SAN JOSE — Trent Frederic is like so many pro athletes when you sit down next to them. It turns out they’re usually just a grown-up version of who they were back in Grade 6.
On this spring’s Edmonton Oilers, Frederic is the red-haired kid with the freckles and the squeaky voice, standing in the back row of the team picture because he’s a head taller than the rest of the kids.
He’s big-smile friendly, self-deprecating, and wants to get to know everyone while waiting to play his first game for his new team. At age 27, Frederic is no different than the kid who shows up in January when his Dad got transferred into the neighbourhood.
Even in the National Hockey League, guys are just trying to fit in.
“The guys have been good, trying to involve me in dinners, having me over and stuff like that. So I feel a good part of the team,” Frederic said after a morning skate in Vegas on Tuesday. “This was the first time I got to dress with the whole team. So I think this road trip will be great for me, in that sense.”
To Oilers fans, Frederic is like a Christmas present missing a key part of the assembly. He arrived at the trade deadline, but Frederic has languished under the tree ever since, nursing an ankle issue that has kept him out of action.
We can’t see what he brings to the table, so we asked him instead.
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“Minus the hockey part, I try to bring a lot of energy on the bench. I can be a bit of a cheerleader, getting guys going. I try to pump tires as much as I can and build guys up,” he said. “The positive thing is, I’ve gotten to know everyone. So when I get into a game, everyone knows what I’m about. Everyone knows the person I am, and they can yell at me or pump me up, whatever they want to do.”
We all know that this Frederic acquisition is a two-part thing.
The part where he helps the Oilers try to win a Stanley Cup this spring, and the part where the pending unrestricted free agent chooses the Oilers over his hometown St. Louis Blues sometime between the parade and July 1.
Head coach Kris Knoblauch said Wednesday in San Jose that, of a fifth line at practice that includes Connor McDavid, Evander Kane and Frederic, the latter is expected to join the lineup first. “Hopefully (Frederic) can play at some point on this road trip, maybe the last game,” the coach said.
Zach Hyman, a steadying force in Vegas where a depleted Oilers team ground out a 3-2 win on Tuesday, loves the thought of what the Oilers have to inject into their lineup — starting with Frederic.
“He’s a big body, physical, brings that edge, can score… He can play anywhere in the lineup,” Hyman said. “He’s a bigger, heavier guy who’s not afraid to be physical, not afraid to fight. With Evander being out this year too, both those guys provide that element that teams want to have.”
On Tuesday, the Oilers played without McDavid, two top-nine wingers in Frederic and Kane, their top defensive blueliner in Mattias Ekholm, and No. 1 goalie Stuart Skinner. That’s a fair bit to add to a team starting to find its groove of late.
“You’re adding the best player in the world,” Hyman said. “You’re adding an unbelievable top-pairing defenceman, in Ekky. You’re adding a healthy Kane and a healthy Frederic, those are all big-time players. And Stu in goal.”
Frederic is slowly becoming an Oiler, but he has to admit to watching his old team — the Boston Bruins — get ripped down to the studs.
“I was the first to go. So I wasn’t really there when it all went down,” he said. “I was rehabbing — I was actually in the cold tub, and everyone had already left after a game. That’s when I found out (he was traded).
“So I didn’t actually say goodbye to anyone. Charlie McAvoy was nice enough to drive me to the airport. So I got to see him, but that was about it.”
He’s just what a smaller, older and less physical team needs, this Frederic guy.
In the near term, and in the far — though he’s trying to keep his mind off of July 1.
“I had it on my mind all year. Honestly, I don’t think it did me any good mentally,” he said. “If it’s (signing) with these guys, or whatever the case is, I’m really trying not to think about that. After I got traded, I haven’t talked to my agent too much. I don’t really want to know anything.”
Just when the doctors tell him he can play again.
