As his now-former teammates were filing off the ice after practice at the Poway Ice Arena on Thursday, Max Friberg stepped out of the locker room wearing a hoodie and jeans. He walked around for a few steps, gave a half-smile and retreated to the locker room.

About an hour later he tweeted, “Thank you @AnaheimDucks organization for these fantastic years. Now, looking forward to a new opportunity with the @CanadiensMTL!”

The Ducks on Thursday morning traded Friberg, one of the Gulls’ most beloved and productive players, to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for goalie Dustin Tokarski. Tokarski will report to San Diego.

The move came one day before the Gulls open a two-game home stand against the Charlotte Checkers: Friday at 7:05 p.m., and Saturday at the same time.


The trade could seem surprising given that Friberg, 23, had blossomed into one of the organization’s most promising prospects, and Tokarski, 26, has not put up stellar numbers as an NHL goalie (10-12-5 and a 2.85 goals against average in 33 career NHL games).

The organization also already has three goalies — John Gibson, Frederik Andersen and Anton Khudobin — who have earned starts with the Ducks this season. Gibson, who started the season in San Diego and was recently named to the NHL All-Star team, left the Ducks’ loss on Wednesday night with an injury, but Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said Thursday that Gibson was fully healthy and could play on Friday.

Because of this combination of factors, there could be more moves to come.

For now, though, the Gulls will move on without Friberg, a fifth-round pick in the 2011 draft who had five goals and 12 assists in 25 games with the Gulls this season. He also was one of the team’s most well-liked and affable players.


“Anything you need,” winger Stefan Noesen said, “he’s always there for you.”

Friberg, or “Maxi” to everyone in the organization, was an assistant captain and a friend of every player. During interviews, teammates would frequently try to distract him by playfully bumping into him or poking him with their hockey stick. Even Jimmy Fallon teased Friberg, dubbing him “Most Likely To Spill A Drink On You At The Bar And Say, ‘Whoopsy Poopsy’” during a skit that ran during the Stanley Cup Playoffs in May.

“There’s never a day that Max has ever walked into this room and he hasn’t given everything that he has. It’s just the way he lives his life,” head coach Dallas Eakins said. “And those guys are highly advantageous to have in your locker room.

“I’ve got two little girls,” Eakins added, “and if they can grow up to have the same character and values that Max Friberg has, I’ll have done a great job as a parent.”


Center Chris Mueller echoed Eakins.

“A friend you go out to lunch with, you spend basically eight months of the year with getting to know him,” Mueller said of Friberg, who played five games with the Ducks earlier this season.

“He’s going to be missed,” Mueller added.

On the ice, too. Friberg was an integral part of the Gulls’ penalty kill — he was willing, more than any other player, to hit the ice to block a shot — power play, and five-on-five. He did, essentially, whatever the Gulls needed him to do.


Eakins called him “an attention-to-detail guy” who was rarely caught out of position. Noesen said Friberg “would always sacrifice his body for the team.” Mueller described him as “selfless.”

Eakins said he hopes other players, perhaps those with less playing time, will step up to fill the void left by Friberg’s departure.

“He’s somebody you can’t really replace,” Noesen said.