I fully admit I'm hard on Trent Frederic. Not because I don't like the guy, but because I expect more from him.
I feel like a broken record when I say I'm not sure what type of player he wants to be.
1 game he's engaged physically.
5 games you don't notice him.
1 game he scores a goal
5 games you don't notice him.
1 game he's engaged physically
3 games you don't notice him.
1 game he scores
5 games you don't notice him.
Overall for me it's the lack of consistency in his game. I use a Lucic comparison (not that he's Lucic) but when Lucic would go on cold streaks, he'd be mixing it up, trying to get involved any way he can if he's not producing offensively.
Frederic seems to be on Frederic time.
When he first came up, he was engaged every shift it seemed. He was drawing penalties, being a pest, and then started getting a bit more of a scoring touch. Once he found that he kind of abandoned everything for a bit. I'd just like to see him take initiative and get himself going any way he can.
@PlayMakers has said for a long time now that Frederic wants to be a Charlie Coyle type player- a puck possession forward that plays a skilled cycle game. Now Coyle has had his issues this season with scoring, but one thing he almost never does is take nights off. He can be ineffective, but the guy still works hard out there. Trent does not seem to have that kind of motor on him (at least that he's ever showed since very early on), but he's also seemingly not interested in returning to the agitator/enforcer-lite that he was when he was trying to make the team. Thus we have what we have.