Jeremie Fraser is working hard
Things may not have gone the way Jeremie Fraser had hoped for during his first season in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, but the 17-year-old Acadie-Bathurst Titan defenceman said he learned a lot as a rookie.
“We had a lot of veterans and that was good because I got to watch them,” explained the Cantley, Que. native. “Even though I was upstairs (watching from the corporate boxes) I watched them over and over again and learned from every mistake, every good move they made. I think that was the plus of being injured last year. For sure, for my first season, it wasn’t what I expected it to be but I lived with it and it made me better.”
Acadie-Bathurst had high expectations for Fraser, after drafting him in the third round (40th overall) of the junior circuit’s 2010 entry draft. Injuries though, kept him out of the lineup for all but 31 games, with his rookie season coming to a premature close on Jan. 7.
Fraser finished the 2010-2011 season with five assists, 34 penalty minutes and a respectable +3 plus/minus rating.
He said he is ready to take his game to the next level.
“I worked out every day during the summer,” he said. “For sure I missed some games, people really didn’t see me (last season), but this year I’m still 17-years-old and I still have a lot to learn. I will make some mistakes, I will make some good moves, but hopefully the year will go well overall.”
With his injuries behind him, Fraser has dressed for 10 of Acadie-Bathurst’s first 11 games this season with one assist and four minutes in penalties.
He said he is working hard on the defensive part of his game.
“Right now I’m kind of working on my D zone game…being in the right place when the other team has the puck,” he explained. “Then I’ll try to work more on my transition game. I need to be good defensively first, and then try to be the best two-way defenceman I can be.”
With this being Fraser’s draft year, Titan head coach Eric Dubois said it will be tempting for him to try and make up for lost time as quickly as possible, but Dubois said it is important for Fraser to be patient and take things one step at a time.
“I think losing half a season at 16 (years old) is a lot,” said Dubois. “Some guys can recuperate half a season easily, for some guys it is a lot harder. It is just a matter of being patient, working hard and doing things right. I know right now it can be a little bit frustrating but like I explained to him – ‘as long as you have the right attitude and if you work hard and work well you’ll get better’.”
Dubois said there is a lot of upside to Fraser’s game, but right now he wants him to concentrate on trying to stay one step ahead of the play.
“It is all about moving his feet right now,” explained the coach. “Getting as much information on the ice as possible before he gets to the puck. He has a tendency to stop moving his feet and to look around to see who is available, but that is too late. He needs to see who is available (for a pass) before he gets to the puck…then move his feet and move the puck. If he gets more information before he gets to the puck I think everything will go a lot easier for him.”
With Acadie-Bathurst’s top two defencemen, Jeremie Blain and Garrett Clarke, both missing several games while attending National Hockey League training camps last month Fraser got a chance to see a little more ice time on the club’s blueline than he might normally have gotten this early in the season.
“For sure that helped,” he said. “I was playing a lot and I learned from it.”
“I made some mistakes but that is the game, and I need to learn every day,” he concluded. “I think it was a great opportunity for me to play more minutes, log more ice time and to learn more.”
