CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Mark Friedman was in a great mood on Monday.
He strutted into the press conference room at the Lemieux Complex with a big grin on his face.
"Are you guys happy?" he asked. "Two more years of me!"
Friedman was still all smiles over his two-year, one-way contract extension that he signed with the Penguins on Sunday that carries an average annual value of $775,000.
Friedman said that he woke up yesterday morning to a missed call from his agent, and promptly called him back and heard the good news that the Penguins were making the offer. Friedman didn't have to think long about his response.
"I knew this is where I wanted to be," he said. "So it didn't take too long to finalize."
Friedman, 26, is having a career season thus far with the Penguins. His 20 NHL games this season are a career-high, and he's recorded a goal and four assists. He's been one of the most effective skaters in the league this season at drawing penalties at five-on-five. He averages 2.65 penalties drawn per 60 minutes of five-on-five ice time, a rate that ranks eighth in the league among skaters with at least 10 games played.
"The systems here in Pitt are good with my style, and it fits for me," he said. "A lot of it's about jumping up in the play. And I bring an edginess and grittiness to the team that needs it sometimes, and I like my role. So I felt really comfortable, and I'm really excited about the two years."
That two-year deal, especially with it being a one-way, gives Friedman the security he wanted as he keeps developing as a player.
"I just want to continue to keep growing as a player and especially as a person," he said. "I feel like I've done that so much this year. Parts of my game I think I can continue to get better on would be just focusing on defense first and not being so eager to jump up into the play and creating odd man rushes against, and picking my spots when to get under a guy's skin. I think I've done a pretty good job of that."
Mike Sullivan thinks that Friedman's shown improvement this season as well.
"Some of the play that he's had as of late, he's earned his way into the top six," Sullvian said. "He's played extremely well for us. He's a good young defenseman. He's a good teammate. We're excited to have him in the mix here moving forward."
MORE FROM PRACTICE
• Radim Zohorna was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton before practice, but it seems to be a procedural paper move more than anything else. Players needed to be on an AHL roster at 3 p.m. today in order to be eligible to be sent down from the NHL at any time for the rest of the season. As is often the case, eligible players like Zohorna get "papered" to the AHL on deadline day if only to maintain their AHL playoff eligibility in the event that the AHL team's season runs longer than the NHL team's season.
Zohorna remained physically in Pittsburgh -- he skated on his own before and after practice -- but he wasn't allowed to practice with the NHL team while he isn't on the roster.
"It's part of the compliance stuff around the trade deadline," Sullivan said. "I would expect that he will more than likely be recalled at some point. Not sure when that's going to happen."
• Injured forwards Brock McGinn and Jason Zucker also skated with Ty Hennes prior to practice. McGinn's skate was more brief, and he only used his left hand on the stick.
• With Zohorna ineligible to practice, Dominik Simon moved back up to the third line and Zach Aston-Reese worked back in on the fourth line. The other lines and pairings remained the same:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Evan Rodrigues
Danton Heinen - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Dominik Simon - Jeff Carter - Kasperi Kapanen
Brian Boyle - Teddy Blueger - Zach Aston-Reese
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Mike Matheson - John Marino
Marcus Pettersson/Mark Friedman - Chad Ruhwedel
• The top power play unit was Kris Letang, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust
• The second power play unit was Mike Matheson, Kasperi Kapanen, Jeff Carter, Evan Rodrigues, Danton Heinen
• There was a light mood at practice, lots of big celebrations and laughs. If there were any nerves about the impending trade deadline, it didn't show.
"Everyone's just having fun with it," Friedman said. "We've played some pretty good hockey here down the stretch and we're just looking forward to the next challenge."
• Brian Boyle spoke of his involvement with the 11 Fund, a charity created in memory of former NHL player and WBS Penguin Jimmy Hayes, who passed away at age 31 in August. Boyle was teammates with Jimmy in New Jersey, and has known Jimmy's brother Kevin and the rest of the Hayes family for many years.
The fund raises money for children in need at Saint John Paul School in Dorchester, Mass., where Jimmy and his four siblings attended school.
"They're just phenomenal people and just blue collar humble people," Boyle said. "Through their grief, they started this project with the 11 Fund to help the school that they went to, which is a phenomenal place. My father works for the Archdiocese called the Campaign for Catholic schools. There's young kids from single parent families that the parent has to go to work. They have to provide for their kids, obviously, and school ends at 2:30. So the program starts early and runs late so the kids can stay there have three meals. It's a Catholic school, but the kids are from all different backgrounds. I think what the 11 Fund does with trying to provide more funding for that, that's what my father has been doing for the last 15 years or so. It was an easy call (to get involved), we could do something really fun."
