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Mike Ribeiro UFA - Yay or Nay?

S

Steel_Wind

New member
Looking Ahead is TONS more Fun...

I've noticed that after I posted earlier this week with a summary of Leafs player's performance this year -- and I started looking forward to the Draft and Free Agent signings in early July, that I started feeling MUCH better about our Leafs. Happily, it didn't take long. Within 48 hours, I was starting to look forward to next season with real optimism.  I hope the rest of you soon feel the same way -- if you don't already.

Mike Ribeiro

With all the talk about Bozak, it's worth considering the best UFA centre in terms of offensive stats who is -- so far -- available this year. That's Mike Ribeiro, currently still with the Washington Capitals.

Ribeiro is a Canadian boy, born in Montreal and id 33 years old. His numbers were up to 1 PPG this year, but that stat was inflated due to teammate Alex Ovechkin's mad tear in the last half of the season on the Caps power play.

Season      Team      GP G A Pts PIM
2002?03 Montreal  52 5 12 17 6
2003?04 Montreal  81 20 45 65 34
2005?06 Montreal  79 16 35 51 36
2006?07 Dallas  81 18 41 59 22
2007?08 Dallas  76 27 56 83 46
2008?09 Dallas  82 22 56 78 52
2009?10 Dallas  66 19 34 53 38
2010?11 Dallas  82 19 52 71 28
2011?12 Dallas 74 18 45 63 66
2012?13 Wash 48 13 36 49 53

In a Leafs jersey, playing with JVR and Phil Kessel, we might reasonably expect 65-70 points out of this guy. He probably has three years of very good hockey left in him before the wheels start to slow.

Wouldn't Ribeiro be a bona fide upgrade at centre? He's not a franchise player, but isn't he better than Bozak?

Would he improve Phil Kessel's play?

Is he worth grabbing even if we DO resign Bozak? Would that put pressure on Kadri to step it up, or even allow Kadri to move to the wing?

What do y'all think?
 
good god NO!!! a most emphatic and absolute NO!!!! A thousand times no.

and just in case I didn't make myself totally clear on this issue: No freaking way!!!!

How 'bout NO
 
Ribeiro was making $5 mil/yr on his last contract; I think it's reasonable to expect that he gets $4.5-5 mil on a new contract depending on length. I would take status quo with Bozak he would cost the same amount.

If, for whatever reason, we are unable to keep Bozak, we would be incredibly suspect at Centre over an 82 game stretch. I would accept Ribeiro as a replacement if that's the best we could do and the pricetag was reasonable. Even though I've never been a fan of the guy as a player that would change if he excelled here, he did look good with Ovi and the Caps.
 
This is probably based on emotions from G7 (I've only just entered the anger stage), but I am hoping the next pickup will be some veteran leadership.

Not necessarily a new captain, but someone who can set an example and keep the young Leafs heads in the right place.

 
Steel_Wind said:
Wouldn't Ribeiro be a bona fide upgrade at centre? He's not a franchise player, but isn't he better than Bozak?
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Well, he'd probably be a surefire upgrade offensively. As to the rest:

-He's pretty terrible on face-offs. He hasn't been above 50% since 02-03 when he was 180-178 and for his career he's at 45.1%
- He has a habit of coming up small in the playoffs, scoring 27 points in 49 career playoff games. That's including one year where he had 17 points in 18 games so the majority of the time he's a no-show.
- To the extent that one puts stock in CORSI and it's offshoots, his numbers were not very good this year and have not been good for a few years.

So combine that with my belief that he's probably going to get a bigger contract than he should and I'd lean towards no. If he wanted to come to the Leafs at, say, 3 years/12 million. Sure.
 
Better to roll with the centers we've got, let Bozak walk, and save the money for re-signing Kessel.

I'd like someone who could fill the actual shutdown center role for about $2m. Boyd Gordon, maybe?

