The season is lost for the Boston Bruins, but at least management decided to give fans a taste of what some of the future might hold on Saturday.

The B’s recalled center Fraser Minten, obtained in the Brandon Carlo trade to the Toronto Maple Leafs, for Saturday’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes on an emergency basis. Of all the assets that came back in all the trades that were made at the deadline, the 6-foot-2, 195-pound Minten is the most tangible return with arguably the highest ceiling.

He was set to center a line with wings Marat Khusnutdinov and Vinnie Lettieri. It wasn’t going to be his first NHL game – the 2022 second round pick (38th overall) had played 19 games with the Leafs the last two years – but it did have that feel to it for him.

“Yeah, the new group’s definitely different so there’s that coming in and I’ve never skated on this rink before, never been to the city before, so that’s all new stuff,” said Vancouver native.

Minten is projected to be a solid, 200-foot type centerman – GM Don Sweeney gave Charlie Coyle as a comparable when the trade was made – as opposed to a big point producer. But the B’s need all kinds of NHL-caliber players these days and Saturday provided the first chance to get a look at him. After playing four games with Toronto last season at the end of his final junior year in Saskatoon, he played 15 games for Toronto in this his first full pro season this year, notching two goals and two assists. He had 6-7–13 totals with the Marlies before arriving in Providence, where he’s posted 3-4-7 totals in 10 games (the three goals came in a hat trick game).

“For us, the reports we got from Providence are that he’s been a very reliable player, smart, heady player. We’re going to throw him into the penalty kill here tonight and see where that goes to start,” said interim coach Joe Sacco after the morning skate at the Garden.

“We’re just looking for him to play the game that he’s been playing in Providence. He’s been playing well down there. It’s an opportunity for the organization to get a look at him.”

Sacco did not want to overload him mentally just yet.

“When you get called up for a game, it really comes down to play your game and do what you do best. I say this all the time when a player gets called up. The transition should be pretty seamless as far as the systems that we play because they play very similar to what we do with their structure in Providence,” said Sacco. “That part shouldn’t be an issue, so it’s really just about going out and playing your game and playing to your strengths, try not to overthink things all the time…because if you do that, you’re going to get yourself paralyzed at times and you’re not going to skate. The biggest thing right now is you need to be skating, you need to be acclimated to the NHL pace, the speed of the game, especially against Carolina. They play a heavy pressure game. My advice and I’m sure his teammates’ advice is to play your game, but be sure you’re skating. The mistakes, those can be figured out as we go along.”

Minten has felt that the transition to the Boston/Providence system has fit well with his skill set.

“I think they went out and got me because they thought it would translate well and I think it’s been going well so far, just being that guy that plays well on both sides of the puck, closes plays and transitions them and play that sort of reliable consistent hockey that the Bruins want to play,” said Minten, who likes the large plate of responsibilities that fall on the center’s shoulders.

“I noticed that in Toronto, too, at the start of the year. The centers in pro have a lot of responsibility. They’re tasked to be everywhere in the defensive zone and I love it. I love getting the puck in the middle of the ice and being engaged all over the rink. It’s lots of fun.”

Minten has had a lot of experience jammed into his first pro season, and he’s taking all the good that he can from it.

“It’s been kind of the whole taste of pro hockey in my first year,” he said. “It’s good to get the reps as a young guy, getting to understand how the business works, going up and going down a few times this season, just trying to figure out what you can do to stick around and ultimately get to stick around and stay there. Lots of good experiences and a lot of help for my trajectory.”…

Sacco made some adjustments to his lines on Saturday, putting Elias Lindholm between David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie while moving Pavel Zacha to the wing with center Casey Mittelstadt. The Lindholm-Pastrnak tandem was the original plan at the start of the season but it didn’t work, one of the many things that didn’t play out as envisioned. But they’ve been getting odd shifts together lately, combining for Lindholm’s goal in Montreal, and Sacco decided to start the game with them together.

“I think Lindy has the ability to be a little more on the D side of things on that line, but also a player that can hopefully get to that net-front a little bit more, play a little bit more straight lines at times,” said Sacco. “And it also gives us the ability to put Pav in a different spot with Mittelstadt. We want to see what that looks like…It’s about balancing out both lines, more so than just that one line.”…

With Minten coming up, Jeffrey Viel was sent back to Providence.