June 5: Friedman is heading to Sweden but not with either of the two clubs mentioned. He signed a two-year contract with Rögle BK instead, according to a club announcement.
May 29: Veteran defenseman Mark Friedman has spent the bulk of his playing time in the minors over the last couple of seasons so it appears that he may be looking to try something different next season. Mattias Persson of Hockeynews.se reports that the blueliner will be signing in the SHL with Farjestad and Orebro believed to be the two teams vying for his services.
The 29-year-old has seen NHL action in seven straight seasons. However, he has largely been in a depth or reserve role over that time as he has suited up in just 93 games at the top level with three different teams. Overall, Friedman has four goals and nine assists in those outings while logging a little over 13 minutes a night.
Friedman started the season with Vancouver but after getting into 23 games with them last season, that number dropped to just five this year. After clearing waivers, he spent 20 games with AHL Abbotsford before being moved to Nashville for future considerations back in February. Despite the Predators having injuries on their back end down the stretch, Friedman didn’t see any more NHL action and got into 21 regular season games with Milwaukee. All told, he had three goals and 16 assists between the two teams before adding three points in ten playoff contests.
A pending unrestricted free agent, Friedman now qualifies for full veteran status in the AHL moving forward; teams can only dress five players with more than 320 professional games played, a mark he eclipsed this season. Accordingly, that could have limited his market this summer. Instead, it appears that Friedman has decided to get out ahead of that with a deal in Sweden on the horizon.