw as being almost a lock to become a solid bottom 6 player but nothing more - a blessing because it dampened what may have otherwise been unrealistic expectations, but a curse in that if he can't make the grade at all that's arguably an even worse look/result for Boston that aiming high with a high ceiling 'project' guy and coming up empty.
We've had a small but solid 16-game sample now in his current stretch and so far he's looking pretty good and probably much as originally expected. As you said, the skills are there. They're not absolutely elite but he can handle and move the puck ok and that shot is heavy when he does get to use it. Probably his passing could be better but there's still plenty of time to improve that. His natural skill will only take him so far though and I think that's why it's pretty clear that his projected ceiling is correct - he's a bottom 6 grinder with some sand and useful adaptability in being able to play both center and wing competently. His effort, compete and feistiness are definitely his calling card and will serve him well long-term as a tough, ideally 3rd line competitor as long as he can maintain the rage.
Right now Freddie's still young and inexperienced and he's going to have ups and downs. Prior to the last game he had a little patch where he struggled a bit - his TOI decreased and he spent a few shifts looking somewhat lost - but that's only to be expected and as long as he continues to learn and the general trajectory is upwards he should be fine. Probably one thing I'd like to see him work on is his positioning. It's not always easy to tell this just from watching on TV, but to me he at least looks like he doesn't get to the dirty areas in the slot and around the net, or otherwise in good positions to try and score, quite as much as you would like for a guy who's going to need to rely on scrapping, smarts, hard skating and using his body to be impactful on offense rather than outright skill and speed. Fortunately in different ways he has good models to emulate in Coyle and Ritchie, which hopefully will help his further development in both this and other areas.
