The Canucks acquired Friedman and Ty Glover from the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for Jack Rathbone and Karel Plasek.
Patrik Allvin is happy with the players the team has acquired and feels it makes the group more competitive.
“We all know he [Friedman] can play in the league. He played the last couple of years in Pittsburgh, he’s capable of being in the top six, but he’s also one of those guys that could handle the tough job as the number seven sitting in the stands and whenever called upon come in and play games,” Allvin said.
He was drafted by the Flyers in the third round in 2014, spent three years at Bowling Green State University, and then to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in the AHL. Over five seasons he’s played 65 NHL games and 49 of those were in the last two years.
Playing tough is Friedman’s style and he likes the culture Rick Tocchet is building in Vancouver. He hopes playing the way that’s gotten him this far will also help the Canucks, comparing his style of play to Tocchet’s back in the day.
“I’m a guy who likes to play on the line, whether it’s bringing my teammates in the fight, not literally, but just playing a hard-nosed game and using my skating ability to help break out pucks and get back to pucks as quick as I can and play a quick transition game,” he said.
He takes pride in being a nuisance for opposing teams and his knack for drawing penalties comes from his desire to win and techniques he’s learned from playing other sports.
“I played soccer growing up, so I might have learned it from that, if you know what I mean,” Friedman said.
“It all comes down to my competitiveness, it doesn’t matter who it is. I just like to get in someone’s face, and I love pissing people off on the other team, that’s one of my strengths, so if I can do it and put us on the power play then I’ll do that all night.”
