Resurrecting the Mike Ribeiro trade talk

by brickwall5 on Feb 24, 2011 5:02 PM CST

Reading the different stories on the current so called asking price for Brad Richards, even I couldn't help but smile a little at how steep a price that is. However it did get me thinking about how much I would love to have Marc Staal on this team. So, looking down the Stars' lineup my eyes immediately went to Mike Ribeiro's name. I was a bit surprised to find out that despite his (and the whole team's) lack of production for the majority of this skid he's on pace for an 81 point season which is nothing to sneeze at by any means. If the Rangers are looking for a good playmaking center with playoff experience, amazing skating ability, and the capacity to freeze opposing defenses with slick puck handling, Mike Ribeiro would be a good pick up for them. The last time the Stars went to the playoffs Ribeiro had a team leading 17 points in 18 games so that would be very valuable for a post season run by the Rangers. On top of that Ribeiro wouldn't only be a rental; while the Rangers could and definitely would try to sign Richards at the end of the season, Ribeiro has two years left on his contract which would mean a safer deadline deal. That being said I'm not sure if the Rangers would be willing to part ways with Staal for Ribeiro so it would be more likely that any deal involving the Rangers and Ribeiro would probably involve Dan Girardi and a pick. And even that doesn't seem very plausible.

Now to the important part of this post. The Stars just freed up about 2.5M of cap space with the recent deal Joe struck with the Penguins and Ribby makes 5M a year. If you do the math that's 7.5M of cap space freed up for other contracts. Richards has been making 7.8M for the last few years and I'm assuming Joe could find 300,000 to at least match Richards' current salary for the first year of a potential new contract with more money coming in later years when ownership will be settled. Since Brad has already stated multiple times that his first choice would be to stay in Big D, I'm willing to bet he'd take the same salary for a couple years until Joe's hands are untied. In my version of the perfect world Richie would even be willing to take a pay cut a-la Joe Thornton, at least for the first year or two of a new contract.

So even if the two possible trades with the Rangers I mentioned above don't happen (they probably wouldn't), trading Mike Ribeiro could score a couple good players or a combination of a good player and a prospect/pick; but more importantly, it would score the biggest fish heading into the deadline: Brad "Obi-Wan" Richards

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Comments

It's been discussed a lot before here numerous times

It’s going to be near impossible to find a team to take his contract.

by Why on Feb 24, 2011 8:29 PM CST reply actions

You could find someone to take him, but you aren't getting Staal in return.

You’d basically be hoping to reallocate Ribeiro’s money into the FA market.

by Josh Lile on Feb 24, 2011 11:09 PM CST reply actions

I dont like this mostly

because teams are built up the middle. Detroit and Pitts are perfect examples. Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Cleary. Crosby, Malkin, Staal. Most of those players are versatile and can play wing, and also good 2-way players. This is how you build a championship calibre offense, have your strength spread up the middle on 2 or even 3 scoring lines. This gives you the option to still move players around and shorten the bench. So you take away your Richards, Ribs, Ott combo and you instantly affect that dynamic. And for what, another middle of the pack defenseman. The Stars have plenty of decent depth on their blueline, they need a game changer not more depth. A lot of talk lately about how much Ribs costs, however the chances of you finding a many veteran players with his point production at less than his slary is going to be rare.

by brendan1 on Feb 25, 2011 12:21 AM CST reply actions

I saw middle of the road defenseman

because if it takes Neal, Niskanen to net Goligoski then I am sorry but Ribs is not going to get you anything near what the Stars need.

by brendan1 on Feb 25, 2011 12:23 AM CST up reply actions

say*

by brendan1 on Feb 25, 2011 12:23 AM CST up reply actions

this shows you know nothing

the players you have up the middle does not dictate your shot at a stanley cup. sure detroit, and pittsburgh have good centremen but eveyrone that knows anything about hockey know that defence wins championships. Look at the past winners- Chicago best defence core in the league last year, pittsburgh great depth on defence last year hence the reason they were able to part with goligoski, detroit i shouldnt even have to mention because they have the best defenceman of all time in lidstrom plus rafalski kronwall stuart. Look at 1999 when the stars won they had derian hatcher zubov matvicuck and sydor. And now look at the better teams this year vancouver and phili are a perfect example-both have good depth on defence. So know what you’re talking about before you post something.

by Hanyos on Feb 25, 2011 12:05 PM CST up reply actions

Defense Does Win Championships

That’s true but can you name a Stanley Cup winner that didn’t have at least one great center on the team?

