If the Edmonton Oilers wind up successful in their attempts to court Bruce Cassidy for their now-vacant head coaching position, there might be one player who isn’t too happy to see his arrival.

Trent Frederic.

It’s easy to assume that Frederic would be happy, given he played his first 100-odd NHL games under his tutelage en route to his breakout in 2022-23 and 2023-24. Cassidy has shown an ability to maximize his rosters, but when it comes to the early days of the pair’s relationship, it was far from the case.

In fact, the season after the Bruins replaced Cassidy with Jim Montgomery, Frederic said he wouldn’t have been able to score the 17 goals and 31 points he did in 2022-23.

“No. No,” Frederic told The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa in April 2023. “If we’d kept the same coach, I think it would be the same thing if I’m being dead honest.”

In the Bruins’ seven-game series against the Hurricanes in the 2021 playoffs that resulted in a loss, Frederic only played four games, averaging a meagre 8:41 per night, never playing more than 11 minutes. Games 3 through 5 saw him in the press box, only to play a team-low 7:55 in the third period.

“I got benched all the time,” he said. “It kind of all blends together. I just remember a shitty feeling.”

The Bruins had lofty goals for Frederic. They saw him as someone who could play higher up in the lineup instead of being a........

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