Vancouver Canucks sign defenceman Mark Friedman to 1-year extension

The Vancouver Canucks have reached an agreement with defenceman Mark Friedman on a one-year extension worth $775K per season.

The Canucks are keeping busy this week, as on Tuesday, they extended Filip Hronek to an 8-year deal. Today, they retain another part of last season’s defence corps in Mark Friedman.

The Pittsburgh Penguins traded Friedman and prospect Ty Glover to Vancouver in exchange for Jack Rathbone and Karel Plasek on October 17th of last season.

The Philadelphia Flyers drafted the 28-year-old defenceman in the third round of the 2014 NHL draft. Friedman scored 10 goals and 40 points in his draft year with the Waterloo Black Hawks of the USHL. The Canadian defenceman would spend the next three seasons with Bowling Green State University, accruing 68 points in 121 games before getting his shot in the American League. Friedman wouldn’t make his NHL debut until the 2018-2019 season.

In his three seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers, Friedman played just 11 games and registered one assist. In that offseason, Friedman signed with the Pennsylvania rival Pittsburgh Penguins. He would play three seasons with the Penguins but never played over 26 games in a season.

Friedman was acquired by the Canucks on October 17th of last season to help improve the clubs’ depth on defence. The 28-year-old would play 23 games with Vancouver, the second-highest game total of his career. In his first season with the Canucks, Friedman registered one assist, 16 shots on goal, and 28 hits with a +4 rating while averaging 12:13 minutes of ice time.

Once Vancouver traded for Nikita Zadorov on December 1st, Friedman would lose his everyday starting job. The Canucks still have work to do to their defence corps as Friedman’s final game as a starting calibre was November 30th, only making four more appearances in the remaining 58 games.

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