Or perhaps you can take a look at Conn Smythe winners in recent years:
2010 Toews, Center
2009 Malkin, Center
2008 Zetterberg, Center
2007 Niedermeyer, Defense
2006 Ward, Goalie
2004 Richards, Center

Matter of fact, Leetch, Stevens, Lidstrom and Niedermeyer have been the only Conn Smythe winners since 1994. Sakic, Yzerman, Nieuwendyk… all centers. The rest, goalies.

by Russell Davis on Feb 25, 2011 12:19 PM CST up reply actions

Another person that doesn't know anything

First of all The new jersey devils won in 2003 and they didn’t have anything close to a great center but i do know that they had scott stevens, scott neidermeyer, brian rafalski, colin white and ken daneyko has their defence core.

Second of all yah a lot of the time it is a forward that wins the conn smythe but that is just because forwards majority of the time get all of the glory because they are the ones scoring but they would not have been as successful as they were without the defenceman behind them.

by Hanyos on Feb 25, 2011 12:45 PM CST up reply actions

It's true

I don’t know anything but I asked if you could name a Stanley Cup winning team that did not have a great center.

2003 Devils had Conn Symthe winner Nieuwendyk, Selke winner Madden and Elias who managed 800 points in 900 games with the defense-first Devils. That’s pretty great.

No one is disputing defense is needed to win championships, but no one is winning with a center group of Malhotra, Sim and Barch.

by Russell Davis on Feb 25, 2011 1:06 PM CST up reply actions

x

2003 Devils: (rankings list F…rank comes from a quick scan of who played C..off some)
Elias 14.7 GVT (11th among C)
Madden 12.0 GVT (21 among C)
Nieuwendyk 7.5 GVT (50th among C)

Keeping in mind that 4 C x 30 teams = 120 C

They had 2 #1 Centers and 1 #2 center in 2003. They didn’t exactly suck up the middle.

Stanley Cup Centers since 1999
2010 Toews
2009 Crosby/Malkin
2008 Datsyuk/Franzen/Filppula/Zetterberg
2007 Getzlaf/McDonald/Marchant/Pahlsson
2006 Brind’amour/Staal
2005 lockout
2004 Lecavalier/Richards/Taylor
2003 Nieuwendyk/Madden/Elias/Brylin (Gomez on wing…career C)
2002 Yzerman/Larionov/Draper/Fedorov
2001 Sakic/Forsberg/Yelle/Drury/Reinprecht
2000 Arnott/Brylin/Madden/Holik/ (Gomez again)
1999 Modano/Nieuwendyk/Carbonneau

by Josh Lile on Feb 25, 2011 1:21 PM CST up reply actions

You can't say they know nothing because you disagree with them. That's immature.

It’ll always be a combination of great centers and a great defense. You can’t argue one or another, there might be one that’s more important.

Bringing up Conn Smythe winners as an argument is really weak though. Lidstrom isn’t going to win MVPs because of his defense, it applies in every sport. Ware isn’t going to win MVPs in the NFL because QBs and other skill position guys will. The guys that do the scoring will always be the favorites no matter how great the defense is.

by Why on Feb 26, 2011 11:28 AM CST up reply actions

Nevertheless

There have been defensemen that have won the Conn Smythe.

I only brought it up, if you read again I asked if there was one SC winner that did not have at least one great center…

or…

as an example of that, look at past Conn Smythe winners; basically to simplify things.

by Russell Davis on Feb 28, 2011 8:39 AM CST up reply actions

They Tried

Nieuwendyk tried like the dickens to get rid of Ribeiro prior to the trade deadline last season through the summer. He couldn’t find anyone that would give him something of value because of Ribeiro’s $5MM cap hit.

If he wants to trade Ribeiro, he’s going to have to find a team with cap space and no #1 center. That’s not speaking to Ribeiro’s capability necessarily but anyone is going to look like a second line center behind Richards. They’re also going to have to have a healthy stock of any one position, like defense. But I think you’re going to want a forward in exchange, especially if there is a chance that Dallas is going to lose Richards.

On one hand you would be getting a good future but at the same time assuming Richards isn’t traded, you’d also be going for broke this year because imagine this team with no Richards and no Ribeiro.

by Russell Davis on Feb 25, 2011 8:17 AM CST reply actions