What of other UFAs? If MacArthur's out (and I don't think he should be), need something along the wing. Also in the need for another top-four Dman. Would be nice to add some veteran (Cup-winning) experience at these spots. What of Scuderi, Ferrence, or Ryder?
 
Ribeiro is definitely capable of producing more than Bozak but he is at that age where you could sign him & he ends up slowing down from a production standpoint.
 
Uhhhh forgetting something?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNw8ZZT8tOU

Ferraro was on TSN Radio recently and he doesn't usually call out players, but he mentioned that Ribeiro chirps the refs more than any other player he's seen.

We don't need that guy anywhere near our team...ever.

 
princedpw said:
lamajama said:
Jason Blake V2
Click to expand...

Yes, that seems likely.
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Since 2007-2008, Riberio has the 11th highest points per game ratio among centres in the NHL with a minimum of 250 games played.

He might falter at some point during his next contract, but he's anything but a one-hit wonder.
 
Sudafederov said:
They would likely be paying for a 33 year old declining asset.
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Well, there isn't much question of that. If he's 33, he is declining.  The question is: how quickly?

There are players who keep their wheels until 40-42. Nearly all of them do until age 35-36, then it starts to dip. So it's not a matter of whether he will decline, but rather, how sharply he will.

The observation worth making is that a UFA costs nothing other than money. If the cap is otherwise manageable on the team -- it's only money that it costs. And the Leafs have more of it than anybody else. Yes, there are opportunity costs to consider as well - but it's not like the Leafs would be trading skaters, prospects or picks to acquire him.

The same can be said for Bozak. Bozak was undrafted and signed with the Leafs as a free agent. The Leafs spent some time developing him in the AHL before he was promoted. Still, it didn't cost a single draft pick to acquire Tyler Bozak. It was only money then - as it is now.
 
mr grieves said:
Better to roll with the centers we've got, let Bozak walk, and save the money for re-signing Kessel.
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Now this approach I consider to be outright dangerous. The Leafs have nobody in their organization who can fill this role currently and it is dangerous self-delusion to think the Leafs do. 

That's a prescription to miss the playoffs again. I'm not down with that, unless the plan is to dive to the bottom in a quest for a first round pick.  That *should* have been the plan 6 years ago. It's not tolerable to do it now, however.

I'm not saying that signing Ribeiro is a must. I'm not saying that signing Bozak is a must, nor is Weiss a must.

But absent a trade for a similarly talented centre? Yes. I'll go far enough to say that acquiring one prime time centre is a must. Whether you do it via trade of FA signing, it must be done.

Pick your poison.
 
Steel_Wind said:
mr grieves said:
Better to roll with the centers we've got, let Bozak walk, and save the money for re-signing Kessel.
Click to expand...

Now this approach I consider to be outright dangerous. The Leafs have nobody in their organization who can fill this role currently and it is dangerous self-delusion to think the Leafs do. 

That's a prescription to miss the playoffs again. I'm not down with that, unless the plan is to dive to the bottom in a quest for a first round pick.  That *should* have been the plan 6 years ago. It's not tolerable to do it now, however.

I'm not saying that signing Ribeiro is a must. I'm not saying that signing Bozak is a must, nor is Weiss a must.

But absent a trade for a similarly talented centre? Yes. I'll go far enough to say that acquiring one prime time centre is a must. Whether you do it via trade of FA signing, it must be done.

Pick your poison.
Click to expand...

I don't know. We did okay with Bozak as a #1C. We can do better than him just reassigning talent the team's already got. Grabbo's a clear upgrade we've already got signed, and Kadri is the same. I'd like an improvement on what Bozak should've been -- a third-line, draw-winning shutdown center with good possession numbers -- rather than than that mythical #1C.

Weiss, Ribero, and the rest (is there a rest?) cost no picks or prospects, just money, but if they want a deal longer than 2 years, we might have trouble retaining the core. Another Tim Connolly is my fear.
 
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